NATO AIR
Senior Member
amazing how ironic things are now. i fear putin overreaches ,but reading that timeline of terrorist attacks on russia sends a chill down my spine and makes me realize where the russian people are coming from.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6039136/site/newsweek/
Back to the U.S.S.R.?
Spreading freedom is a Bush theme. But in Russia, guess who's defending democracy? The Communists
Stanley Greene / Agence Vu
Putin's way: Cracking down on terrorists--and democracy?
By Michael Hirsh and Frank Brown
NewsweekSept. 27 issue - Back in the United States, George W. Bush was delivering thumping speeches to ecstatic crowds about how "the world is becoming more free" thanks to his administration's policies. But in central Moscow last week, on a narrow street opposite the general prosecutor's office, a handful of demonstrators took a different view of the status of freedom in Russia under Bush's close ally and friend Vladimir Putin. "Our society is now lurching towards a dictatorship," said one protester, Vladimir Ulas. "Putin is making a mockery of democracy." Who was this brave voice, defending principles that America holds dear? Ulas is first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the Communist Party.
Such is the ironic course of post-Soviet Russia these days. As President Putin continues to move his country away from democracyputatively in an effort to stop future terrorist attacksthe Russian people's former oppressor, the Communist Party, is among the few voices still speaking out against his actions, if squeakily. Last week, in one of his boldest moves yet, Putin revived some of the cardinal structures of the failed Soviet Union. He announced that the Kremlinnot local voterswill start choosing governors by the end of the year. He also pledged to make changes to Russia's political system that will deny voters the power to directly choose representatives in Parliament.
Almost as noteworthy as Putin's power play was the fact that there was barely a peep of protest about it throughout Russia. Not even from the governors themselves. The tiny Moscow protest was the only known public demonstrationlimited in size by a city order allowing only 20 demonstratorsand was largely ignored by Russia's increasingly restricted media. On TV and in newspapers, commentators talked bluntly about the need for a return to Soviet methods after a horrific series of terror attacks, especially the hostage takeover of a school in Beslan that left at least 338 children and adults dead. "This crisis presented a good opportunity," said Kremlin expert Olga Kryshtanovskaya. "The idea is to take some of the best methods of ruling a big country that the U.S.S.R. had to offera more authoritarian approach. And, at the same time, to have a market economy."
TIMELINE Beyond Chechnya
Actions outside of Chechnya linked to the conflict.
June 14, 1995
Chechen gunmen take 2,000 hostages at a hospital in southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk, near Chechnya. After failed attempts at force, Russia negotiates the hostages' release in exchange for the gunmen's escape. More than 100 die.
Jan. 9, 1996
Chechen militants seize 3,000 hostages at a hospital in southern Russian town of Kizlyar. Rebels release most, then head for Chechnya with about 100 hostages. Rebels are stopped in a village and attacked by Russian troops. At least 78 die in weeklong fight.
Jan. 16, 1996
Six Turks and three Chechens hold 255 hostages on ferry in Black Sea, threatening to blow up ship if Russia doesn't halt battles in southern Russia. The rebels surrender after three days.
March 9, 1996
Turkish sympathizer hijacks jetliner flying out of Cyprus to draw attention to situation in Chechnya. The sympathizer surrenders after plane lands in Munich, Germany.
Sept. 4, 1999
Bomb destroys a building housing Russian military officers and families in Buinaksk in Russia's Dagestan region. Sixty-four die. Russian officials blame Chechen rebels, but never prove their involvement.
Sept. 9, 1999
Explosion wrecks a nine-story apartment building in southeast Moscow, killing almost 100. Authorities suspect a Chechen bomb, although no evidence is ever provided to support the claim.
Sept. 13, 1999
A bomb destroys an apartment building in southern Moscow, killing 70. Officials blame Chechens, but nobody is ever charged in the attack.
Sept. 16, 1999
Bombs shear off the front of a nine-story apartment building in Volgodonsk, 500 miles south of Moscow. Nearly 20 are killed. Authorities again blame Chechens rebels, but nobody is charged.
March 16, 2001
Three Chechens hijack a Russian airliner leaving Istanbul and divert it to Saudi Arabia. Saudi forces storm plane, killing one hijacker and two hostages.
