Posted on 02/20/2007 8:58:10 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
Russian President Vladimir Putin showed two faces toward Islam last week. In ...Riyadh, Putin announced that "Russia is determined to enhance cooperation with the Islamic world"...In an equally historic but little-reported action, on Thursday Putin installed as acting president of Chechnya the strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, whose private army allegedly murders and abducts enemies of the regime with impunity....
Russia does not propose to ally with the Muslim world against the United States. Putin's initiative is a hudna, a brief truce in a long war. [Russia]has been fighting on its southern border for 300 years and now stands at the frontier between Islam and the Western world. Chechnya offers a likelier model for the new Middle East than the Bush administration's delusional pursuit of democracy. Russian troops killed between 35,000 and 100,000 civilians in the Chechen war of 1994-96, and half a million were driven from their homes...
...Putting Kadyrov in charge of what remains of Chechnya adds insult to injury.
Putin's [brutality] detracted not a whit from the festivities in Riyadh, because issues of principle have no place whatever in Middle Eastern politics. "I see in Putin a statesman and a man of peace and fairness," said King Abdullah...
Loyalties do not extend beyond clan and family, and the rest is a matter of opportunity, guile and maneuver. That is how business is done in that part of the world. You embrace your worst enemy when you are too weak to fight him, and you annihilate him when opportunity presents itself. When you have winnowed his ranks sufficiently to convince him that he is too weak to fight you, you embrace him once again. It is the sort of dirty work to which Americans are unaccustomed, but for which the Russians have had centuries of practice...
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
I read that Moscow 25% islamic in the paper yesterday and about fell over. How the hell did *that* happen?
The difference is the war in Chechnya is over, ours is still unfolding.
It remains to be seen how history treats our engagement.
The moslems have babies; the russians have abortions; the math takes care of itself.
Ramzan Kadyrov is a mohammedan and a former rebel and he has begun instituting Islamic laws in Chechnya such as mandatory headscarves for women.
Yes, I read that too and it didn't add up. I must admit I'm discouraged and perplexed about the situation. It makes grim watching, that part of the world.
Putin even sent 2 platoons of mohammedan Chechen former rebels to Lebanon as "peacekeepers" to protect Hizballah from the Israelis.
Disgusting. Ever read a good thick history of Russia? It's just trouble and suffering all the way through. Horrible rulers, titanic suffering.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.