Kremlin is afraid of peace


Chief of External Subcommittee of the Informational Committee of State Defense Council («Majlis al-Shura» of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria) Movladi Udugov gave an interview to Kavkaz Center news agency in regards to the two months that have passed after the special operation conducted by Chechen unit of Shaheeds «Riyadus Salihin» in Moscow.

- Two months have passed since the moment when the group of Chechen Shaheeds from «Riyadus Salihin» unit under the command of Movsar Barayev carried out a combat operation in Moscow. A great number of comments and opinions have been expressed concerning the operation of Chechen Shaheeds and the results of that act. How do you evaluate what happened?

Udugov: In my opinion, the operation of Chechen Shaheeds (may Allah bless them and their Jihad) was more of a military and political kind rather than being a purely combat operation. The Mujahideen who came to Moscow clearly and distinctly outlined the goals of their actions – to stop the slaughter of the Chechen people, i.e. the genocide, to stop war operations, to have the invaders’ troops withdraw and to start the political process of settling Russian-Chechen relations.

The attempts made by Russian politicians and Kremlin officials to suggest the thought that the Chechens allegedly did not explain what they wanted are an absolute lie. Just as all the allegations that the so-called freeing of hostages using banned chemical weapons was a necessary measure because the Mujahideen allegedly started killing people is a lie. The thesis that if it was not for the storm with poison gas, then Chechens would have blown up the hostages is false as well. It is not only my opinion. The vast majority of experts think so today. As an example, let me quote an excerpt from a publication in authoritative Wall Street Journal.

The militants were armed with 114 hand grenades, 15 automatic rifles AKSU-74 and 11 handguns. However, the Chechens opened fire and used grenades only against the commandos. Moreover, the militants did not detonate the bombs that they planted, even though they had all the opportunities to do so. Most likely, they were only threatening with an explosion, but in reality they had a strict order to refrain from doing any serious harm to the hostages.

The fact that the militants did not kill the hostages even when they were dying is not even discussed in Russia. In any other country anyone would at least pay attention that the Chechens did not kill anybody, but every one of them died from the hands of the authorities. But this is not the case in Russia.

Not too long ago a large group of public activists and ordinary citizens of Russia, who have united in the «Net!» (means «No») Association conducted a detailed analysis of the Kremlin’s actions and the situation in Chechnya. The statement made by this organization was published in the Novaya Gazeta

In Russia and in the West everybody perfectly understands that the Kremlin is lying. Lying desperately and godlessly. Lying out of the fear for monstrous crimes that it is committing in Chechnya and that are continuing with a silent approval of the West, and out of inevitability to answer for these misdeeds. Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB agent who now lives in London, said so without beating around the bush in his book titled «The Lubyanka Criminal Group»:

«What is the Russian power afraid of? It has exchanged human lives for a demonstration. The regime is afraid of peace in Chechnya. It is afraid of peace talks; they are afraid that people may even think that peace must be brought to Chechnya, i.e. negotiations with the opposing side must be held. And why is the regime afraid? Just because they perfectly understand that once peace is established in Chechnya, they will start digging out pits with people who were killed, raped, maimed, and all of it is qualified as crimes against humanity. Here is the cause-effect connection with the reason why gas was used against people, and not just against terrorists, but against seven hundred of our citizens, who were totally innocent».

Now about whether the goals of the military and political action of the group of Chechen Shaheeds were attained or not. The main goal to stop the genocide of the Chechen people was not achieved. However, a great step was taken towards achieving this goal. The Mujahideen proved that they are quite capable of catching up with the main war criminals right in their own den. This is the fact that you can’t get away from. And no super measures to provide security of Putin and his camarilla will save them from the just retribution. Putin had felt the breath of the inevitable vengeance, and the entire world saw it on their TV screens. The prospect for Putin to end his life on a Kremlin toilet has become real as never before.

Chechen Mujahideen have dispelled the myth of impunity and safety of those who are sitting thousands of kilometers away from Caucasus and ordering to rob, destroy, burn, rape, harass, blow up, pillage, torture, plunder and kill.

