OVER the weekend, photographic proof emerged that the Russians used mur derous Chechen mercenaries to do their dirtiest dirty work in Georgia: The ragtag unit in question is so vicious that, last April, Chechnya’s Russian-installed “president” demanded it be disbanded.
War snaps taken by Russian photojournalist Arkady Babchenko have been circulating among intelligence personnel. The shots [...]

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A dissident Chechen military commander said on Saturday amnestied rebels recruited by Chechnya’s pro-Kremlin leader Ramzan Kadyrov were engaged in violence and stood ready for another war with Russia.
Sulim Yamadayev, in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio station, described a situation in Chechnya at odds with Kremlin claims that it has re-established control [...]

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He declared Basayev and the entire Chechen insurgency terrorists. The Russian military moved in with strength.
If the definition of terrorism is attempting to terrify an entire population by launching spectacular attacks on civilians, then Putin’s claim was spurious. Chechen fighters had been killing a lot of Russian soldiers but they were not yet attacking Russian [...]

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Under the Kremlin’s iron hand, a republic is reborn in Chechnya
International Herald Tribune, France - 19 hours ago
Russia’s military defeat of the heart of the rebellion in Chechnya appears to flow, in the simplest sense, from a two-stage formula: <b>extraordinary violence, …</b>

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