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| Caucasus |
| Russers chasing Chechen rebels... |
| 2002-09-27 |
| The Russian military says it is still pursuing Chechen rebels who fought a fierce battle with Russian forces on Thursday in the southern republic of Ingushetia. "All possible paths they could use have been blocked," said the republic's deputy Interior Minister, Khamatkhan Albakov. That's what they always say. Then they use an impossible path and get away somehow... Russian officers say dozens of rebels died in the clashes near the village of Galashki on Thursday, and helicopters and artillery were in action overnight. "Helicopters located camp fires where the fighters were warming themselves. These were immediately bombed," the Interfax news agency quoted an official as saying. Did they actually count bodies? Or did they count the number of campfires? Russia's NTV television said the rebels had unsuccessfully tried to cross into Chechnya during the night. From Ingushetia, I guess... It is reported that they had previously been hiding in the Pankisi Gorge in northern Georgia, until Georgian forces began an operation to flush them out. "Hi. We're from the Georgian army. Would you guys mind moving on, so the Russers don't come in an conquer us? Thanks." The fix may be in for the Russers to have a free hand with regard to Pankisi and Georgia, but, in common with several recent commenters here, I'm not sure they're capable of doing anything of substance with it. They're supposedly in charge in Ingushetia, yet the Chechens seem to spend a lot of time waltzing in and out of the region and shooting people up and helicopters down. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 I find it worrisome, too, though if you'd told me in 1982 that I'd find the weakness of spetsnaz worrisome today I'd have laughed for a week. |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-09-28 07:43:43 |
| #1 Yeah. The question was raised yesterday on this blog about whatever happened to Spetsnaz, the Russian special forces, who presumably ought to be taking the lead in Chechnya. I haven't been following the Chechnya war as closely as I might have, to be sure, but I do know that back in '94, Russia had all it could do to scrape up enough formations actually capable of fighting to go in and try to put down the original rebellion. Improved economy or not, I don't know that the state of Russia's army has improved much since then, if at all. It's possible that there may not really be _enough_ of Spetsnaz left to risk committing to Chechnya; the Kremlin may be keeping whatever is still combat-capable in reserve for really major emergencies. I don't know about the rest of you, but in light of the current world situation, and as someone who used to spend a lot of time wargaming NATO-vs-Warsaw Pact back in the 1970's and early 1980's when the Red Army actually amounted, or purported to amount, to something, I find all this rather worrisome. |
| Posted by: Joe 2002-09-27 17:20:34 |