EDITORIAL: Putin's "terrorists" (10/14/01)

EDITORIAL

Putin's "terrorists"

A new reality has emerged throughout the world in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States with the forging of a new international coalition against terrorism. And the new reality has led to a new realpolitik.

A key role in the newly formed coalition initiated by the Bush administration is played by Russia, and President Vladimir Putin now sees new opportunities to promote his policies. The "new" Russia led by Mr. Putin now seeks a deepening partnership with the European Union and has changed its view of NATO expansion (e.g., its former opposition to the entry of the Baltic states). Speaking in Berlin on September 26 the Russian president even mentioned the previously unthinkable: NATO should admit Russia as a full member.

The international coalition has also provided an opportunity for Mr. Putin to reassert a "Russian sphere of influence" in Central Asia. On several occasions the president and other Russian leaders spoke as if they controlled access to an airport in Tajikistan or had a say in Uzbekistan's decision on how to participate in the counterterrorism effort; they offered use of CIS territory - the territory of sovereign states - for military operations.

While underscoring that Russia is prepared to go to war against terrorists, whom he described as "bacteria" that live off the bodies of host states, President Putin virtually leaped at the chance provided by the new anti-terrorism coalition to brand the entire Chechen nation as "terrorists" who threaten the Russian Federation. These "Chechen terrorists," he alleged, have contacts with Osama Bin Laden.

Two weeks after the attacks on the United States, Presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembskii reported that Moscow was pleased by Washington's shift in its comments on Chechnya, and other officials suggested that the U.S. now sees the Chechens as terrorists; Russian news media have reported that Russia's position on Chechnya is finding increased "understanding." Indeed, the United States and Germany both gave voice to Russia's demand that rebels in Chechnya lay down their arms, while omitting any references to Russia's human rights abuses in its brutal war against the Chechen nation and its freedom fighters.

This silence came as RFE/RL reported that in early October Russian troops had committed new human rights violations in Chechnya as they engaged in a "mopping-up operation" south of Grozny. In the course of the operation, the troops "rounded up some 50 villagers on October 1; they were beaten, some so badly that they are now crippled. Several houses have been burned to the ground. Food and water supplies in the three villages, to which human rights activists have been barred admission, are running out."

According to Russian human-rights groups, Russia's military actions in Chechnya have led to more than 80,000 casualties. Similarly, in a recent opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Sen. Jesse Helms, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated that Mr. Putin's war against Chechnya has "caused the deaths of 30,000 non-combatants, the dislocation of 600,000 civilians, and the illegal incarceration of 20,000 Chechens."

Thus, as the United States embraces Russia as its ally in the war against terrorism, it is worthwhile to recall President Ronald Reagan's 1989 advice in dealing with the Soviets: "trust but verify" ("doveriay, no proveriay"). Today the United States must welcome Russia's participation in the international coalition against terrorism, but it must be prudent as regards Russia's goals in other areas. Turning a blind eye to Russia's human rights abuses and entertaining its assertions of hegemony in the name of fighting terrorism are simply not acceptable.

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