Russia has been clearly shown that it is in the state of war and is subjected to permanent danger of retaliation because its rulers have committed a vile aggression against a sovereign state and are killing innocent civilians of that state. The trite thesis about «Russia’s internal affair» does not save the situation any longer. From now on and forever the responsibility for present and future victims in Chechnya as well as in Russia lies solely on the Kremlin regime.

The war has its own laws. And no Attorney General’s Office with its stupid criminal cases of every helicopter that was shot down or every tank that was destroyed will change the laws of the war.

The Chechen side is acting in strict order and follows strict rules step by step. Chechens forestall every consecutive step with warnings regardless of serious losses on our side. Since 1991 the Chechen side or its leadership have never broken this order of series and steps. As long as there is another opportunity available to stop the genocide, the Chechens resort to the next, harsher stage. The Moscow events of October 23-26 marked the end of another stage in this strategy.

Everybody knows full well that so far our government, represented by President Maskhadov, is against transferring the war on the soil of the aggressor country. However, as the practice shows, objective logic of the way the events unfold and the instinct of nation’s self-preservation are above any political will of even the most authoritative leaders.

- During the first days of the events in Moscow many states and many political activists, including the ones in Chechnya, condemned the action of Chechen Shaheeds.

Udugov: Today however, when many details of the events are publicly known, the voices of condemnation are heard less and less often. Certain rules of the game have been formed in the world. These rules are written by those who claim the role of rulers of the mankind. Countries of the Western alliance headed by the US consider themselves to be as such. Those who do not stick to these rules become outcasts [rogue nations]. This is where automatic condemnation of actions of Chechen Shaheeds comes from, as a concession in the hope so they can acknowledge you as one of their own, or for fear of looking uncivilized and not fitting into the system of relations that the Western alliance has created. And the system of relations, created by the so-called Western Civilization, is pretty strange, and putting it more explicitly – it is unjust and hypocritical.

You can recall the most recent event with President Lukashenko as an example. President of Belarus was denied entry into the European states and into the US. The grounds for such a harsh decision was the fact that Lukashenko accused OSCE of espionage activities and denied visas to some of OSCE officials. What’s more, Lukashenko was accused of violating human rights by putting political pressure on the opposition. Take a note – not military, but political pressure. There turned out to be enough of these «sins» to make the Western world completely boycott the Belarusian State and its President.

Along with that, the attitude towards President of Russia Putin is totally different, even though compared to Putin, Lukashenko looks like a good boy scout. Putin does not only conduct the genocide of the Chechen people (which actually does not violate the Western morals and laws since it is Muslims who are being killed, and not Christians from East Timor). But sounds like Putin is infringing on the holy of holies of the Western world – on the freedom of speech, on the freedom of capitals, he is building an authoritarian regime, crushing the opposition, persecuting or just killing his fellow citizens, locking up human rights activists, poisoning his fellow citizens with chemical weapons banned by all international conventions, and so on and so forth. In spite of all that, the chief foreman of the New World Order George W. Bush does not only ban FSB colonel Putin from entering the US, but President himself goes to visit him in order to explain his friend Vladimir that the expansion of NATO does not threaten Russia, but it will only do good to it.

So, what is the difference between Putin and Lukashenko, aside from the fact that Putin is a war criminal and a murderer and Lukashenko is only trying to be independent, while being surrounded by wolves and while assuming that so-called Socialist methods in the economy and politics will help Belarus become a stronger as full-fledged state? The whole thing is that Lukashenko has no power or means to do any serious military or economic harm to the West, but Putin still does. This is where different statuses of the two leaders come from.

The conclusion is logical – in order to enjoy equal rights within the system of the Western world order, you must possess such weapons of war destruction or economic pressure that would threaten to bring the Western alliance a real trouble, which the West in turn regards as a threat to its own security and, as a consequence, mobilizes the Western alliance for the military defeat of the potential candidate for equal rights.

