#5
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
October 24, 2002
Moscow still living in fear
Despite its war against Chechnya, Russia cannot curb Islamic militants
By MARK MACKINNON

MOSCOW -- Two days before Chechen militants took several hundred Moscow theatregoers hostage, it came to light that Georgia had arrested 15 Arabs with suspected al-Qaeda ties in its lawless Pankisi Gorge, where they reportedly had been living alongside warriors and refugees from Chechnya.

It seems to be the kind of proof Moscow has long sought, ostensibly linking Chechen separatists with international terrorism. And where once their argument may have fallen on deaf ears, in the post-Sept. 11 world the West is far more willing to listen to Moscow's complaints about the Islamic militants in its southern republics.

Russia's latest war in Chechnya began three years ago in the wake of a series of apartment-block bombings that left hundreds dead and spread a wave of fear across Moscow and other cities. Though no one has ever been charged with the attacks, Chechens -- who had won de facto independence from Moscow after a bloody conflict in the early 1990s -- were immediately blamed.

Vladimir Putin -- then prime minister, but still a largely unknown figure -- swept to the presidency by promising tough actions against Chechnya, and a second war began.

What the West then saw as revenge-motivated repression of an independence movement, Mr. Putin has always called Russia's own war on terrorism. When the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks hit New York and Washington, Mr. Putin was the first world leader to telephone U.S. President George W. Bush.

His message: I told you so. We're on the same side, and the enemy is militant Islam.

In addition to the 1999 apartment-block attacks, Mr. Putin points to more than a dozen hostage-taking and kidnapping incidents involving Chechen fighters, stretching back to 1993. There's also the alleged link between the Chechens and al-Qaeda: Chechen fighters are reported to have trained at Osama bin Laden's Afghanistan camps.

The United States and its allies, once harsh critics of Russia's conduct in Chechnya, changed their tune after Sept. 11. Charges of human-rights abuses have all but ceased in favour of antiterror co-operation between Russia and the West.

But despite the victories gained in getting international opinion over to their side, the domestic cost for Mr. Putin has been high.

In once-metropolitan Moscow, non-Russians, especially those from the Caucasus, became the enemy. Police now openly pick on darker-skinned people for random passport checks. Gangs of nationalist youths stage frequent attacks on the same ethnic groups.

Inside Chechnya itself, Moscow's own war on terror was initially successful -- Russian soldiers quickly captured the Chechen capital, Grozny -- but has been bogged down since 1999 in an exchange of guerrilla attacks on Russian soldiers followed by retributive raids on Chechen villages.

In fact, rather than smothering the Wahhabis -- fundamentalist Muslims who believe in a pan-Islamic state -- in Chechnya, Russia's military action has fuelled a deeper hatred of Moscow and created scores of new militants.

Three years later, the war has cost thousands of lives on both sides, with no obvious result. Chechens, perhaps more than ever, hate their Russian masters. And, as proved by the theatre hostage-taking, Moscow is still living in fear.

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