Czech reflections on the Chechen conflict: From morality to mainstream?

Problems of Post-Communism

Volumn 54, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 18-28

  Ditrych, Ondrej ^a,b   Souleimanov, Emil ^a,c  

^a CHARLES UNIVERSITY   (Czech Republic)

^b INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS   (Czech Republic)

^c HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 35248873887     PISSN: 10758216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2753/PPC1075-8516540302     Document Type: Review

References (32)

1. Vladimir Putin at the Munich conference on security, February 10, 2007; quoted from the official transcript of his speech available in Russian and English at www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2007/02/10/ 0138_type82912type82914type82917type84779_118135.shtml.
2. Izvestia (December 22, 1994).
3. In reality, however, it was Yeltsin's supporters, democrats, liberals, and pro-Western forces that opposed the war. The silence of Western leaders weakened their position, while giving new impetus to Yeltsin's opponents and the proponents of the war.
4. "OSCE Report on Human Rights Violations in Chechnya," March 25, 1996, OSCE Archives.
5. There are two competing versions of the September 1999 terrorist attacks. According to some sources, the bombings in Moscow, Buynaksk, and Volgodonsk were carried out by the Russian secret services in an attempt to psychologically prepare Russian society for a renewed invasion of Chechnya and make sure that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would win the presidential elections in 2000. See, for example, the controversial account by Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky, Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KCB Terror (New York: Encounter Books, 2007).
6. The original Russian text of the book (FSB vzryvaet Rossiiu) is available at www.terror99.ru/book. htm (see chap. 5), Interestingly, the claim that the Chechens organized the terrorist attacks has never been proved. According to a Russian court verdict (2004) whose fairness has been questioned by some international observers, Yusuf Krymshamkhalov and Achimez Gochiyaev, both Karachais who were believed to have strong links to Chechen extremists, were charged with carrying out the terrorist attacks in Russian cities. For a more detailed analysis of all these events, see Emil Souleimanov, An Endless War: The Russian-Chechen Conflict in Perspective (New York: Peter Lang, 2007), pp. 147-59.
7. Quoted from Online NewsHour, February 16, 2000 (www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/ election/jan-june00/bush_2-16.html).
8. Itar-Tass (November 18, 1999).
9. One factor that greatly contributed to the image of the Chechens is the widely disseminated information about the brutal executions of kidnapped Western journalists or North Caucasus specialists in the years between the wars. A second factor is the ever more indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Russian cities, including the suicide attacks carried out after 2002 by Chechen commandos, especially by women, the so-called black widows, whose distinctive clothing has made it possible to speak of Islamic characteristics and compare Chechen activities to those of terrorist organizations active in or coming from the Middle East. Events in Chechnya suddenly came to be perceived in this broader ideological context, and this greatly reinforced the image of Chechens as ruthless religious fanatics.
10. However, Russophobia never took root very deeply in Bohemia and Moravia, as opposed to the situation in Poland, where it was affected by a rather different historical experience
11. Anti-Russian sentiment in Czech society peaked in the early 1990s, as memorably depicted in Jan Sverak's 1996 Academy Award-winning movie Kolya, yet the level was still lower than in Poland or Hungary. A quantitative comparative study would be useful to verify such an inference.
12. Zdeněk Hrabica, Haló noviny (July 2, 2004).
13. The so-called Beneš Decrees are a set of executive-law acts issued by President Edvard Beneš (1945-48) in the aftermath of World War II and subsequently confirmed by the interim National Assembly of the Republic of Czechoslovakia. They included the Decree on Punishment of Nazi Criminals, Traitors, and their Collaborators and on Extraordinary People's Courts (June 19, 1945) and the Decree on Seizure and Rapid Redistribution of Farm Property of Germans, Hungarians, as well as Traitors and Enemies to the Czech and Slovak Nation (June 21, 1945). The latter decree was subject to debate in the late 1990s, and some associations of transferred Germans called for it to be declared void, which could have opened the way for large-scale property movements. See http://web.archive.org/web/20051108210402/www.mkcr.cz/article.php?id=1076/.
