Word: dagestan
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...lose Dagestan. Things are bad over there," ex-Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said as he was surrendering his office last week. Bad they are: a new bout of fighting in Dagestan, a tiny Muslim republic of 2.1 million people and more than 30 ethnic groups in the Russian North Caucasus, is turning into a full-fledged war. In Moscow's political back rooms, there's fear it may evolve into something even more frightening: an excuse to cancel coming elections and clamp a state-of-emergency rule over Russia...
Just two days before Stepashin was fired, some 1,500 Islamic militants armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, bazookas, self-propelled antiaircraft guns and armor marched into Dagestan from Chechnya. The move was the latest, most violent shot in a creeping war that has been ravaging Dagestan since Russia's invasion of Chechnya in 1994. Russian federal forces have been continually engaged in action against Chechen raiders eager to see the coastal province of Dagestan annexed into land-locked Chechnya. The province is of vital strategic importance to Russia, representing 70% of the nation's frontage on the oil-producing Caspian...
Moscow has more than 5,000 federal soldiers in Dagestan, along with nearly 300 pieces of armor, 50 pieces of heavy artillery, and 30 Grad missile launchers. "This force is as formidable as it is mismanaged," comments retired Colonel Victor Baranets, a military analyst. Says an eyewitness: "The troops have neither maps nor communication. They wear broken boots and mended fatigues. They don't have warm clothes or hot food...
...fierce fire fights in the Dagestani mountains are plenty hot. As the Chechens have become expert hostage takers, the area has turned into a no-transit zone for fearful aid workers, journalists and diplomats. Acting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has vowed "to restore order and discipline" in Dagestan in 10 to 14 days. He declined to say how, lest the enemy be informed. But few think such a simple solution is possible. "This might grow into a protracted local civil war," says Baranets...
...intelligence chief Vladimir Putin, as prime minister, but also to approve a new law simplifying procedures for declaring a state of emergency. "The situation in the North Caucasus shows that this law is essential," a Yeltsin spokesman said. Putin can significantly boost his political prestige by swiftly resolving the Dagestan crisis. But if it drags out into another bloody war, it will ruin the election chances of Yeltsin?s anointed heir -? and that may, in turn, tempt the president to avoid the election altogether...