Dozens of people, including civilians, were killed and wounded during the night attack by Chechen fighters at the Interior Ministry, the border station and warehouses in Nazran, former capital of Ingushetia. The victims include the acting interior minister and the city prosecutor.
Western agencies' reports about developments in Chechnya frequently begin with scathing commentaries, whose essence is always the same: Despite Moscow's numerous assurances of victory over the Chechen rebels, they... It must be said that Western irony has a reason: Quite a few irresponsible statements on Chechnya have been made by generals few of whom have fighting experience and by comparably lightweight politicians. But the West is not without sin either, as it has not made a correct diagnosis of the Caucasian events to this day, as proved by the aforementioned commentaries.
When President Putin says the situation in Chechnya is improving, this is not a victorious report. Practice shows that the Chechen disease is like a recurrent fever, returning every time when Russia's forces were sapped: during clashes with Turkey long ago, the Crimean War of 1853-1856, the 1917 revolution and the subsequent civil war, in the first, most difficult years after the revolution, and during the Second World War. The fever returned when the Soviet Union fell apart and Russia launched vital but extremely difficult and painful reforms. No wonder that the current improvement in the Chechen climate coincided with the improvement of the situation in Russia.
The Kremlin has long been trying to attain not military but political and economic goals, and this policy is yielding fruit. Terrorists killed President Kadyrov but failed to destabilize the situation in the republic, which was their chief goal. The bulk of Chechen population is calmly preparing for the new presidential elections, where they will use democratic procedures to give their republic a new legitimate leader.
The disease is receding, but it leaves in its wake many unpleasant side effects, which we must admit without bias, along with the trend for improvement. The events in Ingushetia are one of such side effects: the virus, running away from the medicine, is searching for weak spots in the organism, moving around and showing up where the organism's defenses are not ready.
Radio Free Europe said the other day that Chechen separatist leader Maskhadov decided to change the tactic and is ready to launch an offensive. A desire to remind about himself in this way is understandable: new presidential elections are held in Chechnya, finally eroding his questionable legitimacy. The elections will confirm an established fact: Maskhadov today is only one of the "forest brothers."
It is indicative that it has become much more difficult for Maskhadov to operate in Chechnya, where the sphere of the fighters' influence is dwindling. This is why the virus rushed to Ingushetia.
But side effects are curable, if there is time. Russia has it, Maskhadov doesn't.