April 22, 2001
Some 20 gunmen hold about 120 people for 12 hours at a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, to protest Russian actions in Chechnya. The rebels later surrender to police and release the hostages.
May 4, 2002
Lone gunman holds 13 people hostage at a hotel in Istanbul to protest situation in Chechnya. The gunman surrenders after an hour.
Oct. 24, 2002
Chechen rebels seize 800 people in a Moscow theater. After a three-day standoff, Russian authorities launch a rescue attempt in which all 41 attackers are killed along with 127 hostages who succumb to a knockout gas used to incapacitate the assailants.
July 5, 2003
Double suicide bombing at a Moscow rock concert kills the female attackers and 15 other people.
July 10, 2003
A Russian security agent dies in Moscow while trying to defuse a bomb a woman had tried to carry into a cafe on central Moscows main street.
Aug. 1, 2003
50 people are killed in Mozdok, North Ossetia, when a truck bomb smashes through the gates of a hospital where Russian soldiers injured in Chechnya are treated.
Sept. 16, 2003
Two suicide bombers drive a truck laden with explosives into a government security services building near Chechnya, killing three people and injuring 25.
Dec. 5, 2003
Suicide bombing on commuter train in southern Russia kills 44 people. President Vladimir Putin condemns attack as bid to destabilize the country two days before parliamentary elections. Six people were killed in two blasts on the same railway line in September.
Dec. 9, 2003
Female suicide bomber blows herself up outside Moscows National Hotel, across from the Kremlin and Red Square, killing five bystanders.
Feb. 6, 2004
An explosion rips through a subway car in the Moscow metro during rush hour, killing 41 people.
June 21- 22, 2004
Chechen rebels kill at least 92 people, mostly law-enforcement officers and officials, while setting fire to police and government buildings around Nazran, the main city of the neighboring republic of Ingushetia.
Aug. 25, 2004
Chechen suicide bombers detonate explosives that kill 90 people on board two Russian planes.
Aug. 31
A suspected Chechen suicide bomber detonates explosives near a subway station in Moscow, killing 10 people.
Sept. 3, 2004
A Chechen gang detonates explosives in a school in Beslan, southern Russia, where more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children, are held captive for 3 days. At least 365 are killed in the explosions and ensuing gunfight, including more than 150 children.
Sources: Associated Press, Reuters
President Bush offered only a mild, indirect rebuke: "As governments fight the enemies of democracy, they must uphold the principles of democracy." Behind the scenes, U.S. officials were just as casual. Putin's actions are "not surprising," one senior Bush official who deals with Russia remarked offhandedly. "Russia is not a democratic society." The official said that Putin's actions resonate deeply with his countrymen. For Russians, the quality of their democracy matters less now than their fear of terrorand of the national disintegration that terrorists like the Chechen separatist Shamil Basayev could provoke. "Putin and his cohort [Defense Minister Sergei] Ivanov saw the breakup of the Soviet Union. Now they're worried that Russia is going to break up." One argument the Americans can't make is that Putin is defying popular will. A recent survey found that 82 percent of Russians favor increased police document checks, 92 percent favor travel restrictions and 65 percent approve greater control over the press.
So the United States is unlikely to stand in Putin's way. By most accounts, Bush and Putin's longstanding warm feelings for each other remain undimmed by the controversy. After Putin angrily denounced Western pressure to negotiate with the Chechens at a meeting with journalists, he was asked about Bush. Putin's tone warmed as he put his hand over his chest. "Bush is a good man," he said. Increasingly the two leaders see the war against terrorists in the same harsh light, as a give-no-quarter struggle of good against evil.
For Bush, the greatest danger is that his old friend overreaches. Some U.S. officials are concerned by Putin's declaration that he plans to embrace another one of Bush's antiterror tactics: pre-emptive strikes. Most observers believe that Putin has his eye on the Pankisi Gorge in neighboring Georgia, where Chechen rebels are believed to be hiding. Georgian officials, perhaps to forestall just such an attack, announced Saturday that Georgian and Russian forces are conducting joint helicopter patrols in the mountainous border region. But if that doesn't satisfy Putin, he probably won't find Bush standing in his way. In a sign that Washington might tacitly condone a pre-emptive strike, the U.S. ambassador to Georgia last week acknowledged that the Pankisi Gorge was a rebel haven. Next move, Putin.
