After Beslan I'm not a big fan of Chechnya. Or any of the other Islamic republics Russia has to deal with.
To pretend that Russia was withdrawn and silent until 2007, when “forced” into action by the west, is beyond false.
“Russian” participation in Moldovan and Georgian situations is misrepresented by propaganda. In reality, both countries experienced civil wars upon the Soviet collapse. Normally, the Soviet forces stationed in the constituent countries made the national armies, but it didn’t work this way in the above two cases for the understood reasons. Armies later pledged allegiance to Moscow and were neutral at best. That’s why the stronger sides in the civil wars claim the “Russians” sided with the weaker sides. In the case of Georgia, Russian involvement in Georgia was backed by the UN and OSCE mandates. It allowed preventing genocide in both cases.
In Chechnya, it was a purely internal conflict. It was wrong on many levels but I have no idea how is it relevant here.
Once again, Cuba and Venezuela don’t mind having Russian missiles in their countries. Do you support their sovereign right or not?
I am afraid that Putin will conduct a raid into Ukraine. He will destroy their bridges, factories, power stations and railway hubs.
My understanding is that Russia is not strong enough to occupy Ukraine, but they are able to do this march of destruction.
Then he will withdraw and declare that “Russia beat America”. He will say, that evil Americans were planning to ride across these bridges using these railways and so on to attack Mother Russia.
I hope I am wrong and that Ukraine is able to make Russians bleed so much for this kind of raid that it will be enough to discourage Putin.
After Beslan I'm not a big fan of Chechnya. Or any of the other Islamic republics Russia has to deal with.