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| Caucasus |
| Chechnya and Russian-US relations |
| 2002-03-02 |
Russia views the revival of U.S. criticism on Chechnya as a betrayal of the post-11 September understanding for the Kremlin's fight against terrorism. A Russian Foreign Ministry statement on 25 January made the point: "It is surprising that the US administration, which says it is necessary to fight any manifestation of terrorism all over the world, is actually encouraging Chechen extremists, whose direct connections with Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are constantly being proved." Yastrzhembsky's office responded to renewed Western criticism of Russia by stating: "It is impossible to successfully fight Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and at the same time actually encourage its actions in Chechnya." Bush's positions post 9-11 has been very principled, one reason he enjoys so much support within the country. With regard to Chechnya, we can only assume he's operating on bad data - it's not the most talked about subject in the US press and even within intel circles it's not usually at the top of the list. I believe two issues are tangled here: One issue is the very justifiable Russian determination to crush the separatists. In this case, they're right, the U.S. is wrong. Letting them thrive endangers the entire Caucasus and Transcaucasus region. See any description of what happened in Dagestan. The other issue is the human rights issue, which seems to be what's driving the U.S. opposition. The Russians are in a very tough position, in that the situation is set up by the banditi to produce the maximum number of civilian casualties - this pushes the "us/them" division. The U.S. position is complicated because the Chechen banditi really aren't an al-Qaeda operation, but one running in parallel, a similar group but not the same one. Khattab's ("amir" of the Foreign Mujahideen in Chechnya) roots are in the Arab Brotherhood, through Abdallah Azzam, bin Laden's partner in Maktab al-Khidamat (Services Office), which helped funnel fighters and money to the Afghan resistance from Peshawar. Bin Laden split with Azzam in the late 1980s. His intent was to extend his mujaheddin campaign to all corners of the globe, to accomplish which he formed al-Qaeda in 1988. Azzam was killed by a car bomb in late 1989 – one of those little occupational hazards which got him conveniently out of the way - and the MAK split. The world-wide extremist faction joined al-Qaeda and the anti-Russian faction went its own way. With al-Qaeda (and the Taliban) now clobbered, the new wave of gunnies making their way to the Caucasus represents more a pool of trained and battle tested recruits, rather than a consolidation of a single organization. They still need rubbed out, but the target is the Khattab/Muslim Brotherhood operation. Binny and his staff, if they're there, are there as "guests", just like theyw were with the Taliban. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |