[NYTimes] October 5, 2002 Russia Recasts Bog in Caucasus as War on Terror By STEVEN LEE MYERS
GROZNY, Russia, Oct. 2 - Three years after Russian forces poured into Chechnya for the second time, the war grinds on, but Russia's characterization of the fight without end has changed. No longer are 85,000 Russian troops and police officers simply engaged in crushing a battle for independence; instead, Chechnya has become Russia's war on terror. Using the rationale and sometimes the rhetoric of the Bush administration's antiterrorism campaign, commanders here said this week that the Chechen war is financed, armed and increasingly fought by Islamic militants from abroad. The shift explains Russia's roiling tensions with Georgia, the former Soviet republic bordering Chechnya that President Vladimir V. Putin has accused of sheltering what he calls Chechen and international terrorists. In an interview, the commander of Russian forces in Chechnya, Col. Gen. Vladimir I. Moltenskoi, ratcheted those tensions higher this week by accusing Georgia - an overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian republic - of supplying the rebels with a stockpile of Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles that they have used to devastating effect, shooting down three aircraft in the past six weeks. For the Russians, the recent events are are a haunting echo of the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan, when American-supplied Stinger missiles helped Afghan rebels turn the tide in their struggle against Soviet occupation. On Aug. 19, at least 119 people died when one of those craft, an Mi-26 transport, crashed into a minefield not far from General Moltenskoi's headquarters outside of Grozny. In the latest attack, on Sept. 26, an Mi-24 helicopter gunship was downed in a neighboring republic, Ingushetia, during a fierce battle that commanders said was fought by Chechens infiltrating from Georgia and supported by Islamic mercenaries. Capt. Alikhan Gaisanov, commander of a detachment of Russian interior troops who fought there, said the rebels had fired five missiles at the helicopter. Four missed, but the last sent it plunging into a pumpkin patch, killing three. "When they hit it, we could hear the bandits shouting, `Allah Akbar,' " he said. The missiles may not change the balance in the conflict, but the rebels' recent successes have undercut Russia's insistence that the conflict in Chechnya is all but over. Russian forces have reduced Chechnya's rebels to isolated pockets of resistance, and battles for territory have ended. But there are still deadly clashes almost daily, and a bomb in Grozny's central market last month killed 11 civilians. Grozny remains a heavily militarized ruin, patrolled by wary, hunkered-down troops who control the streets by day but retreat at night to heavily fortified bases and bunkers. The accusations against Georgia - like the accusations that the Chechens are sponsored by Muslim Brotherhood and other foreign fighters - appear rooted in Russia's frustration and a desire to assign external blame for the continued fighting. General Moltenskoi said that when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Georgia, like other Soviet republics, inherited the weaponry on its territory, including 147 of the missile systems, known as Igla, or needle, which it is now accused of supplying to the rebels. He said serial numbers on missiles Russian troops had captured in several raids and battles, some of which he displayed in his heavily fortified headquarters at Khankala, the main Russian base, were traced to Georgia's inventory, and he estimated that the rebels have 30 to 40 of the missiles. The effect of the missiles on Russian operations was evident in the stomach-churning maneuvers of a transport helicopter that ferried journalists into the mountains of southern Chechnya on Monday. A short ride over territory Russia ostensibly controls required an escort by two Mi-24's firing flares to ward off missiles. "Of course it causes lots of trouble for us," General Moltenskoi said. "I've been here for more than two years, and during all this time we were flying without any fire at us." Foreign fighters - notably, a Jordanian-born commander known as Khattab, who was killed in April - have been involved in both Chechen wars. Since Sept. 11 last year, however, the Russians have used the foreigners' presence to recast the war in what appears in part to be an effort to win American and international support for a campaign criticized by human rights groups as brutal and indiscriminate. On the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, in words that directly echoed President Bush's warnings to the Taliban last year and Saddam Hussein now, Mr. Putin threatened to launch pre-emptive strikes in Georgian territory unless President Eduard A. Shevardnadze did more to crack down on Chechen rebels. Georgia has repeatedly denied the Russian accusations of providing a haven for the rebels, much less the missiles. However, Mr. Shevardnadze has ordered more than 1,000 security and police forces into the remote Pankisi Gorge, reported to serve as a base for several hundred Chechen fighters and a few dozen Islamic militants. Although American intelligence reports have concluded that some Islamic militants linked to Al Qaeda have operated inside Georgia, the Russians are talking more of the rebels being supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic group operating in several Arab nations. Russian commanders say rebels killed in last week's battle in Ingushetia included a Turk, a Georgian and two Arabs of undisclosed nationality. General Moltenskoi and other commanders also produced passports, videos and other documents, including Arabic training manuals that, they said, proved the links to international terrorists. "Let's not think these guys are just Chechens," General Moltenskoi said. "In this case, they are international bandits." The Kremlin announced this week that 10,000 to 13,000 rebels had been killed since 1999. General Moltenskoi said 1,000 remained, but gave no numbers for foreign fighters. Mr. Putin and his military commanders have ruled out negotiations with the Chechens' rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov, who has eluded capture or death and is believed to be somewhere in Chechnya. Although more than 4,500 Russian forces have been killed since 1999, the toll seems to be no impetus for settlement. At the base of the 46th Brigade of the Russian Interior troops, near what is left of Grozny's civilian airport, 36 soldiers were being treated for wounds from the fighting in the last few days. "Usually, we have more here," said Lt. Col. Vladimir V. Grebenyov, chief of the brigade's medical unit. Instead, the Russians have reinforced their troops on Chechnya's southern border with Georgia. At Itum-Kale, more than 2,000 troops from Russia's border force operate from a mountain redoubt, protected by rockets and antiaircraft cannons. To train, they shell the mountainside. The most significant clashes this year have come when rebel fighters have massed in the rugged mountains and gorges of the Caucasus. In July, the troops at Itum-Kale struck a group of some 60 rebels in the nearby Kerigo Gorge, killing 24 and capturing 4, according to the force's commander, Col. Ivan N. Ageyenko. Eight Russians were killed. He showed a video reportedly captured during the fight, purporting to record rebels training in Georgia. "If they try to cross the border," he said, "we will destroy them."
