#5488
#1
The Times (UK)
11 October 2001
Russian forces 'already in action'
FROM VANORA BENNETT IN MOSCOW
RUSSIAN troops and technical experts, wearing camouflage but no identifying
badges, have secretly entered Afghanistan and are waiting with the
anti-Taleban Northern Alliance for orders to attack Kabul, according to a
prominent Moscow military analyst.
“Two weeks ago . . . Russia effectively went to war on foreign territory
without the parliamentary approval demanded by the Constitution,” Pavel
Felgengauer wrote in the weekly Moscow News.
Mr Felgengauer, a usually authoritative commentator, said that the strength
of the Russian 201st motor-rifle division stationed in Tajikistan, on the
border with Afghanistan, had been increased from 7,500 to more than 8,000
men. Quoting informed military sources, he said anti-aircraft and artillery
units from the division had penetrated Afghanistan.
Mr Felgengauer also quoted Alexei Arbatov, of Russia’s parliamentary
defence committee, as saying that Russian technical experts were being sent
into Afghanistan with the latest supplies of tanks for the Northern
Alliance. He said Mr Arbatov was worried that US attacks on the Taleban
might not last long, leaving those Russians “face-to-face with a new enemy”.
The story contradicts every public statement made by the Defence Ministry
since Russia first offered to help Washington to fight terrorism. On
Monday, Sergei Ivanov, the Defence Minister, repeated that Russian troops
would never again fight inside Afghanistan. A Defence Ministry spokesman
denied Mr Felgengauer’s story yesterday.
Two years ago, however, Russian troops startled Western allies by grabbing
control of Pristina airport during Nato’s 1999 operation in Kosovo. An
insecure Moscow apparently wanted to prove that its Armed Forces were
quicker off the mark than the West’s.
Russia today is closer to the West, making it less likely that Moscow would
want to compete with Washington over who got to Kabul first and after a
disastrous ten-year engagement in Afghanistan, the Russian military still
suffers from “Afghan allergy”.
President Putin has made a point of reassuring nervous compatriots that his
backing for international action against terrorism will never mean sending
Russians to die in the dusty southern mountains.
Moscow has openly pledged military hardware to the Northern Alliance. But
Mr Felgengauer said Moscow had broken its public promise by sending in
small numbers of troops to beef up the alliance.
If the Taleban counter-attack now, Mr Felgengauer said, alliance guerrillas
could easily vanish into the hills, but Russians would be left to face
capture.
This happened during a bungled Russian military operation in 1994 that
sparked Russia’s war in Chechnya. Russian tank drivers who had been
secretly sent to help pro-Moscow Chechens attack separatists fell into
enemy hands. Moscow promptly denied involvement with the botched operation,
and insisted that the Russian prisoners must be mercenaries.
“If our specialists are taken prisoner in Afghanistan, will Moscow call
them deserters and disown them as it did in 1994, or start negotiating to
ransom them?” Mr Felgengauer said.
- Back to the Top -