Word: russianness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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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...
Moscow has managed to whip up Russian public support for war against Chechnya; now it may be trying to delicately climb down from the precipice. Following six days of continuous bombing, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday authorized a meeting between Russian officials in the region and Chechen president Aslan Mashkadov. Russia insists that Mashkadov curb Islamic guerrilla groups operating in his country, although observers point out that the Chechen president himself has limited control over his own territory. And Russian opposition politicians, mindful of Moscow's 1994-96 debacle in Chechnya, are warning against escalating the conflict...
...paint the not-very-striking Putin to look like presidential material," says Quinn-Judge. The former KGB officer on Monday firmly rejected a call by Chechnya's President Aslan Maskhadov for political dialogue with Moscow, instead moving armor to the border. But despite their anger at the bombings, Russian voters may balk at another bruising infantry campaign in Chechnya. And, of course, the Chechens may not allow Moscow the luxury of making war from a distance...
...only surprising thing might be that the U.S. investigators weren?t mugged on their way out of Moscow. In the latest development in the international investigation into links between the Russian mob and the Bank of New York, USA Today reports that U.S. gumshoes went to Russian officials last week for bank statements, audiotapes and documents relating to the possible diversion of nearly $15 billion from Russia to U.S. shores ? and were turned down flat. According to a U.S. investigator, Moscow called the request an "unnecessary intrusion" into its internal affairs, and later, Russian investigators visiting Washington claimed they...
...Investigators in Italy, meanwhile, are having better luck with some smaller fish than the Central Bank. They have uncovered Italy-based Russian racketeers in the northeast town of Rimini who have been sending out their financial laundry to the Bank of New York, according to the New York Times ? the Italians, apparently, are not relying on help from Moscow. It?s not hard to imagine the reason for that Russian stonewall; when half a nation?s economy is controlled by organized crime, it?s inevitable that government officials ? including those at the Central Bank ? have a finger...