Word: putin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
President Vladimir Putin faced rising criticism Monday as Russians digested the cost of Saturday's dramatic hostage rescue. Medical authorities have revealed that all 115 hostages who died on Saturday when Russian special forces stormed a Moscow theater to end a three-day siege by Chechen gunmen were killed not by their captors, but by a mystery gas used to subdue the terrorists. Russian officials expressed regret over the casualties, but emphasized that their intervention had saved the bulk of the 700 hostages the Chechens were planning to kill - and they refused to disclose the type of gas used...
...Although President Vladimir Putin immediately linked the siege with the global war on terrorism, and charged that the action was planned in a "foreign terrorist center," its roots more likely lie in a long-established tradition among Chechen insurgents of mounting dramatic terror strikes aimed at tilting the balance of power back in their favor. The latest siege is reminiscent of the hostage drama at Budennovsk in 1995, when Chechen rebels led by Shamil Basayev seized a Russian hospital in order, he later said, to make Russians suffer the way Chechens had suffered. Although 166 hostages died when the very...
...attack is, however, a major embarrassment for Putin, because it undermines his claim - officially announced last April - that the war in Chechnya is over. By restricting media coverage, Kremlin claims of success in the breakaway republic have gone largely unchallenged at home, except by occasional dramatic events such as the killing of 119 Russian personnel when a military helicopter was shot down in August. But violence in Chechnya has been ongoing, with large numbers continuing to die on both sides. And the fact that a heavily armed group of this size was able to travel undetected from the Caucasus...
...Russians whether they take up arms or simply stay at home waiting to be taken away in a police security sweep. And that perception has fueled an inclination to go down fighting. Now, a sophisticated terror operation has brought Muscovites face to face with the ongoing war, undermining President Putin's claims of victory and forcing him to cancel his planned attendance at an Asia-Pacific summit where he was to have held talks with President Bush this weekend...
...resolution strategy: if the inspectors found Iraq at fault, then the Security Council would consider war. To Washington's dismay, Chirac had the support of the majority of the 15-member Security Council, including Russia. Despite the cajoling of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Vladimir Putin said he was opposed to any resolution allowing the automatic use of force against Saddam. (China, the other veto power, stayed on the fence throughout the debate.) In the end, Bush managed to get a face-saving solution: a single resolution, but the U.S. would give more weight to the inspectors' report. RUSSIA...