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				The War In Chechnya -- Mass Murder or Antiterrorist Crusade?

Newsmax.com, Col. Stanislav Lunev, Jan. 17, 2000

On the last day of 1999 Boris Yeltsin transferred his presidential power and nuclear briefcase to his hand-picked successor, Vladimir Putin. A few moments later, as his first presidential act, Mr. Putin promptly issued an executive decree giving Yeltsin immunity from prosecution for crimes committed by "The Family" (Yeltsin's coterie of henchmen) during his tenure in office. This act may have been the most important element in Yeltsin's decision to resign at this time.

The new Kremlin leader announced that the Russian constitution requires new presidential elections to be held in three months. He didn't hesitate to announce this constitutional provision, for he and The Family are convinced he will win the elections and thus preserve the corrupt power structure for years to come.

Mr. Putin, former head of the KGB, has no redeeming social, political or economic qualifications whatsoever but is, nevertheless, the most popular politician in the RF today. With the Russian economy in ruins, living standards and life expectancy have plummeted drastically. The Yeltsin-Putin "solution" to this dire state of affairs is to distract the Russian people by arousing nationalist passions with the renewed assault on Chechnya. Thus far this has proven very effective, making Putin the hands-down favorite for the presidential office.

After several months of bloody warfare, Russian troops continue their attack on Grozny, the Chechen capital, which has been leveled to the point where no habitable buildings remain standing. The RF, a country with armed forces many times larger than the entire population of Chechnya, is so sure of victory that it is already hailing its anticipated triumph over this small nation in the Northern Caucasus.

RF propaganda is picturing the assault on Chechnya as a selfless crusade against "bandits" and "international terrorists." According to recent statements by the RF defense minister, it is also against U.S. and NATO "attempts to destabilize this area and establish control over the Northern Caucasus." Unfortunately, the average Russian does not have access to information other than that provided by the state-run media and gullibly believes the Kremlin propaganda.

But what is really happening in Chechnya is nothing less than mass murder. What the RF is committing in Chechnya is the unbridled slaughter of innocent civilians. It is a barbarous war crime in every sense. And it is a crime against Russians as well, against Russians in mixed marriages and others who are living in Chechnya and have no place to take refuge. Many Chechens have already fled the combat zones and escaped to relatives in the mountains, the countryside, and neighboring Muslim republics.

As for the Chechen war being a campaign against terrorism, Russian officials have provided no real proof of a Chechen involvement in the bombings in Moscow or other Russian cities. It is of note that the bombings were in no way advantageous to Chechen interests. They have, however, been a boon to Putin and the intelligence agencies in which he rose to power.

Riding a wave of Russian jingoism and xenophobia, the Kremlin is trying to re-establish Russian control over Chechnya with ruthless disregard for the thousands of innocent lives it is costing. It is apparently of no consequence, either, that hundreds of thousands of women, children and the elderly have been forced to flee across the border to other republics. According to Putin's official line, the Chechens are merely feigning their misery in order to "make the situation look worse" and "give the impression of a humanitarian catastrophe."

In order to protect the world from the spread of such Chechen lies, Russian troops are bombing TV stations, radio towers and telephone facilities along with other "terrorist-related facilities" such as hospitals, public markets and bridges. The RF has made it clear that it does not take kindly to news reporters who cover events in Chechnya truthfully.

As a result, the Kremlin has created a new propaganda ministry, which it calls the "press center." Russian officials say it is to provide "objective information that shows the official view of the Russian government." All attempts to report the reality of the Chechnya war are denounced by government propaganda as "distortion" and "falsehood."

For example, in mid-December an AP journalist reported heavy losses suffered by the Russian military in Grozny, where he saw the bodies of at least 115 RF soldiers at Minutka Square, many mangled and burned as a result of the unsuccessful Russian attack. Russian officials quickly denied that any attack had taken place. Premier Putin called the report "sheer nonsense," and Defense Minister Sergeev denounced it as "lies and misinformation." At the end of December Russian military officials went so far as to arrest several reporters from the United States, Spain and other countries who tried to cover events in the Chechen battlefield.

As a base of support for their criminal war, Kremlin leaders have created the special "Yedinstvo" (Unity), or "Medved" (Bear), political block. That they have done this was openly acknowledged by Putin in his interview on Channel ORT TV (Dec. 22). Devoid of any political or economic agenda other than support for the war, the "Bear" has come to be called the "Party of War." It did very well in the last parliamentary elections with 23 percent of the votes (please see the previous column).

