A ‘Normal’ Nation?

THE CRISIS in Chechnya has brought together some unlikely allies. It is not every day that Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and the New York Times agree on something, as they do on the need to sort out Chechnya. Ranged against them is an equally strange coalition of Moscow reformers, a few hard-line generals, most of the Russian press, the nationalist-dominated State Duma, and, apparently, most ordinary Russians.

Television pictures of wooden coffins streaming back to Russia from Chechnya evoke comparisons with Afghanistan, and some parallels are indeed striking. Covert action has again failed to subdue an unruly mountain nation on Russia’s southern periphery. As then, an overwhelming conventional force has been thrown against poorly equipped but highly motivated rebels. Just as in 1979, the Russian people have not been consulted and do not approve. Perhaps more ominously, the invasion of Afghanistan on Christmas Eve and the invasion of Chechnya last week both occurred at the start of winter—against the Russian army’s own rule of thumb. Last but not least, in both cases it was assumed that the Russians must prevail.

RS

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Radek Sikorski

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THE CRISIS in Chechnya has brought together some unlikely allies. It is not every day that Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and the New York Times agree on something, as they do on the need to sort out Chechnya. Ranged against them is an equally strange coalition of Moscow reformers, a few hard-line generals, most of the Russian press, the nationalist-dominated State Duma, and, apparently, most ordinary Russians.

Television pictures of wooden coffins streaming back to Russia from Chechnya evoke comparisons with Afghanistan, and some parallels are indeed striking. Covert action has again failed to subdue an unruly mountain nation on Russia’s southern periphery. As then, an overwhelming conventional force has been thrown against poorly equipped but highly motivated rebels. Just as in 1979, the Russian people have not been consulted and do not approve. Perhaps more ominously, the invasion of Afghanistan on Christmas Eve and the invasion of Chechnya last week both occurred at the start of winter—against the Russian army’s own rule of thumb. Last but not least, in both cases it was assumed that the Russians must prevail.