Through a distorted lens: Chechnya and the Western media

Current History

Volumn 99, Issue 639, 2000, Pages 321-327

  Lieven, Anatol ^a  

^a Russia and Eurasia Center   (Greece)

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EID: 0039161553     PISSN: 00113530     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (7)

1. "Could the Russian military have used less destructive measures in Grozny to drive out the Chechen rebels? If those had been US Marines, would the city have been spared? Perhaps not, if we consider our battlefield record against similarly strong-willed foes in urban terrain." Captain Kevin W. Brown, "The Urban Warfare Dilemma - U.S. Casualties vs. Collateral Damage," The Marine Corps Gazette, January 1997.
2. Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998).
3. David Filipov, "Kidnappers Thrive on Chaos in Chechnya," Boston Globe, April 7, 2000.
4. Shamil Basayev, a former fireman and computer salesman, first came to fame as the commander of a battalion of Chechen volunteers fighting on the Abkhaz side in the Abkhazian-Georgian war of 1992-1993 - at which time, ironically, he and his men received support and possibly training from the Russian army as part of its anti-Georgian strategy. After the Russian invasion of Chechnya in 1994, Basayev quickly emerged as the bravest and most brilliant of the Chechen field commanders. In July 1995 he led a raid on the Russian town of Budyonnovsk that killed dozens of Russian civilians and took hundreds more hostage. The raid helped bring Russian agreement to a cease-fire, but he has since been regarded by Moscow as an archterrorist. In January 1997 he stood for president of Chechnya, but was soundly defeated by Maskhadov. He later served as Maskhadov's prime minister, but soon quit, and went into armed opposition to the president.
5. See "Russia and Chechnya: Are Foreigners Fighting There?" Economist, July 8, 2000.
6. See "Why Russia Risks All in Dagestan," New York Times, August 17, 1999. Robert Kaplan is a specialist on South Asia and the Balkans whose book, Balkan Ghosts, and essays on the threat of disorder in the developing world have reportedly had considerable influence on the Clinton administration.
7. Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999), pp. 327-328. Several hundred Somali civilians were in fact killed by United States forces during operations in Mogadishu.