#8
San Francisco Chronicle
April 10, 2002
Chechnya breeds discontent in Russian troops
Elite forces aren't returning for extra tours of duty there
By Anna Badkhen, Chronicle Staff Writer

Komi Region, Russia -- As Lt. Col. Dmitri Lyutoyev drove his jeep along a road in war-torn Chechnya, on his way to make a rare phone call to his wife in northern Russia, an armored personnel carrier sped by.

Three seconds later, it exploded into jagged pieces of smoldering metal, having hit a land mine planted by Chechen separatists. The Russian crew inside the carrier, who were also on their way to call relatives, died instantly.

That was Lyutoyev's last tour of duty in Chechnya. The commander of an elite Russian counterterrorist police unit decided to join hundreds of other Russian elite troops, including members of his own unit, who don't want to fight in Chechnya any more.

Such displays of dissent reflects a collapse in morale on the front lines of Russia's own self-declared war on terrorism in the northern Caucasus republic.

So far, the Kremlin has taken little public action against the dissidents except to force the resignations of eight counterterrorism officers who refused a new six-month stint in Chechnya. But political observers say Russia's civilian leaders are becoming increasingly concerned.

Moscow is fighting its second war in Chechnya since 1994 -- a war without borders and front lines, with clusters of rebels mounting hit-and-run attacks on Russian troops, killing several soldiers each day. Two years after a shaky peace collapsed in 1999, Russia went back on the offensive, committing 80,000 troops to the latest war. But insurgent leaders remain at large, while the death toll and discontent among Moscow's troops grow.

Last week, the Kremlin announced that 3,220 Russian soldiers had been killed and nearly 9,000 injured in Chechnya since 1999. Human rights groups such as the Soldiers' Mothers' Committee in Moscow say the losses are at least twice as high.

Most of those dying are ill-prepared teenage draftees, many of whom have barely learned how to handle a gun in basic training before being sent to fight. To fill in the holes, and to boost morale, elite police officers, who -- like U.S. Delta Forces -- are trained to capture terrorists and free hostages,

have been sent to join the fight, on extended tours of duty.

"American special forces are not used as infantry. They have special tasks - - go behind enemy lines, capture bases," said Igor Nevzorov, an officer under Lyutoyev's command. "Our commanders send us along with the infantry to raise the spirits of the troops."

These elite forces are equally unhappy with the low pay of $100 a month, incompetent officers and antiquated equipment. Counterterrorism police officers in the city of Cherepovets wrote a letter to their commanders saying they would no longer act as "cannon fodder" in the campaign against Muslim rebels struggling for independence.

Lyutoyev and others also complain that the campaign in Chechnya is also being undermined by pressure to improve Russia's much-criticized human rights record in Chechnya.

Human Rights Watch of New York has charged that Russian troops "detain, torture and kill civilians in a climate of lawlessness." An average of 10 to 15 civilians are killed daily during random sweeps for suspected rebel sympathizers.

Although Russian officials have steadfastly denied the abuse charges, the Kremlin two weeks ago ordered troops in Chechnya to abstain from violence while searching for weapons and insurgents.

To Lyutoyev and his fellow officers, the order came as a shock.

"Imagine in Afghanistan, your troops come to a village and say: 'We will come here tomorrow and see if bin Laden is here, do you mind?' " Lyutoyev said.

"Losses among the civilian population are not only necessary -- they are unavoidable."

For Lyutoyev and his fellow officers, many of whom hail from the subarctic Komi Region some 900 miles east of Moscow, the crowning insult came last month, when they were told their next tour of duty would be increased from three months to six months, a move they condemned as a "psychological blow to families."

According to Nevzorov, some fellow police officers have come home from three-month tours to find that their wives had left them. Mothers of officers have been hospitalized with heart problems that resulted, he says, from stress caused by their sons being in Chechnya.

"Our wives don't know where we are. We can only call once a month or so," said Nevzorov. "Sometimes, we have to beg journalists to use their satellite phones, and risk our lives to drive someplace to make a phone call."

Nevzorov, who was riding with Lyutoyev the day the armored personnel carrier exploded, says he will not tell his wife about the incident or return to Chechnya.

"If a general came up to me and said: 'Your fatherland is in danger. Everything depends on you,' I would go," he said. "But in Chechnya, this is not the case."

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