Word: chechen
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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This could be where it gets bloody, although by now the battle for Grozny may be mostly symbolic. Chechen forces repelled a Russian armored assault on the center of their besieged capital Wednesday, with the AP reporting that guerrilla fighters had killed a number of Russian troops and left a column of tanks and armored personnel carriers burning in the streets. Russia took heavy losses when it stormed Grozny in the 1994-1996 war, and the capital?s outnumbered and outgunned defenders are hoping to make the Russians pay a heavy price for taking the city. Despite the specter...
...European governments are moving hastily to cobble together negotiations to avert a bloodbath, although Moscow is sending mixed signals over whether it's prepared to talk to the Chechens. But with even Malik Saydulayev, head of the new Chechen puppet government created in Moscow, calling for talks with more moderate Chechen commanders, some form of deal may be in the works. Russia has plainly won this phase of the war, forcing the guerrilla army of President Aslan Mashkadov to retreat from every urban center in the country other than the capital...
...capture of Grozny may put a symbolic seal on Russia?s victory, but that victory remains partial. After all, guerrilla wars aren?t won by capturing territory, and the Chechen forces have retreated mostly intact from the Russian advance. They're already making life difficult for Russian forces by night in many of the areas under Moscow's control, and a protracted guerrilla war against fighters based in the mountains of the south will mean mounting Russian casualties in exchange for few tangible gains. That gives Russia an incentive to try and divide the Chechen resistance with concessions...
Hopes that the U.S. could somehow influence Russian policy are equally naive. The war has proved exceedingly popular in Russia, and the only two politicians to oppose it are a catspaw of the Chechen mafia and Grigory Lavlinsky, the hopeless neo-liberal whose principled stand got him denounced as a traitor to the Russian cause. As the generals leading the war make veiled threats to politicians who might oppose the war, the talk of cutting off foreign aid and diplomatic pressure is an exercise in unreality. At present, the only U.S. policy that could bring real comfort to the Chechen...
...Chechen conundrum has no easy solutions. We must be wary of sliding into the classic response of seeing an oppressed minority and leaping forward, enthusiastic they they should have their own state. Nor should we relax, confident that Russia's reconquest of the province will restore stability. The only sure consequence of this war is that Chechnya will be destabilized for years and possibly decades to come. Perhaps the West can serve a useful role when the fighting has ended in advising or reconstruction. Regardless, for the corpses of Russian conscripts and Chechen civilians mouldering amidst the harsh beauty...