Death of a Dissident - Alex Goldfarb [145]
When Putin took to the airwaves himself to address the nation in the aftermath of the disaster, he lashed out. The blame for the attack rests with Russia’s international enemies, he declared. “Some would like to tear off a ‘juicy piece’ from us,” he said. “Others help them. They help because they believe that Russia, as one of the major nuclear powers, is still a threat to them—a threat that should thus be removed. And terrorism is, of course, a mere instrument to achieve such aims.”
Two days later he spoke to a group of foreign academics and journalists. “Why don’t you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House, engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace? You find it possible to set some limits in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child killers?”
Soon Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added, “We are cooperating with the USA and our European partners in the fight against terrorism. However, the USA giving asylum to Ilyas Akhmadov and Great Britain doing the same for Akhmed Zakayev cannot fail to make one think of double standards…. Those who provide shelter to terrorists are directly responsible for the tragedy of the Chechen people.”
“Russia has the right to carry out pre-emptive strikes on militant bases abroad,” added Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. These “preemptive strikes may involve anything, except nuclear weapons,” he added.
“You know who they mean when they say ‘terrorist bases abroad’?” asked Sasha. “They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and I.”
Moscow and London, October 2004–March 2005: In the aftermath of Beslan, the Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers, the largest Russian NGO, defies the Kremlin by starting “people’s negotiations” with Chechen separatists. The Kremlin accuses CSM of being paid agents of foreign interests. However, opinion polls show 66 percent support for the CSM initiative. Under diplomatic pressure from Russia, the Belgian government refuses to let the CSM delegation into the country for a meeting with Akhmed Zakayev in the European Parliament in Brussels. On February 2, 2005, Aslan Maskhadov orders a unilateral cease-fire as a gesture in response to the CSM appeal. The radical warlord Shamil Basayev says that he too will observe the cease-fire. The Russian forces ignore the truce. On February 24, 2005, Soldiers’ Mothers meet with Zakayev in London in the presence of several European parliamentarians, issuing a “Peace Memorandum.” Two weeks later Aslan Maskhadov is killed in a Russian commando raid.
With the death of Maskhadov the Kremlin contention that the Chechen separatist government is nothing more than a bunch of terrorists moved one step closer to becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The new Chechen president was a moderate Muslim scholar named Abdul-Halim Sadulayev, virtually unknown in the West, who was a compromise figure acceptable to various field commanders, perhaps precisely because of his weakness. He lacked the legitimacy of Maskhadov, who had been elected in an internationally recognized democratic vote. He did not have Maskhadov’s inclination to seek accommodation with Russia. At the same time, the realization that both the West and the Islamic world outdid each other in appeasing the Kremlin—a total sellout of Chechnya—strengthened the defiant suicidal streak of the field fighters. The influence of the radical wing increased dramatically. One of the first things the new Chechen president did was bring Shamil Basayev, the