Onlooker,

Massood, now being sponsored by the Russians?
That's a turn around, thought he was backed by the west against Russia in the Chechen war.

So if the Taliban were to sort him out, who would sort out the Taliban. You say they have "disadvantages"? It looks as though they are making some powerful enemies (US and RF).

Why is secularism not an option for the Mujahadeen? (Sorry that's a huge question and probably seems stupid from your point of view- but it would seem the more logical option in a muti-ethnic, multi-faith region. What is the attraction of an Islamic state?)

Kim,

"Massood, now being sponsored by the Russians?"

I read this somewhere. I'll try to provide you with a link if I can but it was a while since I read it.

"That's a turn around, thought he was backed by the west against Russia in the Chechen war."

I don't understand your question. What is Massood's connection with Chechnya? Ahmad Shah Massood of Afghanistan (Commander of opposition, deputy under diposed president Burhanuddin Rabbani) - ring a bell?

"Why is secularism not an option for the Mujahadeen? (Sorry that's a huge question and probably seems stupid from your point of view- but it would seem the more logical option in a muti-ethnic, multi-faith region. What is the attraction of an Islamic state?)"

It is a "huge" question and it is kind of ironic. I really have to go now. Hopefully, I'll come up with something tomorrow.

Peace

Putin urged to apply the Pinochet stick


Ian Traynor in Moscow
Friday March 31, 2000
The Guardian

Vladimir Putin should resort to totalitarian methods to push through radical economic reform
and redeem his promise to make Russia great again, one of Russia's most successful bankers suggests.

Petr Aven, president of Alfa, Russia's biggest and most successful private bank, and a key business supporter of the newly elected president, said that Mr Putin should model his regime on that of Augusto Pinochet of Chile, combining Reaganomics with dictatorial controls.

"The only way ahead is for fast liberal reforms, building public support for that path but also using totalitarian force to achieve that.Russia has no other choice," he said in a Guardian
interview.

"I'm a supporter of Pinochet, not as a person but as a politician who produced results for his country. He was not corrupt. He supported his team
of economists for 10 years. You need strength for
that. I see that parallel here. There are
similarities in the situation."

Mr Aven's advocacy of radical Thatcherism comes at the end of a decade of mass privatisation of
Russian industry, a process which has been
notoriously corrupt and has discredited the very
notion of reform.

Campaigning in opposition to "thievery" of
national assets, the communists did better than expected in last weekend's presidential election that brought Mr Putin, the Kremlin's choice, to
power. The communists took 30% of the vote,
presenting the president with a bedrock of
resistance if he follows Mr Aven's advice.

German Gref, an adviser drawing up an economic blueprint for Mr Putin and tipped to be his
economics minister, said yesterday that the
policies due out in mid-May would try to make the
transition to a normal market system "in the
shortest period possible".

The policies aimed to produce "a managed market
economy" that also tried to "preserve social
stability".

Mr Aven argued for a more radical approach, cutting welfare and social provision to stimulate higher economic growth. His prescriptions coincided with warnings about Mr Putin's
authoritarianism from other well connected
international figures.

In a book about to be published, the billionaire speculator and philanthropist George Soros says Mr Putin harbours dictatorial tendencies. He blames
misapplication of the free-market gospel as one of
the reasons for Russia's economic crisis.

And in an interview in the Czech press, the
American foreign policy guru Henry Kissinger predicted that Russia under Mr Putin would be like Portugal under the 1932-68 dictatorship of Antonio Salazar: "With certain democratic elements but
basically authoritarian".

Mr Aven is convinced that Mr Putin is the strong leader Russia needs, but is worried that his innate caution and his willingness to do deals
with the communists will make him fudge and
temporise.

"Nobody follows the law in this country," he said. "Pinochet tried to enforce obedience to the law
and sometimes that's difficult for a country.
Sometimes you need to use force. The only role of
the state is to use force when needed."

Mr Aven, both of whose whose grandfathers died in
Stalin's gulag, denied that he was urging a return
to the repression of the Soviet era. But he said
rampant criminality and corruption could not be
tackled by applying the law.

"You can't always fight criminals by staying within the law. You can't always do it peacefully."

Russia's powerful regional governors would also have to toe the line, he said, and since they were
certain to defend their fiefdoms ruthlessly Mr
Putin would have "to use force to suppress them".

Mr Aven, a former foreign Russian trade minister, is well regarded as an economist. Mr Putin, he said, did not have an economic policy, but he had the right economic instincts and leadership
qualities.

© Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 2000

"That's a turn around, thought he was backed by the west against Russia in the Chechen war."

I don't understand your question. What is Massood's connection with Chechnya? Ahmad Shah Massood
of Afghanistan (Commander of opposition, deputy under diposed president Burhanuddin Rabbani) - ring
a bell?

Yeah a loud one, I meant Afghan not Chechen, slip of the keyboard. Wonder why I had Chechnia on my mind? >Grin<
Would be interested in that source, though, thanks.

Why Ironic?

See you
Kim

The rivalry that keeps Afghanistan in a perpetual state of economic and political instability is complicated by foreign participants vying for access to oil reserves or hoping to use Afghanistan as a pawn in their own international rivalries.

yo, FAKE:

dont pat yourself on the back too soon, eh?

