If we don't reach a settlement with Maskhadov now, he will be replaced by people who only know how to wage war
Ruslan Sultanovich! Is a moratorium on military operations declared by Maskhadov currently in force in
It
is very difficult to give a simple answer to that question. After all,
what you are asking is: does Maskhadov control the forces of resistance
in
First
one must assess Maskhadov's call for negotiations. And assess it from
the perspective of the world's experience. If the Basques in
And yet the question of Maskhadov's real influence is very important…
I will put it this way. A few years ago Maskhadov was influential within the confines of
What
if one imagines the improbable: for the sake of peaceful aims Maskhadov
meets the Kremlin's principal demand. Surrenders. What would happen
then?
In
the first place, he will never surrender. Maskhadov should not be
humiliated with the assertion that he doesn't control anything. Yes,
there are many groupings there which act autonomously for up to six
months or so. But the general tendency is that all those field
commanders recognize Maskhadov, Here's a comparison for you. Even with
the extremely low five percent rating Boris Yeltsin had in the middle
of his presidency, no one ever called his power and authority into
doubt. If we want peace in the Caucasus, in the Caucasus, that is, and
not only in
For whom are negotiations disadvantageous?
For
those who talk of negotiations as of something shameful, unacceptable
and unproductive. Those who try to frighten people with recent history
– the Khasavyurt agreements. To me, as a direct participant in those
events, it's obvious that Khasavyurt is being mythologized and dealt
with in the wrong way. Those were FORCED actions. We (yes, we!) were
driven into a corner. In the first place, the guerrillas entered
Then,
at the request of Alexander Lebed, I flew to see Maskhadov and
Yandarbiyev and tried to get them to withdraw the guerrillas, and I
only just succeeded. In the second place, Yeltsin and Co. had elections
coming up. ..
The
time when our military men said that negotiations were treason, that
would not allow them to settle the Chechen question by means of force,
has passed. Since 1999 no one has restrained our military men, and the
political message has been simply one of force. And what do we see?
Have they got anywhere close to a settlement of the
Are influential personalities similar to Maskhadov and Basayev appearing among the armed resistance?
Nature abhors a vacuum. Who knew Movsar Barayev? Or Ruslan Khuchbarov? They are not ordinary executors…
Well
yes, the executors… I talked in Beslan with that "executor" Khuchbarov.
I saw his eyes, heard what he was saying. He's a representative of an
idea, he knew perfectly well what he was going to do and why he was
going to do it. He's not just a robot, an automaton… Even if Maskhadov
and Basayev give themselves up, their place will be taken by the
Khuchbarovs and Barayevs.
The
generation that grew up during the war fanatically believes in an idea
and only knows how to wage war It will be a million times harder to
conduct negotiations with them. It's not for nothing that Kazantsev
ordered the male population of
And
also: it's wrong to picture the huchbarovs and Barayevs as savages.
There are many of them, they fight and struggle all their lives, they
are politicians, they have behind them a young, aggressive ideology,
they are informed, technologically armed, and they are growing.
Ruslan Sultanovich! How do you react to the awarding to Zyazikov of the Order "For Services to the Fatherland" – after Beslan?
With calm. The President of Russia knows better than I do the services for which he hands out awards…
But the President of Ingushetia has one obvious "service" before all
Yelena Milashina