US tragedy plays into Russian handsRussia's support for the fight against terrorism is "absurd", the Kazakh Respublika newspaper suggested on 4 October. It could be used to divert attention from its own human rights breaches in Chechnya, the paper said. The report went on to suggest that evidence linking Chechens with the attacks could be planted on them, and that there would be attempts to equate pro-Chechen or anti-war views with support for terrorism. The report accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of legalizing a "monopoly of the Russian state on terror" against the Chechens. The following is the text of the report, entitled "Russia Derives Profit “From US Tragedy". Subheadings have been inserted editorially.
"This is a blow to democracy!" "Terrorists have united against civilization and the international community!" These are common assessments of the acts of terrorism in New York and Washington. It is strange that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who soaked in blood Chechnya and the Chechen mothers whose children were destroyed by Russian bombs is walking in the column of opponents of international terrorism. It seems strange that Russian politicians, who have made huge wealth from the war [in Chechnya], and Moscow human rights defenders, who have fiercely revealed Chechen genocide in Russia, are standing shoulder to shoulder in the row of opponents of terrorism.
Diverting international attention
At first sight it seems that the tragedy in the US have united the patriots and democrats, the rich and poor, atheists and believers. However, the new Russian state of affairs is born behind the facade of a united front. The authorities and the journalists, tamed by it, are making attempts to prove that Russia is suffering the US tragedy with a heavy heart and sympathizes with the United States. However, it seems that the Kremlin leaders are trying to use the US tragedy to divert the attention of the international community from Russia's problems in observing human rights and democratic reforms.
Domestic opinion
What profit will Russia be deriving from current events? Firstly, the acts of terrorism by Islamic fanatics and reprisal strikes by the United States will switch the attention of the Russians from domestic problems to international ones. The Kremlin is interested in turning antiterrorism into part of its own politics, in order to justify its hopeless imperial policy.
Chechnya
Secondly, Russia will start to strangle Chechnya more maniacally, saying that there are comrades-in-arms of Usamah Bin-Ladin hiding there. The Kremlin will try to put the World Trade Centre in New York, destroyed by terrorists, and an apartment block in Moscow (on 13 September 2000) on the same level. Finding Usamah Bin-Ladin's trail in the act of terrorism in Moscow is needed to cover the traces leading to the lair of the Russian security services. I would not be surprised if the Russian security services start to surreptitiously place manuals on the design of Boeings and maps of New York and Washington in Chechen homes in order to convince Russians of Chechnya's complicity in the acts of international terrorism. (This apprehension of the author has already come true. Russian TV channels have reported that a map and a plan for terror in the USA were found on a dead Chechen mercenary - editorial.)
Chechen sympathies
Thirdly, the condemnations of the acts of terrorism and their organizers will become in Russia a certain criterion for people's moral consciousness. The Kremlin will include those who sympathize with the Chechen militia and demand that Russia stop the war into the ranks of supporters or defenders of terrorism. Putin's ratings would go up using this trick.
There is a remarkable difference between President Putin, who is destroying the Chechen nation, and the suicide fanatics who destroyed the World Trade Centre. The fanatics who killed thousands of people in New York and Washington have raised lawlessness outside the bounds of the state to an absolute idea. In contrast to them, Putin has legalized the monopoly of the Russian state on terror and gangsterism towards a small Caucasian people.
Russia's wish to side with the antiterrorist alliance looks absurd. Deriving benefit from the ideology of antiterrorism, the Kremlin leadership is trying to avoid responsibility for its brutal crimes against civilians [in Chechnya].
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