Vladamir Putin mounts up.
"Putin went on national television to tell Russians they must mobilize against terrorism. He promised wide-ranging reforms to toughen security forces and purge corruption. "We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten," he said..."
This could be very good or very bad.
On the one hand, it would be great to have Russia acting less French, and the icy-eyed ex-KGB spook is one of the last guys in the world I'd want pissed at me.
On the other hand, the Putin Peace Plan in Chechnya over the last few years has consisted chiefly of carpet bombing random Chechens until the terrorism stops. (contra Iraq and Afghanistan, both holding elections next winter)This plan has been less than entirely successful, especially since imported jihadists began to supplant the native Chechen rebels.
Meanwhile, Putin has shown a disturbing authoritarianism as leader of Russia. This from Mikhail Khordokovsky, Russian industrialist/philanthropist and libertarian activist, imprisoned last year on probably politically motivated income-tax charges:
"It is the Singapore model, it is a term that people understand in Russia these days. It means that theoretically you have a free press, but in practice there is self-censorship. Theoretically you have courts; in practice the courts adopt decisions dictated from above. Theoretically there are civil rights enshrined in the constitution; in practice you are not able to exercise some of these rights."
Putin is not, in short, the kind of man who would find Bushian democracy promotion an attractive war on terror strategy, although he'll no doubt be sheer hell on al-Qaeda and suchlike in terms of a direct seek-and-destroy work. My guess is that Putin's promised show of strength and law-enforcement 'reforms' will actually be what partisan leftist whackjobsenjoy pretending President Bush's policies are.
Putin's getting more aggressive and I welcome it, but he doesn't shift strategy at the same time, he's a potentially very counterproductive loose cannon.
This could be very good or very bad.
On the one hand, it would be great to have Russia acting less French, and the icy-eyed ex-KGB spook is one of the last guys in the world I'd want pissed at me.
On the other hand, the Putin Peace Plan in Chechnya over the last few years has consisted chiefly of carpet bombing random Chechens until the terrorism stops. (contra Iraq and Afghanistan, both holding elections next winter)This plan has been less than entirely successful, especially since imported jihadists began to supplant the native Chechen rebels.
Meanwhile, Putin has shown a disturbing authoritarianism as leader of Russia. This from Mikhail Khordokovsky, Russian industrialist/philanthropist and libertarian activist, imprisoned last year on probably politically motivated income-tax charges:
"It is the Singapore model, it is a term that people understand in Russia these days. It means that theoretically you have a free press, but in practice there is self-censorship. Theoretically you have courts; in practice the courts adopt decisions dictated from above. Theoretically there are civil rights enshrined in the constitution; in practice you are not able to exercise some of these rights."
Putin is not, in short, the kind of man who would find Bushian democracy promotion an attractive war on terror strategy, although he'll no doubt be sheer hell on al-Qaeda and suchlike in terms of a direct seek-and-destroy work. My guess is that Putin's promised show of strength and law-enforcement 'reforms' will actually be what partisan leftist whackjobsenjoy pretending President Bush's policies are.
Putin's getting more aggressive and I welcome it, but he doesn't shift strategy at the same time, he's a potentially very counterproductive loose cannon.
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