It's the problem of Moscow that Chechens are a free nation

It is obvious that Russia 's plan of suppression of Chechnya has failed. The victorious declarations about the tenth phase of the twentieth stage of "counterterrorist" operation have no effect any more even on Russia 's average citizens known for their "narrow-mindedness".

But it is not characteristic to the Russians to admit that their own incapacity and mistakes are at the bottom of their failure. Sometimes journalists and politicians, sometimes sniper women with the Afghan Mujahiddeen hampered the Russian generals in the first Russian-Chechen war. At last they agreed in opinion that "politicians had stolen their victory"!? One might think it was not them in 1996, in a state of siege, and eating dogs, asked for quarter, and it was not their commanders, in the mud up to their knees, who came to the Chechen headquarters, asking to let them leave Chechnya and "to save them face".

It is a national Russian feature to seek the guilty all over the world. It is of no practical importance for the Russian authorities whether the Russian people have trust in their leaders on not. Neither has it any importance to the rest of the Russians.

This search of the guilty of failure in Chechnya , in general, is a mere propaganda for home consumption. It is much more amusing, how the generals refute their failures before the leaders of the country. It is the leaders of the country that have untied them hands to carry out any actions in Chechnya , however, it did not give any results. Therefore, we are the witnesses how a new myth about the "Pankisi Gorge" has arisen, which having been the main reason for the Russian militants' failure in Chechnya for the last three years.

Mujahiddeen and arms, bases and terrorists, Georgia and Al-Qaeda, tracks and diversions, dollars, Ghelayev, transit, Hattab, Bin Laden etc. Mention should be made of several hundred mystical "fighters" who sometimes were concentrated, sometimes were exterminated and resurrected from the dead in Pankisi. Taking on trust what Russian media said, for a fortnight's period the Mujahiddeen managed to burst in Georgia from Chechnya , form Georgia in Chechnya , form Abkhazia in Afghanistan etc. And if anyone put a question to the Kremlin intelligence men why the Chechen Mujahiddeen did so, they answered with certainty: "For destabilization of the situation!" So, it turns out that Chechens are thinking how and where lese to destabilize the situation even when they are sleeping.

Then Pankisi disappeared form the scene because of the absence of Mujahiddeen, and the presence of the Georgian forces, militia and international observe form OSCE there. Therefore, it was no longer possible to explain the failure of the Russians in Chechnya pointing to the Pankisi Gorge. The Kremlin settled the question radically and declared that there is no war in Chechnya . Moreover, the expansion of military actions in other regions of the North Caucasus was presented as "the success of Russian special services in combating the international terrorism" and personally Bin Laden.

However, the Kremlin's shaman conjurations do not settle the problem. The main problem of the Kremlin is that Chechens are and always were a free nation, including that time, when Russians owned one another like herds of cattle, selling and buying their nationals and exchanging the Russian girls for dogs according to the newspaper advertisements.

The Chechens, like other Muslims of the Caucasus , were fighting with the Russian slaves in the past, they are fighting now. The freedom of choice is in the hearts of the Chechen people. And it is impossible to forbid somebody to fight. Maybe it is quite understandable for those not numerous Russians who believe that human beings are born not only to eat, sleep and propagate themselves. However, the Russian authorities, of course, are not the same.

Ruslan Isakov ,

Kavkaz-Center

2005-04-19 03:22:59

http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2005/04/19/3717.shtml