14. Milan Valach, "Lidská práva jako sentimentá lní žvást" (Human Rights as Sentimental Hogwash), Britské listy (September 21, 2004), www.blisty.cz/2004/9/21/ art19836.html.
15. According to the Czech constitution (www.psp.cz/docs/laws/constitution. html), the president is the head of state (Article 54) but the government is the supreme executive authority.
16. Czech Foreign Ministry Archives, November 1999, www.mzv.cz/_archiv/ data_dokumenty/data11.html.
17. Czech Foreign Ministry Archives, www.mzv.cz/_archiv/data_dokumenty/ dokumenty052000.html.
18. Kavan was one of the main figures in a series of investigative reports by British and Swedish media in early 2007 on the widespread corruption of Czech politicians by the British company BAE Systems in connection with the proposed purchase of a squadron of Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets in the early 2000s. See "Vše o korupční kauze Gripeny" (The Gripen Corruption in Focus), Aktualne.cz, http://aktualne.centrum.cz/clanek.phtml? íd=368149/.
19. Czech Foreign Ministry Archives, www.mzv.cz/wwwo/mzv/default.asp?id= 1192&ido=10544&idj=1&amb-1/.
20. Minutes of the 27th session of the Foreign Relations Committee, November 17-18, 1999, www.psp.cz/sqw/text/text2.sqw'?C=5112&T=k1998psp3v/.
21. Martina Lustigova, "Putin mluvil hlavne o ekonomice" (Putin Discussed Mainly Economics), Radio.cz (March 2, 2006), www.radio.cz/cz/zpravy/ 76433/.
22. Petr Gabal, "Prezident Klaus dnes nevidi duvod resit to, co udelal Breznev v roce 1968" (President Klaus Sees No Reason Today to Discuss What Brezhnev Did in 1968), Radio.cz (March 2, 2006), www.radio.cz/cz/clanek/76421/ limit/.
23. Speculation about whether the different approaches toward Russia and Cuba are based on geopolitical determinants, leveling the balance of trade, or other factors goes beyond the scope of this study.
24. Topolanek's government did not receive a vote of confidence until January 19, 2007.
25. On the concept of rhetorical action, see Frank Schimmelfenig, The EU, NATO, and the Integration of Europe: Rules and Rhetoric (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
26. For two case studies of rhetorical action in Czech Republic-Russia relations, see Petr Kratochvil, Petra Cibulkova, and Vit Beneš, "Foreign Policy, Rhetorical Action and the Idea of Otherness: The Czech Republic and Russia," Communist and Post-Communist Studies 39, no. 4 (December 2006): 497-511.
27. Reports on the activities of People in Need in the North Caucasus are available in English at www.clovekvtisni.cz/index2en.php?parent=402&sid= 402&id=456/.
28. The group was forced to discontinue its activities on orders from Ramzan Kadyrov in 2006 in connection with the scandal involving the printing of a caricature of Muhammad ("The Islamic Flare-Up; Chechnya Expels Danish Aid Agency," New York Times [February 8, 2006]).
29. The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs distanced itself from the visit, even though Akhmadov met with highly placed ministry officials, one of whom called him a "legitimate representative of the Chechen administration. " The Russian government reacted with a note of protest, to which the Czech Foreign Ministry responded, "The actions of Russian military and security forces in Chechnya already long ago ceased to be merely an internal affair of the Russian Federation." See "A Reply to Russian Federation's Protest Note Related to the Negotiations of the Chechen President's Envoy, I. Akhmadov, in Prague," Czech Foreign Ministry Archives (November 22, 1999), www.mzv.cz/wwwo/mzv/default.asp?id=1181&ido=10544&idj=1&amb=1/.
30. Quoted from an interview with Jaromír Štština on Radiozurnal radio station (January 26, 2006); transcript available at www.jaromirstetina.cz/aktuality/leden-2006/jaromir-stetina-hostem-radiozurnalu. html.
31. Týdeník Rozhlas (July 17, 2006), quoted from www.jaromirstetina.cz/media/cervenec-2006/nekrolog-na-zlocince.html.
32. The analysis has been removed to archives of the agency and is now available at http://old.anopress.cz/TT_CZ/analyzy/Cecensti_teroriste/ Cecensti_teroriste.htm.