Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin Speak out Against Putin’s Reforms

i didn't comment, it's nonsense, a poor attempt at humor, I suppose.

but hopefully people who read what I'm saying will get it.....there is no reason for ANYONE to be killing the other guys little kids.
none.

Since 1994, when Russia invaded Chechnya, there hasn't been any terrorist attack I've heard about committed by a Chechen

Well you're way way behind. I'll be posting some info to help you tomorrow.

Meantime I believe my friend Destro has a list for you somewhere.

I made a remark that Free Republic's resident Chechnya Cheerleader thinks is disgusting. So should I feel remorseful?

Not in the least.

Communism is not returning in Russia. Maybe in your fantasies, but not in Russia.

Communism, no. But a dictatorship with imperialistic designs yes, this could very well happen.

um, sorry, but if you are going to say "Beslan was actually a Putin Conspiracy to seize more power, not Chechnyan terrorist being Chenhnyan terrorist..."

well, I'm not saying it out of the realm, but you better be able to back it up a little. Granted, it's nice thinking, but still just a hunch. The same kinda hunch Michael Moore had when he made his movie. As much as I love to hear 'em hunches don't count..

Unless you are Dan Rather.....hehe

How would you have felt if you found out that Auschwitz escapees had taken revenge on Germans during WWII by killing innocent German citizens living near the camp?

Again...not taking the side of terrorists here, but would your opinion of their actions be tinted by what you know of Auschwitz?

And if they had, would you limit your criticism to the specific Jews who carried out the attacks, or would you paint all Jewish people with the same broad brush?

There are reasons...bad reasons, even wrong reasons, but there are no excuses however.

"But a dictatorship with imperialistic designs yes, this could very well happen."

Precisely what Putin is doing; with Soviet trappings and imagery but dictatorial powers. The Communists have been demonstrating against him (I guess he even scares them).

link

All since 1994.

Aug. 31, 2004 -- Car bomb explodes outside Moscow subway station during crowded evening rush hour. Ten people are killed, dozens more are injured.

Aug. 24, 2004 -- Two Russian passenger planes crash within a few minutes of each other, killing 90 passengers and crew. The first machine type TU-134 was on its way to Wolgograd and crashed to the south of Moscow. The second machine, a Tupolew 154, was on its way to Sotchi and crashed near Rostow.

Jun. 22, 2004 -- Chechen separatists storm a building belonging to the Interior Ministry in the neighboring Russian state of Ingushetia and open fire on neigbouring buildings. At least 92 poeple are killed, among them the Interior Minister for the province, Abukur Kostojew.

Feb. 6, 2004 -- 39 commuters die and hundreds are injured in a suicide bombing attack on Moscow's underground. The until now unknown Chechen rebel group, Gasotah Murdasch, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dec. 9, 2003 -- 6 people die in a bomb attack near the Kremlin in Moscow's city center. At least 13 people are injured.

Dec. 5, 2003-- A bomb explodes in a commuter train near the Jessentunki station, in the south of Moscow, killing 46 poeple and injuring 146.

Sept. 3, 2003 – Suicide bombers target a packed early morning commuter train traveling near Kislovodsk in the southern region bordering Chechnya. Two bombs explode killing 6 people. Many of the injured are children and students.

Aug. 25, 2003 – A series of blasts in the southern Russian town of Krasnodar kills 6 people.

Aug. 1, 2003 – A bomb explodes in a military hospital in Mozdok near the border with Chechnya killing 50 people, primarily soldiers.

July 5, 2003 – During a heavily visited outdoor rock festival on the outskirts of Moscow, 20 people are killed when two female suicide bombers detonate dynamite belts they are wearing.

June 5, 2003 – A woman suicide bomber attacks a bus carrying Russian airforce personnel near Chechnya, blowing it up and killing herself and 17 other people.

May 14, 2003 – At least 16 people are killed in a suicide bombing attack during a religious festival east of the Chechen capital of Grozny. Some 145 are wounded.

