Word: putin
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...Officially, they have been goaded past endurance by alleged Chechen acts of terrorism, including the spectacular bombings of four apartment buildings in Moscow and elsewhere last month. But Chechnya's determination to secede from Russia is equally a target. When asked about Russian incursions into Chechnya, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the latest in President Boris Yeltsin's revolving cast of legislative leaders, gave a sinister little smile and explained that the term incursion didn't apply. "We don't have a border with Chechnya," he said. "Chechnya is part of the Russian Federation." In the Chechen capital of Grozny, guerrilla...
...Chechnya, but now it's given the game away. Initially Moscow said it had 30,000 men around Chechnya to beef up border security while bombing suspected terrorist bases; then it crossed those borders saying it wanted a 10-mile security zone inside Chechnya. But Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that his forces now occupy the northern third of the breakaway republic along the east-west line of the River Terek - a fact borne out by reports of fierce fighting from villages deep inside Chechnya. And that suggests that Moscow is trying to partition the territory, taking control...
...Union. That's likely to grow amid a burgeoning humanitarian crisis. More than 100,000 refugees have fled Chechnya since Russia began bombing and cut off gas supplies, and that number will grow if Moscow goes ahead with plans to cut Chechnya's electricity supply. More alarming, perhaps, is Putin's announcement on Monday that the refugees will be resettled in those parts of Chechnya now under Russian control. After all, the last Russian leader to move whole populations around the Caucasus like chess pieces was Stalin...
...very convenient for troubled politicians. And so while the stated intention of Russia?s mini-invasion of Chechnya is to eliminate Islamic guerrillas involved in incursions into neighboring Dagestan, it will not hurt if a successful outcome burnishes the reputation of the recently installed prime minister Vladimir Putin. Or that a debacle may give Putin?s patron, President Boris Yeltsin, an excuse to postpone elections scheduled for next year...
Nine days of Russian bombing has forced 80,000 refugees to flee Chechnya, and Putin ordered thousands of troops and armored vehicles into a three-pronged invasion of the territory Friday after declaring that Moscow no longer recognizes the legitimacy of President Aslan Mashkadov's Chechen government. Of course, as Moscow has learned at some expense in the past, fighting a war in Chechnya may demand a high cost in men and materiel, as well as in the already depleted confidence of the West?s financial and investor communities (the European Union Thursday warned Russia against restarting the disastrous...