Are we supporting the Chechyens?

I was looking at another online forum and they were saying that the terrorists at the school in Russia were taking orders from some "outside" people...I'm not sure who they were referring to, but Putin's comments mentioning Russia's nuclear capability, directed at the U.S., *in combination with the rash of casualties we've taken in the last couple of days* in Iraq have me thinking.

I mean- we haven't taken casualties like that on the GROUND in a LOOONG time. Could Russia be supplying the Iraqi insurgency?

Does anybody have any theories about under-the-table fighting between Russia and the U.S., possibly another country or two?

On edit: And then there's two bombed airplanes....

What the hell is going on?

http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=4814496&startrow=1&date=2004-09-06&do_alert=0

Hell, I thought this could be some kind of news, or people would know something about it.

I really don't have a clue. I've read recently about bombings done by Russians to frame Chechneyans, but I'm sadly ignorant on what the whole basis of this war of terror is all about....I know some talking heads here are trying to frame this as a West vs. Muslim war, but I think there are more historical roots to this conflict. Love to see a link that lays out the whole conflict in synopsis form.

I'm not up on much of it either and have been learning more over the past few days. It really came on the rise when Putin came into power. Here's a few links...

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9910/01/russia.chechnya.02/

Russian troops inside Chechnya

Russia's Defense Ministry denies reports that Russian ground troops took positions inside Chechnya

October 1, 1999
Web posted at: 9:43 p.m. EDT (0143 GMT)
In this story:

Air strikes continue

Chechens seek aid from Georgia's Shevardnadze

<snip>
From staff and wire reports

MOSCOW (CNN) -- Russian officials said Friday that Russian troops had entered the Caucasus region of Chechnya and would occupy a section along the border to protect neighboring Dagestan from incursions by Islamic guerrillas.

"A security zone is being created sufficient to guarantee security," said Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, without elaborating.

The Chechen government said that 7,000 Russian combat troops, supported by hundreds of armored vehicles, had moved inside northern Chechnya. Russia initially denied the reports that its troops have massed inside Chechnya.

Although Moscow denies a full-scale invasion of Chechnya, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted Thursday that Russia still controlled Chechnya and could station troops there at any time.
<snip>

Also:
http://www.bigeye.com/021502.htm
<snip>
In 1999, Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer and point man for Russia's military industrial complex, emerged form the shadows to become prime minister under ailing President Boris Yeltsin. Putin claimed the bombings were the work of Chechen `Islamic terrorists financed by Osama bin Laden,' though he offered no proof.

Putin promised to `liquidate all terrorists.' He proclaimed Russia was facing a war between `good' and `evil.' `It's our boys,' said Putin, fanning war fever and hysteria, `against terrorists' belonging to an `international Islamic conspiracy.' Putin's alleged evidence of Chechen guilt was never forthcoming. Chechen leaders denied any responsibility for the bombings. Why they would seek war with Russia after gaining independence was never explained. Thousands of `swarthy-looking'(meaning Muslim) men from the Caucasus and Central Asia were arrested, brutally interrogated, and held without charges.

After a mysterious incursion into Dagestan by a small number of Chechen and Dagestani mujihadin, Putin ordered the Russian Army to invade independent Chechnya, calling it a `nest of Islamic terrorists.' Russian forces massively bombed and shelled the capital, Grozny, already shattered by the 1994-1996 war in which an estimated 100,000 Chechen civilians were killed by Russian forces. Grozny, in the words of a Russian journalist, was turned into `the Hiroshima of the Caucasus.'

Today, Russian forces are continuing their repression of the ferociously resisting Chechens. Russia's intensive bombing and shelling have killed 57,000 more civilians and made 200,000 refugees, say Chechen officials. Human rights organizations accuse Russian forces in Chechnya of ubiquitous brutality: mass murders and reprisals, arson, looting, torture, running concentration camps. Moscow rejects all such criticism, saying that rough methods are justified against `terrorists.'
<snip>

More at: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Chechnya+Putin+exiled&spell=1

I gather it's a group that wants their independence, like the Muslims in Kosovo. Seems to me both sides are probably wrong, just like we're wrong and the terrorists attacking us are wrong. What a friggin' mess.

I'm not sure who's on whose side either. But I take it the US is generally on the side of Chechnya, since it has financial interests there.

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Chechnya.asp
"A major oil pipeline carries oil from fields in Baku on the Caspian Sea and Chechnya toward the Ukraine. Grozny has a major oil refinery along this pipeline. For Russia it is important that the oil pipelines and routes they take so oil can be sold to the western markets also meet their needs. However, there are various pipelines in discussion that does not involve Russia.

Major Western oil companies and the American government managed to keep out Iran from the picture. In addition, by also getting oil pipelines routed through Georgia, Russian influence was reduced. As a result, Russia want to do what they can to control the spoils, while the West do the same, leaving Chechnya in the middle being fought for by the two."

Also, take a look at the member list for "the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya": http://www.peaceinchechnya.org/about_members.htm. You might recognize a number of PNAC members there. But it also includes Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski was Carter's national security advisor, involved in the financing and training of the muhajadeen against the Soviet Union. (http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html)

Welcome to DU!! :toast: