Russia to quadruple troops stationed in the North Caucasus

Greetings:

Several years ago, Zbigniew Brezinski wisely remarked that Moscow's claim to Chechnya was no different than Paris' claim to Algeria in the 1960s. The only real difference was that no body of water separated the metropolitan country from the territory it ruled by force in the former case.

Several years ago, on International Human Rights Day, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the American Enterprise Institute held a day-long event examining Russia's policy towards Chechnya. Dr. Brezinski was the keynote speaker. Before he began his prepared remarks, he observed that there was no one from the Russian Embassy in attendance, which he described as "expected," but then noted that there was no one from the U.S. government in attendance either, which he termed "disgraceful" [note that David Kramer, then the personal assistant to then-Assistant Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky was there in a personal capacity].

Dr. Brezezinski describes himself as a product of the 20th Century -- a period of time notable for a number of genocides that occurred when the world's great powers stood aside (the idea of humanitarian interventionism was and generally remains an academic construct). He then noted the world's silence when the Armenians, Jews (the Nazis also killed in total roughly an equal number of Czech and Polish intelligentsia, Soviet POWs, gays, etc.), Cambodians and Hutu were slaughtered.

Yet the Genocide conducted by the Soviets under Stalin and subsequently under the Russians has occurred with the international community's silence with the exception of some NGOs and brave journalists (many of whom are journalists).

Chechnya is not legally part of the "Russian Federation." The Chechen population did not approve either the 1993 Russian Constitution nor the Federation Treaty in fair and free referenda.

Russia (along with China) are the world's largest empires. Most of the Russian political elite have not completely accepted the independence of Soviet Union's other successor states.

Continued Russian control of Chechnya is not worth a single Chechen or Russian life. The children of the Russian elite are not found among the "troops" in Chechnya.

As long as Russia occupies Chechnya, the Russian leadership risks the spread of the conflict throughout the Caucusus as well as all of Russia East of the Ural Mountains.

It is impossible for the Russian security forces to defend every "target" in the country. Without a political settlement of the conflict, it is a fight without end -- the price is paid on a daily basis by both the Russian and Chechen people.

Russia will never evolve into a true democracy so long as members of the elite can use the terrorist threats posed by Chechen insurgents and their allies as an excuse for not allowing political reform and civil rights in the country.

Brezinski's logic is difficult to follow. If militants are given another state of their own, it is virtually certain that they will use it to launch terrorist attacks against every neighboring state. It seems that Russia is the only nation in the world really fighting seriously against Islamic militants. The militants are obviously convinced that they will win in the long run against weak-kneed Western leaders who speak loudly but never seem to get around to serious action. The vast majority of Russians support the policies of the Kremlin because Russia has one of the few "elites" (as you call them) who vigorously defend the interests of their own State.