Who said there were only 5000 rebels vs 100,000 Russians?

---

I am coordinating all (rebel) actions. Virtually all commanders are under my control and keep in touch with them," Maskhadov said, adding that the rebel force was still about 23,500-strong despite the loss of some 1,500 fighters. Russia, which has lost more than 2,000 servicemen, says rebel losses are far higher

By IGOR ( - 206.47.244.62) on Monday, April 10, 2000 - 10:50 pm:
Can't argue with that,I do not know that much about the subject.

The truth is you don't know much about ANY subject. You are however an expert in cut and paste and a master of the most boring ramble.

Chechen separatist President Aslan Maskhadov has distanced himself from one of the rebels' chiefs, Shamil Bassayev, accusing the warlord on German radio of causing Russia's military offensive.
and
President Maskhadov went on to predict that Russian commanders would find it hard to bring the war to a swift conclusion, maintaining that "rebels are everyday finding new partisans due to rape and pillage by Russian soldiers."
* It's funny, because it brings the question "Where was Maskhadow before, if it was pretty obvious that R. would start the offensive?", which leads to the conclusion, that he doesn't control the situation. But in view of the second excerpt he knew that and, whatever the thoughts in his head, gave "greens" to it.
P.S. I think that interview as attempt to win more sympathies in the "West" and suggest him as person R. might get pushed to have talks with.

http://www.antiwar.com/x-files:Aliens/land/in/Serbia.html

Kisako,

Which is the Bodanski article- missed it.

Cheers

Here's the article.

http://freeman.io.com/m_online/bodansky/chechnya.htm Bodansky article. PS What did I say to you KA >I do not recall saying anything yesterday in reference to you,check posts.

Not as KA-no.

Thanks for the link.
It is a good article- very balanced

and thank-you also Kisako

---

Documents have been discovered in the Shatoi area evidencing that the war in Chechnya is conducted by mercenaries, above all, from Arab countries. RIA Novosti was told in the Interior Affairs Department of the Interior Ministry of the Russian Federation for the Chechen Republic that among the documents discovered were computer-printed paper forms in Arabic - pay-sheets and receipts.


Another form found was a "mujahaddin's questionnaire" in which, apart from other things, the holder's military occupational speciality, place of military training, record of fighting against federal forces is indicated.


The Interior Affairs Department considers the discovered documents to be irrefutable proof that taking part in the war launched against the Russian state are foreign mercenaries who are well financed from abroad.


I THINK IT IS TIME TO EXPORT SOME WAR TO THOSE COUNTRIES THAT ARE SENDING MERCENERIES.

CHECHNYA SHOULD NOT BECOME A PRETEXT FOR WASHINGTON'S DANGEROUS POLITICAL GAMES

---

The information war against Russia, which reached its peak at the recent session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg where the need was expressed to start suspension proceedings of Russia's membership in the Council of Europe, was launched not at all in Europe. The true organisers and inspirers of the anti-Russian campaign caused by the events in Chechnya (a North Caucasian Republic incorporated in the Russian Federation, where the federal troops are carrying out an anti-terrorist military operation) are located overseas. It was precisely the United States that was the first to start inflating the Chechen subject, simultaneously joining its European allies in its anti-Russian campaign.


Back in the beginning of last November, James Rubin, official US State Department spokesman, declared that the fact that Russia is conducting the "Chechen campaign" allegedly is not in line with the commitments it has taken under the Geneva Convention and the agreements of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on the political and military aspects of security. We do not understand the goals of Russia's policy, said Rubin then, though he knew perfectly well that the aim of Moscow's operation was to preserve the integrity of the Russian Federation and destroy the bandit formations, who had struck root on the territory of Chechnya and turned it into a base of international terrorism.


The aims of the USA are quite obvious. It has chosen the "Chechen issue" as a pretext for interfering in the Russian Federation's domestic affairs, weakening its positions in the North Caucasus - a strategically important region, which Washington would like to put under its control and is ready to declare, like Transcaucasia, a zone of its vital interests.


The North Caucasus is a tight tangle of the oil interests of many countries, of which the USA is one. The American companies which play the leading role in the development of the Caspian Sea oil fields, would like to crowd Russia altogether out of the region. And an unstable Chechnya could not suit it better and would be in its interests. For with the help of the bandits, the work on the Baku - Novorossiisk (Russian Black Sea port) oil pipeline which runs across Chechnya's territory, could be completely paralysed, and the flow of the "black gold" directed to other routes. This would deal a tangible blow to Moscow's interests. No doubt, Chechnya's independence, its separation from the Russian Federation, the spread of the influence of the Chechen separatists to neighbouring Daghestan (which has an outlet to the Caspian Sea), through which runs the new oil pipeline built in circumvention of Chechnya - all that would play into the hands of the forces who wish to see Russia further weakened. Among these forces should be mentioned, above all, the USA and a number of other NATO member-countries. They still fear Russia, which remains a great power and possesses a considerable military potential.


Official Washington cannot openly support the Chechen extremists, those "freedom fighters" who are financed by extremist Islamic organizations and terrorists of the Osama bin Laden type whom the United States itself has proclaimed terrorist No.1. That is why Russia is accused of violating human rights on the territory of Chechnya and an excessive number of victims among the peaceful population. US President Bill Clinton declared at the time when the anti-terrorist campaign was only just beginning that "Russia will pay a tremendous price for its actions in the Caucasus, which will impart fresh force to extremism and will worsen the country's positions in the international arena." Since the subsequent events did not impart extremism any fresh force - the bandits have in the main been routed and, broken up into small groups, are now conducting a guerilla warfare - Washington has evidently decided to implement Clinton's second thesis i.e., to deteriorate Russia's positions in the international arena and, above all, in Europe. It does not take much to heat up public opinion in Western countries. Suffice it to recall the anti-Yugoslav hysteria that the Western mass media whipped up over the ethnic purges in Kosovo, which, as it turned out later, were greatly exaggerated. But they became a pretext for NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. A similar flow of misinformation concerning victims in Chechnya, very skilfully orchestrated by Washington, easily incited public opinion in Europe against Russia.


And still it is to be thought that the most responsible Western politicians on either side of the Atlantic, even despite the fuss that has been raised, are well aware of the place and role that Russia plays in the system of world security and cannot ignore its prestige and status of a great power. Quarrelling with Russia at the moment when a new president has appeared in the country, a president who demonstrates readiness for a dialogue with the West, who has made it understood that Moscow is ready to clear the pile of old problems, including ratification of START-2, would be short-sighted, to say the least.


Russia's isolation would not be in the interests of the West. It may lead to an intensification of the influence of anti-Western, ultra-patriotic forces in Russia, which would most certainly tell on the country's foreign policy course in a most negative way. That is why Moscow's striving for dialogue must find understanding in the West. The events in Chechnya are not a pretext for dangerous political games. The West can make its contribution to the improvement of the situation in the North Caucasus, but only by cooperating with Russia and recognising its right to settle its domestic problems, proceeding from its own national interests.


Pavel PODLESNY, Head of Foreign Political Research Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of US and Canadian Studies