Word: putin
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...Paul Quinn-Judge: This is a very good example both of the desires and of the limitations of President Vladimir Putin. His fundamental desire is to have a well-controlled society, and an integral part of that desire is to have the electronic media, which unlike most Russian newspapers actually has a nationwide reach, under his control. So he's been slicing away at NTV all year, using all manner of economic pressure and police investigation to erode the network's independence and bring it under the control of elements sympathetic to the Kremlin. Yet, when Putin tries to make...
...Moscow insists that it is winning the war, that the Chechens are rallying to its side, and that the situation in Grozny is almost normal. Many Western critics of Russia's operations in Chechnya, Putin said during an Internet conference earlier this month, just do not understand what is happening. "We feel that the actions of the Russian army are aimed at liberating the Chechen people from the terrorists who seized power and who compromise Islam and the Chechen people," Putin said reassuringly. He may well believe that. Yet as a visit to Grozny makes evident, the Russians...
...Kerimov is, like Putin, a graduate of Leningrad University. He and his colleagues are hardly wild-eyed secessionists. "I hated Maskhadov, Basayev, Khattab," he said, referring to Aslan Maskhadov, the President of independent Chechnya, and his most controversial commanders. "Now I am ready to pray to them." Other lecturers just want to leave. In 1944 the Soviets deported all Chechens to Central Asia. Thousands died, and the survivors were allowed home only in 1957. This time, said Kerimov's colleague Said Yushaev, the Russians want to force Chechens to go, "like the [Jewish] diaspora...
...condemning the use of force by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. "This situation in Macedonia could spell strike three for the Albanians altogether," says Baton Haxhiu, editor of Kosovo's leading daily Koha Ditore. "Our reputation is being ruined. Our Western friends are turning into enemies." Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Stockholm to meet with leaders of the 15 E.U. countries, said - with an eye to his own problems in Chechnya - "these aren't rebels, but terrorists...
...Putin is not alone in thinking the Americans have given Albanian terrorists too much succor. But across the international community there was general agreement on the best holding pattern: keep arms and men from Kosovo out of Macedonia, back the Macedonian government in its fight against the insurgents, and hope the government wins...