Terror attack!

[Inna]

This news really scared me. I mean look at the lengths they would go to make a point, which I dont really see the point, other than the fact that they are complete savages. I heard on the news that the majority of the people living in that town were Muslim. I dont get why they would do this to their own people?? I hate when politics gets mixed in with the innocence of a childs life.

[omniscient]

Can someone explain why Russia was terrorized? To my knowledge it has been pretty quiet politically there these few years. So why was this done and to whom were they sending a message to.

[Anonymouse]

Russia's War on Chechnya

By Yuri N. Maltsev

The Moscow hostage crisis ended in a way one might expect, through massive violence inflicted by a state that has little regard for human life and an intense focus on displaying power. Russian troops pumped in poison gas that ended up killing 115 of the people the authorities were supposed to be rescuing.

Vladimir Putin apologized for the loss of life but made no comment addressing what everyone knows is the underlying motive force of all violence: Russia's refusal to permit the Chechen nation freedom from Moscow's despotic rule. The Chechans are long past the point of desperation. As the Chechen fighters who held 800 hostages at a Moscow theater told the Russian authorities: "We are more keen on dying than you are keen on living."

On the released video, a spokeswoman for the group said:

"Every nation has the right to its fate. Russia has taken away this right from the Chechens and today we want to reclaim these rights, which God has given us (in the same way he has given it to other nations). God has given us the right of freedom and the right to choose our destiny. And the Russian occupiers have flooded our land with our children's blood. And we have longed for a just solution. People are unaware of the innocent who are dying in Chechnya: the sheikhs, the women, the children and the weak ones. And therefore, we have chosen this approach. This approach is for the freedom of the Chechen people and there is no difference in where we die, and therefore we have decided to die here, in Moscow. And we will take with us the lives of hundreds of sinners. If we die, others will come/follow us—our brothers and sisters who are willing to sacrifice their lives (in God's way) to liberate their nation. Our nationalists have died but people have said that they (the nationalists) are terrorists and criminals. But the truth is Russia is the true criminal."

She was right in almost everything but her view that innocent theatergoers (many of whom ended up dead at Russian hands in any case) should pay the price for centuries of oppression and genocide. In its misplaced but righteous, anger Chechen's youth are sacrificing themselves and hundreds of innocent lives in a desperate attempt to attract the world’s attention to the fate of their maimed and raped land. Do we listen?

Kremlin’s Madness

The story of Chechen suffering is long: independent Chechnya was conquered by the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century after a long and bloody war against a strong religious leader of the Chechens, the legendary Imam Shamil, who led Chechen resistance to czarist Russia. Young Count Leo Tolstoy, who served in the Russian Imperial Army in Chechnya in the 1840s, was so disgusted by the unjust and atrocious colonial war that he resigned from the army and wrote a story of Chechen war praising Shamil.

Vladimir Lenin referred to Chechnya as the most backward outskirt of the Russian Empire—a prison of nationalities—and declared that development of these regions would be the primary target of the Bolshevik government. This promise became one in the long book of broken promises of socialism—a beautiful mountain country with proud and industrious people was completely destroyed by Communists. Stalin's purges of 1937, and consequent deportation of all Chechens and Ingush from their homeland to uninhabitable regions of Kazakhstan in 1944, belongs among the most horrible pages of the murderous history of the Soviet Union.

The former Speaker of the Russian parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov (an ethnic Chechen himself), told me that over half of all Chechens were physically exterminated as a result of Stalin's "wise policy towards nationalities." Chechens I met in Grozny told me blood-freezing stories of deportation: People crowded into cattle cars without food, water, or sanitary facilities for several days, corpses traveling with children, killings of innocent protesters at the railway stations by KGB guards.

Ethnic and religious cleansing of the Northern Caucasian district was the vision of Josef Stalin—the "Great Father of Nations". It was no surprise that long suffered Chechens declared their independence immediately upon the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. So did fifteen other nations recognized today by the United States and the world community.

The case of the Chechens was different—according to Stalin’s Constitution of 1936, only "Sister union" republics were granted a right to independence—not "autonomous" republics like Chechnya. The only difference is that Stalin assigned different statuses to different parts of his empire.

But surely Chechens or Tatars or Dagestani have as much right to nationhood as, say Estonia, Armenia or East Timor. The Chechens are a colonized people who have been conducting a struggle against imperial Russia and the imperial Soviet Union for more than 200 years. It is amazing that Stalin’s Constitution is still a valid legal document for the Bush administration refusing to recognize the right of the oppressed nationalities of Russia for self-determination.

Read more

http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?control=1080

[sleuth]

yeah..sure they want independance,but the question is for what reason.Wahabi-inspired Islamic fundamentalists put tremendous effort to seperate chechnya from the Russian Federation. The aim is to establish an Islamic state that would also eventually include all the Caucasian peoples: ibngushetia, balkariya, karachaevo-cherkessia and azerbaijan.
And why maltsev didn't mention the fact that Wahabis only follow one of the two meanings of jihad: the holy war to convert the infidels.And they *convert* their idiotic and lunatic principles on their own way which is violence.Chechnya has lost the de facto independent status it had enjoyed between 1996 and 1999,because of wahabi movment.This movment gave a birth of islamic extremizm and the political consequences of spreading fundamental islamic extermism speak for themselves.