May 12, 2003 – Two suicide bombers drive a truck laden with explosives into a government complex in Znamenskoye, in northern Chechnya, killing 59 people and injuring many more.

Dec. 27, 2002 – Chechen suicide bombers drive booby-trapped vehicles into the local government headquarters in Grozny, destroying the four-story building in the explosion. About 80 people are killed.

Oct. 23-26, 2002 – Armed Chechen rebels raid a Moscow theater and hold about 800 people hostage until Russian troops storm the building three days later. 129 hostages and 41 guerrillas are killed, many die as a result of the poisonous gas used by the Russian swat team to stun the Chechens.

Aug. 19, 2002 – Chechen rebels shoot down an overcrowded transport helicopter in Chechnya, killing 118 soldiers.

July 2-3, 2000 – Five suicide bomb attacks explode on bases of Russian security forces in Chechnya within a 24-hour period. At least 54 people are killed in the deadliest attack on a police commando dormitory in Argun, near Grozny.

Sept. 1999 – Explosions destroy apartment blocks in Moscow, Buynaksk and Volgodonsk. More than 200 people are killed. Moscow blames the Chechens, who in turn accuse Russian secret services of setting a plot.

Jan. 1996 – Hijackers seize the Russian ferry Avrasya from the Turkish Black Sea port of Trabzon. They threaten to blow up the ship and its 200 passengers, but the incident ends peacefully.

Jan. 1996 – Chechen fighters take hundreds of people hostage in a hospital in Kizlyar in Dagestan, then travel by bus to Pervomaiskoye on the Chechen border. After a relentless attack by Russian air and ground forces, most rebels give up and escape, while many of the hostages are killed.

June 1995 – Rebels hold hundreds of people hostage in a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk. More than 100 people die in the course of the rebel assault and a botched Russian commando raid. The rebels are allowed to leave for Chechnya in a bus convoy after five days, in exchange for releasing the hostages.

Hey, in the meantime if you want to watch chechen terrorists attack and kill Russians just visit kavkaz.org where you can see hours and hours of video of chechens blowing up Russians.

After that perhaps my friend Destro can post the link for those chechen videos on the web where you can see the chechens cutting off fingers of hostages, one is an American, btw, and other delightful acts of fun.

Valin...Putin misses the USSR, he's said it publicly.

He blames Beslan on the fall of the Soviet Union.

Then he rolls back democratic changes.

What exactly do you think that he is doing?

A short simple Timeline:

1810: Russia attacks and conquers Caucasia

1840-45: Repeated attempts to vanquish Chechen forces fail.

1918: Soviet power claimed in these regions.

1920: Stalin opts to give the Chechen’s their own republic but it falls through. 1924: Ingush and Chechen Autonomous Region established.

1934: The two regions were merged as one.

1944: Russians again attack Chechnya and thousands are exiled.

1990: Russia shows interest in Azerbaijan oil and the pipeline in Chechnya.

1991: The fall of the Soviet Union allows Georgia, Latvia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Tajikstan and Chechnya to declare independence. Russia refuses to allow Chechnya independence.

1992: Chechnya separated from fellow Muslim province Ingushetia.

1994 November: Chechnya’s president Dadaev declares independence. Russia’s attack to keep Chechnya with 40,000 troops coincides with Boris Yeltsin’s reelection.

1994 December: Yeltsin decides to invade Chechnya again after embarrassing defeat in November.

1995: Peace treaty signed but sporadic fighting continued.

1996: Dudaev killed. Cease-fire ended fighting.

1997: Peace treaty signed.

1999 August: Radical Muslims stage uprisings in neighboring Dagestan. September

1999: Russia declares full scale war in Chechnya.

1999 November: In effort to surround capitol Grozny, Russian captures neighboring cities.

2000 February: Russia claims it captured Grozny, while Chechen forces flee to Southwest portion of country.

2000 June: Russia appoints Islamic cleric Ashmed Kadyrov to head the separatist state. Kadyrov supported Russian invasion and disliked former Chechen president Maskhadov. Later Russia removes 3/4 of forces from Chechnya.

