Russian Army Speaks Out Against Chechen War
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, March 9, 2001
The Russian army is breaking ranks – and breaking its long silence – over the hated war in Chechnya.
In an interview published in Obshchaya Gazeta, Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dudnik concludes that Russian President Putin "may need this war, but Russia does not." Dudnik challenges the orthodoxy that this is a guerrilla war, comparing it instead to the battle against the Baltic nationalists who fought on against Soviet rule after World War II.
"The Baltic region was conquered only in 1956," Dudnik notes, and even then the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian resistance was so deep-rooted that Moscow had to accept their independence in 1991. The parallel with the Chechens is striking – and the Russian army has had enough.
Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Russia
Related Products:
Through the Eyes of the Enemy
