Russia's decision to send troops into separatist Chechnya ten years ago was a mistake, the region's Moscow-backed leader was quoted as saying on Friday. Alu Alkhanov, elected president of the southern province in August, said foreign spies aiming to weaken Russia had sucked the Kremlin into the attack, which only served to strengthen anti-Moscow rebels. | Foreign Agents with a secret agenda, following orders of They Who May Not Be Named |
Russian forces poured into Chechnya in early December 1994, but did not meet tough resistance until they entered the capital Grozny on New Year's Eve. Lightly armed rebels destroyed tank columns and killed dozens of soldiers. Alkhanov said Chechnya's separatist government led by Dzhokhar Dudayev, who was elected amid the Soviet collapse, had been weak but the attack united Chechens behind him. "This December military operation was a mistake. Thanks to it Dudayev once again became a uniting figure for the Chechens," he said in an interview with the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily coinciding with the war's ten-year anniversary. Although Russian forces killed Dudayev in 1996, Chechen rebels have kept fighting under successor Aslan Maskhadov -- denounced as an international terrorist by Alkhanov. Alkhanov said foreign fighters who had come to Chechnya had driven out the workers needed to rebuild the region. "Instead of oil-workers, farm directors and builders came Arab mercenaries, explosive specialists and foreign spies. And with their help, we have totally destroyed our scientific, industrial and cultural base." | And done a bang-up job of it too |
These spies were to blame for the war in the first place, Alkhanov said, refusing to point the finger at Kremlin officials who analysts see as having blundered into the war without realising its consequences. "The same forces that destroyed the Soviet Union did all they could to ensure there wouldn't be sanity on Chechen soil as well ... Our opponents didn't need a strong Russia, like they didn't need a strong Soviet Union," he said. |