|
Putin visits the front in Chechnya, orders rebels crushed
Russia's President Vladimir Putin told ministers on Friday they must work harder to crush violent insurgents in the North Caucasus region, a six-year-old election pledge that still eludes the Kremlin chief.Putin was making a rare visit to the mountainous region on Russia's southern flank, scene of a long fight with separatist rebels in Chechnya and worsening violence in neighbouring Dagestan that has spilled over from Chechnya. Putin's previously unpublicised arrival in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, was his first time in the region since the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 2004 Beslan school siege in which over 300 people -- half of them children -- were killed. "In the past few years a lot of work has been done in the North Caucasus and the south of Russia," Putin told ministers and military commanders in camouflage fatigues. "But from the point of view of fighting organised crime and terrorism, the situation remains fairly difficult and we can't say we have done everything possible so that we can feel relaxed," Putin said in televised remarks. Dressed in a black polo shirt and shadowed by guards with automatic weapons, Putin toured a secret service training centre and flew in a military helicopter to inspect a border patrol tasked with intercepting armed groups. Putin was catapulted from relative obscurity into the presidency in 1999 after promising to "wipe out" Chechen separatist rebels behind a spate of bombings and kidnappings that cost hundreds of lives. Russian troops have restored Moscow's control over most of Chechnya and violence has subsided. The separatists' leader, Aslan Maskhadov, was killed earlier this year. But attacks -- including the Beslan siege carried out by Chechen gunmen -- persist and are spreading beyond Chechnya. Opposition politicians say the failure to contain the insurgency gives the otherwise popular Putin a serious credibility problem. The constitution bars him from running again when his second term ends in 2008 but analysts say the Kremlin will try to convince voters to choose a Putin loyalist to succeed him. In Makhachkala, scene of a July 1 bomb that killed 10 Russian servicemen, Putin upbraided his commanders for using the wrong tactics against armed rebels. "When you encounter problems in the fight against terrorism, you send in regular units, but they don't have any special training or equipment," Putin said. He said security should be tightened on the border between the Russian North Caucasus and the ex-Soviet states of Georgia and Azerbaijan. Security experts say rebel fighters often escape across the mountainous frontier. Putin reviewed plans to set up two new military bases in the North Caucasus to help patrol the border. He also ordered Economic Development Minister German Gref to speed up a programme to relieve poverty in the region, which he said provided fertile ground for rebel recruiters. In mainly Muslim Dagestan, violent attacks on police and officials have escalated sharply. Analysts blame a combination of organised crime and Islamist militants sympathetic to the Chechen separatists. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-07-16 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=124202 |