"... Now we're confronted with an ex-KGB agent who has been publicly bemoaning the fall of the Soviet Union, has been pushing his nation backward to the darkness, is now making his move to take over the government, muzzle the media and raise his Soviet empire from the ashes...and some people in America are worshiping him ..."
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The problem our ignorant public has is that the ex-KGB guy is the President of Russia.

He's the leader of his government, and as noted,

"... Whenever an extrodinary claim of a "government conspiracy" arises, I get suspicious ..."

People want to believe good things about leaders even if that leader is in another country, unless that leader is denounced by one of our own leaders. That's why Reagan's "evil empire" comment made such a huge difference; for the first time, our leader pointed out the truth.

Our leader today hasn't denounced Russia's president, so in the eyes of the majority of our citizens, he's a "good guy," and all those who talk against him are "kooks."

britons

"Osama Bin Laden had links to the Chechen guerrillas thought to be behind the murder of three British telecoms workers, the BBC has learned.

The three men and a colleague from New Zealand were kidnapped and found beheaded in the strife-torn Russian republic in 1998.

The authorities believed the guerrilla gang responsible were led by Muslim fundamentalist warlord Arbi Barayev."

"Darren Hickey, 26, Rudi Petschi, 42, 46-year-old Peter Kennedy and New Zealander Stan Shaw, 58, were kidnapped in October 1998 while installing a telephone system in Chechnya.

The bodies of the men were found at the end of that December with speculation rife they had been beheaded as an act of defiance after a failed rescue attempt.

The engineers were installing a phone system Barayev had been negotiating a ransom with BT and Surrey-based Granger Telecom, the companies which employed the men.

But Mr Adukhov, tracked down by the Money Programme, said Barayev had told him that by killing them, he stood to receive "not $10m, but $30m" from "Arab friends".

Barayev is reported to have said: "We're waging holy war. And we're involved in big politics.

"We ourselves will answer for everything before Allah."

Barayev told Mr Adukhov money from kidnappings would be used to help the fundamentalist Islamic cause across the region."

You want to guess what's going on in those pictures?

Putin Bears Responsibility for Terrorism

Alexandr Nemets, NEWSMAX Thursday, Sept. 9, 2004

If you believe the press reports and spin from Russia, that nation is under attack from “terrorists,” who bear full responsibility for a spate of attacks against civilians – including the recent school massacre.

But the facts suggest something more.

Consider the recent chronology of terrorism in Russia:

1) On Aug. 21, around 8 p.m. local time, about 300 Chechen guerrillas entered Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Russian experts say the operation was planned thoroughly and its organizers were certain of its success. That’s why they came into the city long before nightfall. This fact alone smashed the multiple claims of high-ranking Moscow officials – Putin, Defense Minister Ivanov, etc. – that “terrorists in Chechnya are almost beaten and peace is near.”

This operation is comparable to the guerrilla attack on Nazran, the capital of neighboring Ingushetia Republic, on June 21, but the scale of the action in Grozny was probably greater. The guerrillas attacked dozens of objectives in Grozny: police stations, voting polls (prepared for the election of a new president of Chechnya), army and police checkpoints, army barracks and the city market.

Guerrilla groups of five to seven fighters each moved freely all over the city, stopping cars and checking documents for the purpose of “revealing” army and police officers and local officials.

For the entire night the city was in guerrilla hands. Guerrillas left the city at sunrise, and Russian army and police forces made no attempt to pursue them. Guerrilla losses reportedly were no more than 15, while Russian losses amounted to about 100.

2) On Aug. 24, about 11 p.m. local time, two Russian passenger planes exploded almost simultaneously and fell on the ground. Both had departed from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport and headed south. One of them, a huge TU-155, fell in the Rostov region; the other, a TU-134, fell in the Tula region. Eighty-eight people, including 16 crewmembers, died in the two catastrophes.

It took KGB/FSB and the Russian Interior Ministry (police department) about four days to recognize that “evidently, the two aircraft were destroyed as a result of a suicide terrorist action. Women with Chechen names were among the passengers of both aircraft.”

