[Objectivism USA]

Do you write copy for the Russian media? Your version of events could be taken right off the official Russian Government Party line.

The old Soviet Union was not above slaughtering their own citizens if it advanced the goals of the Communist Party and it’s leaders. The KGB would have been quite capable of bombing Russian civilian apartment buildings. The people who were taught by and then joined the Communist Party and occupied its positions of power are the same people still running Russia. Do you believe that such ideas would no longer cross their mind? If the Government was not directly involved then many corrupt government officials took a payoff to allow the acquisition and transport of explosives into Moscow.

The Russian military tends to be poorly trained under equipped and staffed by recruits who don’t want to be there. The field officers like to file positive reports. What tends to happen is that a military unit moves into a village and indiscriminately slaughters those present because they are easier to find and put up less resistance than the rebels. Then a report is filed claiming all Chechens killed were rebels. Unless you have been reading and believing Arab propaganda you can’t make any serious comparison with how Israel operates. Even if the Russians are on the same side in a fight against Radical Islam that does not excuse their indiscriminate slaughter and often-counterproductive efforts to exert control over Central Asia.

[Angelus Errare]

"Do you write copy for the Russian media?"

No, afraid not. I don't even speak Russian.

"Your version of events could be taken right off the official Russian Government Party line."

Indeed. And 90% of Free Republic's posters repeat the "US Party line" when it comes to our characterization of al-Qaeda. That doesn't prevent the situation from being true.

"The old Soviet Union was not above slaughtering their own citizens if it advanced the goals of the Communist Party and it’s leaders."

Indeed. However, one might argue that such tactics significantly contributed to its downfall, which is why the USSR no longer exists and we have instead the Russian Federation.

"The KGB would have been quite capable of bombing Russian civilian apartment buildings."

I don't doubt it. However, I doubt that they could carry out a fraud cleverly enough to fool everybody, have no leaks whatsoever, and have only a handful of opposition politicians being the wiser. Additionally, Khattab's forces had already invaded Dagestan at this point so the Second Chechen War had already begun and there was no need to "justify" it to the global community, notwithstanding the fact that sovereign states can generally do whatever the hell they want inside their own borders, especially nuclear ones.

"The people who were taught by and then joined the Communist Party and occupied its positions of power are the same people still running Russia."

Very true, though I expect they're starting to die off. Also, the fact that they joined the Party (which was a requirement for all high-ranking positions in the USSR) doesn't necessarily mean that they were wedded to its principles or even particularly liked its tenets. I would note that an economic shift from collectivist to market economy has occurred in Russia since 1991 to the degree that no devout Marxist could stomach.

"Do you believe that such ideas would no longer cross their mind?"

Perhaps, but there is the question of why they would choose to blow up their own apartment buildings when Khattab and his mujahideen were already attacking Dagestan at this point. So no justification was needed, and certainly no need to undertake a move that would damage tourism in one of Russia's most popular cities. Putin may be ruthless, but he's not that wasteful or stupid.

"If the Government was not directly involved then many corrupt government officials took a payoff to allow the acquisition and transport of explosives into Moscow."

A distinct possibility. That may also have been the case with Barayev's recent theater seige, but there is a huge amount of difference between the Chechens bribing corrupt officials and Putin ordering the FSB to blow up those apartments.

"What tends to happen is that a military unit moves into a village and indiscriminately slaughters those present because they are easier to find and put up less resistance than the rebels. Then a report is filed claiming all Chechens killed were rebels."

A couple of things. First of all, if this were routine practice there would be a LOT more mass graves than those that have been reported. Secondly, I would point out that no matter how ill-trained the Russians are, they, like most humans, generally do not like to kill large numbers of innocent people. The general scenario in which civilians are killed is the same as that in Israel: the terrorists use their civilian populace as hostages and human shields. It's no different than the Taliban storing troops and military supplies inside a mosque.

"Unless you have been reading and believing Arab propaganda you can’t make any serious comparison with how Israel operates."

As opposed to Chechen propoganda? Using civilians as shields is one of the oldest guerrilla war tactics in the book and it's listed as recommended in the al-Qaeda training manual, "The Afghan Guide to Jihad," which is, from what I gather, required reading for the Chechen "rebels." Israel, while it maintains a better trained army and a smaller combat area, is also frequently hamstrung by the fact that when terrorists take the conflict into a civilian area, lots of innocent people face the possibility of dying. But the fact that this occurs speaks to the horrors of terrorism, not the people fighting them.

"Even if the Russians are on the same side in a fight against Radical Islam that does not excuse their indiscriminate slaughter and often-counterproductive efforts to exert control over Central Asia."

Their efforts seem to be somewhat schizophrenic over the last year given that they had no problem of our sending advisors to Georgia (which they will likely invade) or the establishment of US garrisons in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, traditional centers of Russian power. This is rather strange if Putin has some dream of recreating the Russian Empire. At this point, Moscow would likely be satisfied with simply cessation of the conflict in Chechnya and Putin's historical record would be assured as the man who saved his country from Basayev and Khattab. More to the point, given how tied down Russian forces are in Chechnya at the moment, I doubt they could expand into a second military theater even if they wanted to.