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I have read your reply and I can't find a valid point contained there in. We also seem to have been sidetracked by the issue of the Russian Leaderships potential involvement in the apartment bombings. Even if the leaders aren’t concerned with the citizens well being it still helps to have their support instead of opposition.

The original point for which there is ample evidence is that the Russians have in the past and continue today to terrorize the civilian population of Chechnya. An Acquaintance of mine grew up in Chechnya before escaping the old Soviet Union. He still has friends and family in the region who would like nothing better than to be left alone by all sides but they fear the Russians far more than the rebels. Even ethnic Russians living in the area have been slaughtered by the Russian military while enforced observation of sha'riah law was for the most part confined to the more rural villages.

"I have read your reply and I can't find a valid point contained there in."

If you ever do, be sure to let me know.

"We also seem to have been sidetracked by the issue of the Russian Leaderships potential involvement in the apartment bombings."

Which you brought up, not me. You also brought up the subject of the Russian mob's complicity in the explosions, which is a completely different scenario from that which you initially advanced.

"Even if the leaders aren’t concerned with the citizens well being it still helps to have their support instead of opposition."

As noted in several other posts, they already had that. Khattab had invaded Dagestan, unless you feel that the Russian people wanted the Kremlin to throw that to the Chechens as well, whether the province wanted it or not. I highly doubt this was the case, so there was no need to blow up a perfectly good section of Moscow to trump up support for the war.

"The original point for which there is ample evidence is that the Russians have in the past and continue today to terrorize the civilian population of Chechnya."

Evidence, however, can be used to support any conclusion. If you don't believe me, check out the standard European leftist report on Israel's human rights abuses. There are a lot of dead Chechen civilians and I don't pretend for a moment to dispute that. However, there are also a lot of dead Afghan civilians and the fact of the matter that the US doesn't plan to terrorize the good people of Afghanistan.

"An Acquaintance of mine grew up in Chechnya before escaping the old Soviet Union. He still has friends and family in the region who would like nothing better than to be left alone by all sides but they fear the Russians far more than the rebels."

There is ample reason for such fear culturally, given what Uncle Joe did to the people of Chechnya. It's like asking the Armenians to forgive the Turks. Of course, the fact that the such fears exist culturally have nothing to do with whether or not they're supported by the facts. Today, two Chechens were perfectly willing to slaughter their own people for the sole purpose of killing a civilian who has nothing to do with Russian military policy in Chechnya. His crime is that he has denounced the Wahhabis and for that reason alone, by Basayev's logic, he deserves death.

"Even ethnic Russians living in the area have been slaughtered by the Russian military while enforced observation of sha'riah law was for the most part confined to the more rural villages."

The reason for that currently lies in the fact that the major urban areas are under Russian control. The fact that the Grozny was the capital of kidnapping, drug running, prostitution (for non-Muslims), and Wahhabi puritanism (for permanent residents) when Basayev's greenshirts ran the place is well-recorded by reliable sources. Just look at all of the Sufi shrines that were demolished and persecution against the Hanafis (a moderate Muslim sect) that occurred under the Chechen "republic" is more than enough to convince me and most other people that the sha'riah was indeed the rule of the day among the Chechen al-Qaeda.