3) On Aug. 31, a suicide terrorist action took place near the metro station “Rizhsckaya” in the northern part of Moscow. A young Chechen woman exploded herself – one more “black widow” from the North Caucasus –killing 10 persons and wounding 50. Reportedly, she intended to blow herself up inside the subway itself (i.e., to reproduce that huge terrorist action in a subway train in February 2004), but she got scared of policemen at the entrance.

These actions alone cost Russia, by the estimate of most informed Moscow journalists, more than 200 lives.

4) Finally, on Sept. 1, about 50 “Chechen fighters,” calling themselves the Islambuli Brigade, seized the school in Beslan in the North Ossetia Republic, about 100 kilometers west of Grozny. The terrorists were heavily armed with automatic rifles and grenade launchers.

The action took place on the first day of the new school year. Initially it was supposed that around 300 children and their parents were taken as hostages. Later it appeared that the number of hostages probably approached 1,200. The terrorists immediately concentrated the hostages in the school gymnasium and mined the entire school building.

Seven people were killed during the hostage taking and in skirmishes around the school building on Sept. 1. The terrorists demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya and the release of the fighters captured during the attack of Nazran on June 21. A very grim detail: For the first time in the nine-year history of “Chechen terrorist actions,” terrorists “deployed” the children at the school windows as a “live shield”.

Sept. 2 passed comparatively quietly; the terrorists released 26 women and babies under the age of 2.

On the afternoon of Sept. 3, Russian troops “spontaneously and accidentally” (if we are to trust the Russian officials) initiated the school storming, which was accompanied by multiple explosions inside and intensive use of artillery from outside. Hundreds died during the storming of the school.

Who Is Guilty?

During the past several days, Russian journalists independent of the Kremlin (the leftist media belonging to the “democratic opposition”) and Russian-language journalists in New York (from RTV TV channel, Forwerts weekly and other newspapers not connected with Moscow) have been asking the same, traditionally Russian question: “Who is guilty?”

Impressively, all these journalists, in both Moscow and New York, of both leftist and moderate democratic orientation – from the chief editor of the Zavtra weekly, Alexandr Prokhanov, up to the former coach of the NTV channel (earlier the twin of RTV and now a Russian-government-controlled TV channel) Viktor Shenderovich – are giving the same answer, with insignificant variations: “Kremlin, Putin, Moscow!”

A more detailed answer, cleaned of emotion, is as follows:

# The recent series of terrorist actions was primarily the result of the presidential election in Chechnya. This position became vacant on the death of the previous president, Akhmad Kadyrov, on May 9, in an explosion in the Grozny stadium. The new election took place on Sunday, Aug. 29.

Supported by Moscow, Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov received around 75 percent of the votes, winning the election. Moscow proclaimed this election to be “honest and legitimate,” but the independent Russian media have another point of view.

# Recent events prove that the phenomenon of a “normal government fulfilling its duties” has ceased to exist in Russia.

Of course there are still several million people clad in the uniforms of the Russian army, police, FSB and other security forces. They are strong in looting, taking bribes, extorting tribute, shooting and arresting innocent people, and they are ruling supreme. They are absolutely helpless, however, in dealing with a real enemy!

These security forces, including Russian army officers deployed in Chechnya and the neighboring North Caucasus republics, are mostly corrupt. They probably wouldn’t arrest even Osama bin Laden entering a Moscow subway with a nuclear device, if he paid them handsomely enough.

And the mighty network of Chechen-controlled businesses in Moscow and other major Russian cities pays handsomely to key figures in the administration and security forces. These same businesses, enjoying a substantial share of the “oil-dollars rain” over Russia, have a lot of money to finance the guerrilla struggle in Chechnya and the most sophisticated terrorist actions in the North Caucasus republics and elsewhere in Russia.

