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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Putin faces second war front as Chechens threaten new offensive in Russia

2022-07-21

Oh dear — so much for his short, glorious war. And a reminder to beware of unplanned for secondary and tertiary consequences, also known as The Unexpected.

[MSN] Russian President Vladimir Putin could be facing another war front, this time on his own turf, as one Chechen battalion prepares a second offensive against Moscow, a spokesman for the volunteer fighting force in Ukraine said.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, volunteer Chechen forces joined the fight in support of Kyiv – fueling the flames to a long-held animus towards not only Russia, but Putin.

"We know the enemy’s positions, where Russian military bases are," spokesman for the Sheikh Mansur Battalion, Islam Belokiev, said in a video message obtained by Fox News Digital this week while announcing a plan to once again fight for Chechen independence. "We have divided the Chechen Republic of Icheriya

...in the Rantburg archives and elsewhere as Ichkeria, because transliterations are so often more interesting than one would expect. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the so-called Chechen Republic of Ichkeria evolved into the Al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate, which is naturally banned in Russia, the umbrella group for the jihadi organizations in the North Caucasus. Russia has been hunting down the jihadis of Caucasian Emirate for three decades. They subsequently swore allegiance to ISIS under the name Caucasus Province. Thousands made hijra to the ISIS caliphate in Syria, others were adopted by Turkey — that whole Turkic peoples thingy. Most famously, the Tsarnaev brothers blew up the Boston Marathon for them. Possibly this CRI merely shares a name without sharing the jihadi ideology...

into three fronts and 16 sectors."

Chechen resistance to Russian rule dates back centuries and calls for independence began more than 30 years ago following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Broad autonomy was granted under a peace treaty signed by then Russian President Boris Yeltsin after a brutal war devastated the republic from 1994-1996.

However, disdain for Putin and a decade of war broke out after he voided the treaty and launched a deadly military campaign in 1999 after he was appointed prime minister by then President Boris Yeltsin.

In an infamous speech that was a prelude his presidential rise, Putin said, "We will pursue the terrorists everywhere. If we catch them on the toilet, we will wipe them out in the outhouse."

Earthy for effect, I suspect, for an earthy people. One imagines he does the perfect gentleman just as well...

An estimated 160,000 people were killed in both campaigns, though exact figures remain unclear.

At least two volunteer Chechen battalions, including veteran soldiers from both the first and second Chechen wars, have taken up arms against Russia in Ukraine, including the Sheikh Mansur Battalion and the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion.

Both groups have been vocal in denouncing the leader of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, who was appointed to the post in 2007 by Putin and has brutally backed his war efforts against Kyiv.

Chechens fighting on both sides of this war, Cossacks, ditto, and so too Ukrainians. Not to mention a measure of disunity back home in Russia. Interesting times for Vladimir Vladimirovich.

A spokesman for the Sheikh Mansur Battalion said the resistance group had divided Chechnya into three sectors and claimed to have begun working with local populations "to uncover the enemy troop movements, type of transport, type of armaments, number of troops and quantity of weapons."

Fox News could not independently verify the claims, but Russia expert and former intelligence officer in Russian doctrine and strategy for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Rebekah Koffler, said it could serve as a strategy to distract Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.

"The possibility of them taking advantage of Putin’s forces being tied up in Ukraine to assert their independence is very plausible," she explained.

It is unclear if the Chechen volunteer forces are strategizing with Kyiv by creating a second front, but Koffler noted that even if a second front is not fully launched in Chechnya it could still strain Putin’s forces.

It would "at least make Putin and the Russians believe that they will have to divert their attention and take eyes off Ukraine, so Ukrainians could launch a counter-offensive," she said. "That’s very clever."
Ichkeria

Posted by:Penguin of the Desert

#3 *PFFFFT*

Posted by: Frank G 2022-07-21 21:17

#2 More wishful writing than information or news, is always a sign of psychological anxiety, that is very bad for people health.
….. and for that reasons Aca Joe is here to cure you.

Posted by: Aca Joe 2022-07-21 21:03

#1 Russian soldiers are put 'on a direct path to a body bag' with only FIVE DAYS' training for recruits and some sent to Ukraine without knowing how to use a machine gun

Posted by: Skidmark 2022-07-21 08:16

00:00