A vivid example of this world order is the situation with sovereign and independent Iraq, a UN member, which is subjected to unprecedented harassment and humiliations from that same UN and US. Saddam’s regime is no worse than the regime of the Tashkent (Uzbekistan’s) dictator Karimov. However, while relying on natural resources and weaponry, Saddam claims equal rights, which in itself is already a crime before the «world community». Uzbekistan’s dictator however claims the role of only a satellite of the new master, which is not forbidden, but encouraged.

I would like to express my personal point of view. I personally cannot censure my brothers and sisters who gave their lives in the name of Allah for freedom and independence of our people and our state. What’s more, I consider their actions to be an example of the greatest heroism and unparalleled courage, which will remain in the memory of the Chechen people for many many centuries. The example of unprecedented success in planning and carrying out of the skillful war operation right in the very den of the enemy. The military history has not known such precedents. And no condemnations or accusations of «terrorism» will ever change the opinion of the Chechen people and ordinary Muslims about this outstanding group of Mujahideen, who showed the entire world an example of sincere self-sacrifice.

Even the Western community has to admit that Putin’s Russia is waging the war of physical extermination of Chechens as an ethnos. Thus, the Holocaust Museum in Washington has listed the Chechen ethnos as number one among the nations that are under the threat of extinction because of genocide. «Not a single man in the West, who is responsible for the politics, can say that he is not aware of what is the worst of the worst today, which concerns inhumanity that overwhelms the tiny part of Caucasus», – as French philosopher Andre Glucksmann stated in this regard.

Can you then condemn people when they take extraordinary steps to save their nation from physical extermination? And how do you regard the so-called international community, who with its cold-blooded indifference and not only with its inaction, but also with active political and financial support, is encouraging the Kremlin murderers to conduct genocide of Chechens?

I would like to remind the statement that Movsar Barayev made when he publicly warned that his unit had come to Moscow to die in a battle, and not to survive. He openly and honestly warned that after they release the hostages, they were going to engage in a battle with Russian troops and they were not going to leave Moscow. Open battle by a small sabotage group of Chechen Shaheeds in the center of the capital of the aggressor country would have been a death sentence to the Kremlin regime. That’s exactly why Putin’s camarilla went for the vile murder of hundreds of their fellow citizens, poisoning them with chemical weapons in order to avoid an open battle.

- The Moscow events have become history. Just as any events in the history, these events are starting to become surrounded with myths.

Udugov: The first myth and the main myth is terrorism. Starting from the very first seconds in the theater on Dubrovka both Kremlin and Russian mass media stated that the group of Chechen Shaheeds who seized Nord-Ost is terrorists and the action is nothing but terrorism.

Actually, the word «terrorism» is the main propagandistic term in Russia’s informational war against Ichkeria. In accordance with propagandist lines of that war, the intrusion of tanks into a Chechen village, murder of peaceful civilians, destruction of houses by tank shots, taking thousands of people hostage, including women and children, kidnappings, pillaging, executions by shooting on downtown squares, tortures, blowing up hostages with artillery shells after tying them up, - all of it is a war operation. But as soon as Chechen fighters destroy some armored vehicles, eliminate a group of raiders or shoot down a gunship that shoots at Chechen houses, then it is called terrorism.

Mass invasion of Chechnya by a horde of Russian murderers and pillagers, armed to their teeth, and taking the entire state with its citizens hostage, starting from unborn babies to dying old men, is a «counter-terrorist operation». And a combat action (which is classical according to all canons of the military science), conducted by a Chechen sabotage group in the capital of the aggressor country, is «terrorism» in the terminology of Kremlin and its patrons in the West.

Of course, we disagree with the way this issue is raised and we strongly reject this wording. The war is going on. And all actions conducted by the side that defends itself from the aggression are legitimate acts of war. In our case defensive acts of war. Military doctrines of all states with no exception acknowledge that strategic, military, economic and political and administrative centers of the enemy, especially the enemy’s capital, are legitimate military targets during a war period. Especially for the side that defends itself from the aggression.