Don’t look for another explanation for what’s happening, and be ready for even more terrible – much more terrible – terrorist strikes. Perhaps even the rumors about “nine nuclear suitcases stolen from former Soviet armories in the beginning of the 1990s, purchased by terrorists and installed in key points in Moscow for X hour” are not groundless.s

# The 9/11 terrorist attacks were a blessing for Putin & Co. After 9/11, he formally joined the “world crusade against terror” and enjoys the support of Western politicians. This gives Putin and his associates an excuse to behave in a very cruel manner, to torture and murder tens of thousands of innocent people, to make millions of people – not only Chechens but also other “Kavkazians” (who don’t mix with Caucasians) and even ethnic Russians as well – the objects of intensive state-run terrorism. Correction: police-military terrorism, because the normal state no longer exists in Russia.

What is happening in Chechnya and the bordering republics is actual armed military conflict, having nothing to do with the worldwide war on terrorism, despite some ties of guerrilla leaders with al-Qaida and some presence of Arabs among Chechen guerrillas. But ethnic Russians are here as well. The flame of war now embraces the entire North Caucasus, and its sparks are falling on Moscow and elsewhere.

# This conflict was initiated by Boris Yeltsin in December 1994. Putin, his successor, fueled the conflict in August-September 1999 after a series of apartment house explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk.

By the way, who was to blame for these actions? Chechen terrorists? In two Chechen wars, the Russian army and police-security forces killed more than 100,000 civilians and deeply harmed millions of them. This created a fertile ground for the emergence of many thousands of ruthless young terrorists of both sexes, who know nothing except hate and death. Their ultimate goal is to bring death from Chechnya to Moscow.

The Kremlin sowed the seeds of hatred, and now Russia deals with the harvest. A multitude of Chechen “black widows,” young women eagerly becoming suicide bombers, has evolved during the last two years into an outstanding component of terrorist-guerrilla activity. Most of them lost close relatives or were deeply insulted by Russian troops.

# The North Caucasian war (not the “Chechen war” that is already going on) could continue indefinitely, because this war and related terrorist actions are extremely profitable for the Russian “ruling elite.” This group of people includes (a) corrupt “civilian” officials of all kinds who misuse money for the war itself as well as a huge financial flow for the “postwar reconstruction of Chechnya”; (b) oligarchs of all sizes, sharing the income with these officials; and (c) several thousand generals, the actual rulers of Russia now, who belong to the FSB, police, other security forces and army. The last group uses the war/terror environment for “black business” purposes and for expansion of its power as well.

What to Do?

While discussing all these facts and trends, Moscow journalists and their New York colleagues could not miss the problem of “media freedom” in Russia or, more correctly, its absence.

Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist famous for her truthful description of the Chechnyan war, tried to reach Beslan. Her trip ended on Sept. 2 in a hospital in Rostov-on-Don, halfway between Moscow and Beslan. According to reliable data, Anna was poisoned and remains in very grave condition. Other “Putin unfriendly” journalists trying to reach Beslan by air were involved in fighting with the police at an airdrome and had been arrested.

Russian journalists in Moscow and New York, while admitting the unacceptability of the present situation in Chechnya, cannot find a comprehensive answer to one more famous Russian question: “What to do?” However, even if they find the answer, the Kremlin won’t change its policy. That’s because the independent media’s influence on and general public opinion of the present rulers of Russia are negligible.

More important, what should America do?

First of all, to recognize the truth, which no doubt is very close to the conclusions of the Russian independent media presented above. Our administration should make the right choice based on this truth.

Dr. Alexandr V. Nemets is co-author of "Chinese-Russian Military Relations, Fate of Taiwan and New Geopolitics" and "Russian-Chinese Alliance."

http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=396&issue_id=2934&article_id=236604

As I posted on the other Putin Putzes cheerleading thread, yes, the State Department is concerned over Putin's rollback of democratic gains...as are many people in the world with a memory and the desire for the truth.

Most freepers know about the chechens and their brutality.

And about what the Russians have dine/are doing in Chechnya?

The sad thing is in the aftermath of the massacre at Beslan an independent Chechnya is dead and the slaughter will go on.

LA Times article?