#6529
#1 - JRL 6529
Izvestiya
November 2, 2002
Americans Raise a Toast to Russian Special Services
Nikolai Zlobin, Director of Russian and Asian Programs
at the Center
for Defense Information
A View from Washington
The tragedy in the Moscow theater shook America twice. At first the entire country watched with sinking hearts and worried about the hostages as the action unfolded. Americans saw in the events a yet another appearance of the terrorist nature of Muslim extremism, which they themselves encountered on September 11 2001. The actions of the Chechen terrorists fully matched, according to thoughts and experience of the Americans themselves, with how Muslim terrorists acted and act around the world. Late at night America watched the live CNN coverage of the raid on the theater. Those are the actions they would expect from their own government in a similar situation. In sports bars, TV volumes were turned up, and somewhere toasts were raised to Russian special services.
But when it became known that over a hundred victims among the hostages died as a result of the gas, America was horrified once more. The second shock somehow seemed even more emotionally forceful than the first one. Five days in a row all the news agencies repeated that the Russian government is withholding exactly which gas was used in the raid. More than anything, the US was shaken by the fact that the government did not inform even the doctors. Americans would never forgive their own administration such a thing; more than a few officials would be on trial, and the President himself would be in a deep political crisis. The indignation especially increased after the death of an electrician from Oklahoma.
Here also everything fits the stereotypical notions about Russia. Again, no surprises: human life there is not worth much. And the fact that the name of the gas was hidden revealed, as Americans saw it, that it defied the convention banning chemical weapons. That is, Russia maintains, and perhaps manufactures it, disobeying the international laws. And when the official information appeared (about the use of phentol, a fairly well-known and not forbidden opiate), it only intensified the bewilderment: what was the administration stubbornly trying to cover up?
In the eyes of Americans, Chechen terrorists behaved exactly like typical Muslim extremists, while the Russian administration behaved just like the government has always acted in this country. In Russia the end always justified the means. The tragedy in the Moscow theater strengthened the American resolve to combat Muslim extremism, increased the empathy toward the Russian people and respect for the professionalism toward the special services, but it did not add an iota of trust and respect toward the Russian administration. All the old stereotypes had been fulfilled. This doesn't mean that the US is now less interested in a partnership with Russia. On the contrary, the ability of the Russian government to conceal everything, to sacrifice, if necessary, the lives of its citizens but to hold on to power, makes Russia a truly unique ally, the only one of its kind, comparable, perhaps, only with Pakistan.
But there were also things during those days that defied stereotype and resonated. That was the position of President Putin, who demonstrated an ability to make difficult decisions while remaining level-headed and reasonable. After September 11 of last year, when he called George Bush and expressed full support to America in its fight with terrorism, here people assumed that Putin has fully defined his foreign priorities. But a year has passed in countless attempts by Moscow to clarify relations with Washington on any number of matters - from the number of nuclear warheads and winter Olympic medals to the confrontation in the Security Council of the UN about Iraq. The image of an energetic Russian president became diffused and less attractive in the eyes of the American political establishment. But his harsh actions toward the terrorists in Moscow, followed by decisive rhetoric, repeating word for words Bush's own political declarations, reminded American of the Putin from the times of the famous saying "we'll wipe them out in the outhouse", which showed the presence of political will in the Kremlin.
Yet for all that, American has a tough time accepting Putin's attempts to place the responsibility for terrorist acts outside of his borders. The majority here continues to think that their causes stem from the Russian politics in Chechnya. Terrorist acts executed by Muslim terrorists in the past few years in various countries, were always directly or indirectly directed against America or American interests. That's exactly what makes them, in the eyes of Washington, links in a single chain of international terrorism, against whom America is now washing a war. The capture of the hostages in Moscow as well as the previous terorrist acts in Chechnya, did not contain anti-American content. That's why Putin will be unable, even now, to attract Americans to their side.
At another time Washington was able to demonstrate to the world that bin Laden and international Muslim terrorism in general are the major threat to civilization. Vladimir Putin is unable to show that the Chechen terrorists represent a similar threat to the world. And he won't be able to, because Moscow wants, on one hand, universal recognition of Chechens as part of a global web of terrorism and, on the other hand, the right to solve its problems unilaterally and surreptitiously.
The Russian administration has done everything to prevent the internationalization of the Chechen problem. The most that a friendly White House could do in that situation is to temporarily ignore it.
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