Few objections to the war have reached public attention. Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the only Russian democratic party, "Yabloko," is among the few who have spoken out. This gave Anatoly Chubais, a Yeltsin Family loyalist, the opportunity to brand him as a traitor. The same accusation has been directed against every other Russian politician bold enough to object to the war.

The war in Chechnya has "changed the hierarchy of public concerns," said Igor Bunin, director of the Moscow Center for Political Technologies. "The feeling of a common enemy has emerged. This common enemy can be found not only in Chechnya, but in the West." The bombing of Chechnya -- and the heavily slanted cheerleading it is getting in the censored Russian press -- has given Mr. Putin an enormous popularity boost.

Heavy casualties from street fighting in Grozny during the 1994-1996 war forced the Yeltsin regime to seek peace and grant the territory de facto independence. This time RF troops have turned to a pound-and-surround strategy, using helicopter gun-ship strikes and heavy-artillery shelling to soften up rebel strongholds, occupying the towns only after Chechen guerillas have succumbed or withdrawn.

The Russian military, still smarting from what many officers believe was a "betrayal" by Moscow in the 1994-1996 war, has committed some 100,000 troops to the latest fighting, more than three times the deployment of the last Chechen war. These 100,000 troops are fighting against a mere 40,000 Chechen militants, who are armed only with their personal guns and small weapons such as automatic rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, and light-artillery pieces. But it has become difficult to estimate the Chechen combatants, for the RF has declared all Chechen males between the ages of ten and sixty to be enemy troops. It is astonishing that the Chechens have withstood the onslaught of countless air strikes and tank and artillery assaults. Yet, defying all odds, they continue to do so.

Even with the successes of Russian strategy to date, military specialists are not convinced the army can establish effective control of Chechnya in the long term or put an end to debilitating low-grade guerrilla strikes by Chechen forces. An estimated several thousand well-trained Chechen fighters are said to be in Grozny, and they were able to rout an early Russian probe into the city. But even if Grozny falls, Russian forces have little hope of subduing Chechen guerrilla forces based in redoubts in the country's mountainous south.

The Russian troops' low casualty rate -- about 600 admitted to by the Defense Ministry -- and the overwhelmingly pro-war media coverage inside Russia could change quickly if the current campaign bogs down in another ugly guerrilla conflict.

Chechnya serves the Russian military as an opportune testing ground for the future. Tens of thousands of military personnel are getting their field training for larger, full-scale engagements foreseen in the future. The military industry is testing new types of weapons, including cruise missiles and cutting-edge attack helicopters like the Black Shark and the Alligator, capable of inflicting massive "collateral damage."

The Russian military has taken this opportunity to "field" test its so-called vacuum bombs for the first time. These bombs kill personnel while leaving structures and technical equipment undamaged. Channel ORT TV (Dec. 24) disclosed that vacuum bombs were used against guerrillas in highly fortified bunkers, but in point of fact this occurred in an area with thousands of civilians.

Politically speaking, the war in Chechnya will also be a testing ground for the presidential elections -- given, of course, that nothing unforeseen intervenes and the elections are held as scheduled. The present Russian preference is for an autocratic strongman, a strong state, and a forceful posture toward the United States and the West. Nonetheless, it is too early to make predictions about the elections in March even though the recent Duma elections demonstrated Putin's strong popularity.

If Vladimir Putin can hold his base of support, he will surely win -- unless the war in Chechnya, his source of strength, goes drastically awry, as it did in 1994-1996. In such case, the Russian media would be forced to report this and Putin's support could vanish as quickly as it appeared.

Such a turn of events is not impossible, for anything can happen in today's Russia. In any case, it is clear that the war in Chechnya will have far-reaching ramifications in Europe and around the world. A new generation of young and assertive leaders in the Kremlin could possibly benefit Russia, but it would prove difficult for America and Europe. It could mean an even closer alliance between Russia and China in the United Nations and in general. It could also result in increased challenges to U.S. and European policies internationally.

In the decade following the Cold War, the United States and Europe have utterly failed in their policies toward Russia. Whoever the next president may be, the military will play a significant role in Russian political life. The military considers its days of humiliation to be over and will no longer tolerate secession anywhere in the RF.

With the United States and the West in mind, Mr. Putin told a meeting of security officials in December, on the anniversary of the VChK (predecessor to the KGB), that "several years ago, we fell prey to the illusion that we have no enemies. We have paid dearly for this. Russia has its own national interests, and we have to defend them."

While the Western elite and their talking heads in the media speculate ad absurdum about Russian intentions, Putin's words spell out clearly enough what these intentions are. Is anyone listening?