#6041
#4
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
January 25, 2002
YANKEE, GO TO CHECHNYA!
Russia has been shown how to fight a war
Author: Vladimir Georgiyev
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
A HUMAN LIFE HAS ALWAYS BEEN OF SMALL VALUE IN RUSSIA; SO RUSSIA IS
PREPARED TO DEFEND ITS SOVEREIGNTY AT THE COST OF ITS SOLDIERS AND
OFFICERS DYING IN CHECHNYA. IT IS HIGH TIME THESE TACTICS WERE
CHANGED. RUSSIA COULD LEARN SOMETHING FROM THE US OPERATION IN
AFGHANISTAN.
The end of last week and the start of this week were darkened by
high casualties among Russia's soldiers in the North Caucasus. Seven
servicemen of the 102nd Brigade of the Interior Forces were killed in
a terrorist attack in Makhachkala. Around 14 soldiers were killed in
Chechnya over January 14-21. This can be compared to the losses in the
most active phase of the action in 1999-2000, and these casualties are
incommensurable with the losses of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan over
the past three months of the special operation against terrorist
organizations and fighters of al Qaida. According to reports of the
Pentagon, the casualties among U.S. soldiers were 11 people, and only
two of them are supposed to be killed directly in skirmishes.
Meanwhile, there are some signs by which efficiency of the US's
activity in Afghanistan and efficiency of Russia's activity in
Chechnya can be compared. Firstly, as a matter of fact, Russia and the
US both are opposing to the same enemy - field detachments of radical
Islamists, organized in the likeness of the regular forces. They had
enough Soviet weaponry, not small arms alone, but also artillery and
tanks; these detachments had their own Air Force and means of air
defense, had a united control center and acted in Afghanistan and
Chechnya at the landscapes, having mountainous and sub-mountainous
features; therefore, any special operations against these groups were
very inconvenient. These forces seem to be (as before, actually)
enjoying themselves with financial injections. This factor explains
for their vitality. The forces also consisted of active mercenaries
from Saudi Arabia, Somali, Yemen and other states.
Secondly, similar assessments of the enemy predetermined
relatively similar methods of carrying out the action by Moscow and
Washington in the primary phase. Active reconnaissance measures and
air strikes preceded the initial phases of counter-terrorist
operations in Chechnya and Afghanistan. Main strategic installations
of the guerrillas, primarily their means of air defense and Air Force
were destroyed first. Both states concentrated considerable groups of
various forces and troops, primarily warplanes (bombers and fighting
aviation), helicopters, landing troops and marine forces, and also
special forces to carry out the military operations. They have been
using local forces, hostile to terrorists, what have to a considerable
extent made up for the success in the organization and performance of
ground military operations. Troops of the Northern Alliance acted as
local forces in Afghanistan, whereas in Chechnya these included field
commanders and militia, opposed to Maskhadov, local police, religious
activists, politicians, etc.
Thirdly, results of the first active phase of counter-terrorist
operations turned out to be identical for Moscow and Washington both -
the main guerrilla bases were destroyed, whereas the main terrorist
forces were either eliminated or dispersed.
However, that is the juncture where similarities of the Chechen
and Afghani operations end. The US reached its targets, set for the
war against the Talibs within some more than three months, while
Moscow has been pulling through the conflict over the past four years
already; and this conflict seems to be endless. Russia and the US
applied various tactics in the struggle against the guerrillas in the
main phase of the battles. The Americans were bribing the main forces
of the Talibs and had the Northern Alliance, supported by Iran,
Tajikistan and Russia, as their main affiliate. At the same time, the
US has never opened the phase of the ground action.
Now, resting on the UN and the world community, the Americans
arranged active humanitarian and financial assistance, oriented for
the revival of Afghanistan's economy. The fact that monthly spending
of the Pentagon on the warfare was $2 billion is impressive, rather
than the amounts advanced countries of the world promised to
appropriate to Kabul at the international conference in Tokyo. The
figure of $2 billion makes almost a quarter of the entire Russia's
military spending for 2002. It means that considerably less money than
in Afghanistan is spent in Chechnya. This fact proves once again a
conclusion of Russia's human rights activists that Moscow has been
defending its sovereignty in Chechnya by extensive methods - at the
expense of lives of Russia's servicemen. At the same time, the
spending on dispatching new kinds of weaponry into this "hot spot"
remains almost the same. Moscow's attitude toward the refugees is
similar. If subsidies for restoration of ruined houses had been issued
to each Chechen family, there would not have been any refugees in
Ingushetia.
According to the strange assessments of the federal command,
peaceful life is supposedly established in Chechnya, and the number of
active guerrillas has fallen to 300. Have these 300 guerrillas managed
to kill 21 soldiers of the federal forces in a week? Around 7,000
terrorists are in Afghanistan, various sources report; another 3,200
Taliban are said to have been captured by the Americans with the
assistance of the Northern Alliance. However, the casualties among the
Americans are incommensurably smaller. Where is the logic? What is
actually happening in Chechnya?
Most likely, having introduced the power of the federal
authorities in Chechnya, Russia has been "winning over" sympathies of
the population by means of commandant's squads and units of special
forces, stationed in each village, rather than economic assistance;
and that is Russia's main error. It appears that any Russian soldier
or officer runs a higher risk of being killed or wounded than a U.S.
serviceman in Afghanistan. A human life has always been of small value
in Russia.
(Translated by Andrei Ryabochkin)
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