[Anonymouse]

yeah..sure they want independance,but the question is for what reason.Wahabi-inspired Islamic fundamentalists put tremendous effort to seperate chechnya from the Russian Federation. The aim is to establish an Islamic state that would also eventually include all the Caucasian peoples: ibngushetia, balkariya, karachaevo-cherkessia and azerbaijan.
And why maltsev didn't mention the fact that Wahabis only follow one of the two meanings of jihad: the holy war to convert the infidels.And they *convert* their idiotic and lunatic principles on their own way which is violence.Chechnya has lost the de facto independent status it had enjoyed between 1996 and 1999,because of wahabi movment.This movment gave a birth of islamic extremizm and the political consequences of spreading fundamental islamic extermism speak for themselves.

I do not agree with your stance simply because it is immoral and hypocritical. I as an Armenian am all too familiar with our own history and a struggle for independence, therefore I do not see why these people cannot be independent. Furthermore, your assertion that they want to start a holy war to convert all the infidels is simply silly and sounds something like what the Bush administration would use to justify its campaign on Islamic fundamentalists. Let's face it. These Islamic fundamentalists aren't bothering anyone, and it seems that all they are doing is repelling the "holy war" of the U.S. and Russia. Until they begin their campaign to convert infidels, then all it is, is nothing more than assertions, and then the people under attack will be justified in using self defense, much like the Chechen's are now.

[Inna]

But surely Chechens or Tatars or Dagestani have as much right to nationhood as, say Estonia, Armenia or East Timor. The Chechens are a colonized people who have been conducting a struggle against imperial Russia and the imperial Soviet Union for more than 200 years. It is amazing that Stalin’s Constitution is still a valid legal document for the Bush administration refusing to recognize the right of the oppressed nationalities of Russia for self-determination.

Read more
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?control=1080

I dont agree with this. I understand that they want freedom and independence, but if Russia just freely gives them their independence do you have any idea of how many other little groups throughout Russia will want their independence too? If this happens then there will be no more Russia. And it's not like I'm pro-russia or anything but that nation will be completely divided if Russia lets Chechnya have its way. I think Russia is doing the right thing by standing ground, altougth I dont agree with some of the brutal ways that they are going about doing this.

[Anonymouse]

I dont agree with this. I understand that they want freedom and independence, but if Russia just freely gives them their independence do you have any idea of how many other little groups throughout Russia will want their independence too? If this happens then there will be no more Russia. And it's not like I'm pro-russia or anything but that nation will be completely divided if Russia lets Chechnya have its way. I think Russia is doing the right thing by standing ground, altougth I dont agree with some of the brutal ways that they are going about doing this.

Who is the government of Russia to decide how other peoples should live? You nerfbrains who support Russia's imperialism should apply your similar thinking to the Ottoman empire. You are being hypocritical. There will be Russia, just not as big as it is now. But then again, this proves how the illusion of "multiculturalism" cannot last, since eventually peoples seek independence, and why diversity is not a strength but a weakness. Stop being obtuse.

[Inna]

I'm just being realistic. If Russia gave Chechnya its independence, then consider all the other sub-groups within Russia that will be more willing to act on gaining their independence as well. You have to draw the line somewhere and unfortunatly Chechnya is that line.

[Anonymouse]

I'm just being realistic. If Russia gave Chechnya its independence, then consider all the other sub-groups within Russia that will be more willing to act on gaining their independence as well. You have to draw the line somewhere and unfortunatly Chechnya is that line.

Draw the line? Who are you or the Russian State to decide what other non-Russians want? Let's get real here folks. This is simply a silly way of supporting everlasting Statism. If your thinking were applied to Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, we might as well have never sought for independence and there never should have been an independent Armenia. Heck, in fact the conservative bourgeoisie of the Armenians was nothing but a traitorous bunch anyway.

[sleuth]

I do not agree with your stance simply because it is immoral and hypocritical. I as an Armenian am all too familiar with our own history and a struggle for independence, therefore I do not see why these people cannot be independent. Furthermore, your assertion that they want to start a holy war to convert all the infidels is simply silly and sounds something like what the Bush administration would use to justify its campaign on Islamic fundamentalists. Let's face it. These Islamic fundamentalists aren't bothering anyone, and it seems that all they are doing is repelling the "holy war" of the U.S. and Russia. Until they begin their campaign to convert infidels, then all it is, is nothing more than assertions, and then the people under attack will be justified in using self defense, much like the Chechen's are now.

You missed my point,again!!!But that's ok.

ppl who live in chechnya dont want to be part of wahabi movement,simply beacuse its brutal by its nature.They spread fear and negativity.It's not a RELIGION ,its a Movment and very distractive and dangerous, for u to know.Its not a battle for *independence*.