NP -

[David Morris]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Places_Where_Violence_Comes_From

Spurred by Prime Minister Putin, who was soon to become president, Russia
sent its armor back to Chechnya in 1999. This time Russia fought
unsparingly. With little regard for life or property, its military
surrounded Grozny and pounded the capital with rockets, artillery, and
aircraft, collapsing the city around the rebels. Sweeps and barrages
destroyed villages and towns. The destruction was of an order not seen
since World War II; Grozny's sagging hulks invited comparisons to Warsaw,
1944. The city fell early in 2000, and Putin, by then president, declared
the battle ended. A new policy took shape. Russia would garrison troops and
equipment and provide money, instructions, and political support. But local
administration was to be handed over to Chechens deemed sufficiently loyal,
a formula flowing from the institutional memory of a weakened empire. The
appointment of proxies was accompanied by a message that became more hollow
the more it was repeated on state TV: There is no war. We have won. No
verified casualty counts exist for the wars, but all agree the human toll
has been vast, ranging from tens of thousands of Chechens killed to more
than two hundred thousand. Setting aside the numbers, the years of violence
and atrocities made clear that as public policy, little could be less wise
than extensive killing in Chechnya, where tradition asks blood to be washed
in blood. Chechens are bound by adat, an oral code that compels families to
avenge the killing of their relatives. By the time President Putin claimed
victory, enough blood had been spilled for a fury lasting generations. It
mixed not just tribal urges for revenge and independence but racism and
militant Islam.
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