Therefore, I am deeply convinced that we, the Chechens, must totally reject repeating Russian propagandistic term «terrorism» in regards to the actions of Chechen Mujahideen. It is especially topical for us due to the fact that during the events in Moscow not a single Western media has ever called Barayev’s group a «terrorist» group, or the act of sabotage conducted by the Mujahideen a «terrorist act», which made the Russian side very outraged.

You don’t have to be holier that the Pope. There will be thousands of voices out there that will condemn the actions of Chechen Mujahideen. Our voice must not be among that choir. You can condole with what had happened. You can clearly state that the central government in Chechnya did not issue an order to conduct that operation (which was confirmed with subsequent statements). You can designate the position of the Chechen government and Chechen State that rejects such a method of affecting the aggressor. But you cannot condemn. It is Kremlin who has to be condemned and blamed for all that happened in Moscow on Dubrovka.

Among other myths, you can also recall passages like the one that the West and Israel allegedly knew about the plans of the Chechen Mujahideen; that the Kremlin was allegedly warned; that some mysterious powers from among Putin’s opponents are behind the Chechen Shaheeds, including Russian secret services; that the action had the goal to get Putin removed. And according to another version, which is just as exotic, the goal was to capture Yeltsin and Kuchma’s daughter who allegedly were supposed to be in the theater. As always, they recalled about Berezovsky’s money, about Al-Qaeda, about «Muslim Brothers», about criminal redistribution of turfs and other bologna that has the goal to get an average citizen intimidated in the never-ending flow of delusions and explanations of how the sabotage group managed to penetrate into downtown Moscow and carry out the unprecedented act of sabotage.

In reality everything is totally clear and simple. Neither Russian secret services, nor the West or especially Israel knew anything or could not possibly know anything about the plans of the Chechen Mujahideen. First of all, it can be seen from the very fact that this unprecedented operation was conducted. The act of sabotage was prepared under the command of Shamil Basayev, who claimed all responsibility and announced about his resignation from all the post that he held, because he did not inform President of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI) Aslan Maskhadov about the upcoming subversive operation. Commander of the Islamic Task Force Regiment Movsar Barayev was in charge of the group of Shaheeds. The goal of the action was to stop the genocide of Chechen people and have the invaders’ troops withdrawn from the territory of CRI. Thus, Yeltsin and Kuchma’s daughter have absolutely nothing to do with it, even though Yeltsin is wanted by Chechen law enforcement agencies as a war criminal. Everything else is fiction and propaganda.

What’s more, Russian secret services or any other similar structure outside Russia still do not know even a single more or less serious detail of the preparation for the act of sabotage conducted by Movsar Barayev’s unit. The only thing Russians could do was to find out where the Chechen Shaheeds lived from a few original passports that the Mujahideen had on them, and then Russians blew up the houses of their relatives and loved ones in retaliation.

Even the total «cleansing» against Moscow Chechens, who were all accused of «aiding» Barayev, did not help them. Putin’s regime could not find a single secret address, a single route of movements, a single liaison, or a single storage of weapons. This was a very alarming signal for the Kremlin.

The Kremlin overlooked the process. Putin and his circle could not go beyond the frame of thinking formed by propagandist movies about Soviet intelligence agents operating in the enemy’s home front. The Kremlin still cannot understand that the situation has changed radically and that for quite a while now the Chechen Resistance has had its allies in the fight against the empire right inside the empire’s heart. Ethnic cleansings in Moscow (even if they deport and shoot all Moscow Chechens) will not change anything, because in its vast majority Chechen Diaspora of Moscow has nothing to do with their people who fight the war.

I am deeply convinced that the scariest thing happened for the Kremlin and for the gang of war criminals that settled there  - Chechen Mujahideen found allies right there among Russians. Among those Russians who realize the entire depth of criminal vileness of the present Kremlin regime just as much as the Chechens do, and they realize its danger for their country.

Kavkaz-Center