L'm

"LOL" is so gay.

I was listening to putin's speech or emotional outburst in London, on BBC America today. That guy is full of CRAP - he is crap. This is the first time I've heard him speak. I had no idea the guy was a total loon. I kinda feel sorry for the Russian people, being stuck with an incompetant turd like him.

Investors must have keeled over laughing when the KGB spymaster asked for more foreign investment for the corrupt, mafia driven economy of Russia.
Russia is going down. It won't be long before his own people hang this bastard by his scrawny neck.

JOKE OF THE WEEK!

It is unreasonable to fear a strong Russia, but she must be reckoned with. To offend us would cost anyone dearly

Vladimir Putin


This from a incompetant KGB spymaster running a bankrupt nation that exists only due to handouts from the rest of the world! This turd better accept reality, he is nothing more than the head of a corrupt terrorist third world nation.

Press report casts doubt on Kosovo massacre claim
Saturday, 15-Apr-2000 5:40AM Story from AFP
Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)

---

ROME, April 15 (AFP) - The Italian daily newspaper Il Manifesto on Saturday said that a group of ethnic Albanians, found slain in Kosovo in a suspected massacre of unarmed civilians by Serb forces last year, had not been executed.

The Manifesto report, based on the "copies of protocols of 40 post-mortems" performed by Serbian and Finnish experts, revived a more than one-year controversy over what really happened in the Kosovo town of Racak.

"There is evidence that this was not an execution and it is not sure that these were unarmed civilians," said the left-wing paper.

William Walker, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) chief, said after the discovery of the 45 bodies, allegedly killed by Serbian forces, that the massacre was a crime against humanity.

Belgrade said the dead were members of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) killed in combat.

Il Manifesto said 37 of the 40 bodies which had been autopsied showed traces of gunpowder on their hands which would back up the claim that their were rebels.

However, official documents released after the post-mortems did not mention these findings, the paper added.

Only one body, identified as Ra-34, was said to have carried signs that he was shot at "relatively close range", while the 39 other post-mortems did not back up "the theory of a mass execution."

The paper also asked why the Serbian press center in Pristina would have organized a trip by foreign correspondents to Rajak, which is 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Kosovo's main city, on the very day the alleged massacre by Serb forces was being carried out.

"The Racak incident was used to prepare public opinion for a military escalation, to provide a moral justification for the war" by NATO forces after March 24, 1999, the paper argued, speaking of a "disinformation campaign".

A year after the January 15, 1999, incident, Finnish chief expert Helena Ranta said post-mortems had come very close to the truth, even though nobody would ever know what really happened in Rajak.

Russian military officials reported that Bosnia-Herzegovina is training terrorists for action in Chechnya. A large international terrorist training camp, called the "El Modjahed", is operated on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina by over 500 Arabic, Bosnian, and Croatian terrorists. Russian VDV (airborne assault) command announced that it has satellite photos of the base and a video tape showing the visit of the leader of Bosnian Muslims, Alia Izetbegovic, to the "El Modjahed" terrorist camp. The fact of the camp's existence was confirmed by the SFOR Maj. George Potras. Russian officials say that the terrorists trained in Bosnia-Herzegovina may be already operating in Kosovo and Chechnya. An unnamed Russian military official told journalists that Russia reserves the right to use military force against religious extremists in Bosnia-Herzegovina if they continue to undermine Russia's national security.

An unnamed Russian military official told journalists that Russia reserves the right to use military force against religious extremists in Bosnia-Herzegovina if they continue to undermine Russia's national security.

ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! ho! ho ! ho ! ho!


Thanks for making me laugh so much Igor. You're a very funny guy!

It took the scruffy Russians 7 months to fight a few rag tag chechens!! If the Russians go to (if they find the cash) Bosnia-Herzegovina , they'll be skinned alive! by those religous 'extremists'!
That is if they get by the NATO planes flying around Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The truth is Russians are ALL TALK anyway. A barking dog seldom bites!

Igor,

LMAO

"Reserve the right to use military force."

Last time I checked U.S. Marines were operating in Bosnia...

Do you think we would let any nation fly over our troops with the intention of bombing...

Where do you live? Do you know anything of reality? Chief you are living in a dream world.

Your little Putin is a bum. This guy is hilarious. Talking all tough while he knows no one is listening. He's only doing it for domestic support cause the Russians are the only ones in the entire universe who are stupid enough not to realize just how useless and ineffectual their country has become!

I expected more from you Igor…. Very disappointing!

Funny but very disappointing.

So, we add Bosnia to the growing list of proposed Russian targets.
Isn't Russia proposing exactly the same policies as Nato?
Could you give me a Russian perspective Igor, preferably yours, not some unnamed officials.

Kim

By Saladin ( - 166.90.71.150) on Monday, April 17, 2000 - 09:01 pm:

The rivalry that keeps Afghanistan in a perpetual state of economic and political instability is complicated by foreign participants vying for access to oil reserves or hoping to use Afghanistan as a pawn in their own international rivalries.

Isn't it already being used?
Does that include foreigners like Bin Ladin and other foreign mujahadeen?
What in your opinion, would it take to end this ongoing rivalry. Is that possible?

Kim