"So was it really necessary to storm the building?" Kagarlitsky asks. He concludes: "Yes, it was necessary - politically necessary. The authorities needed the raid and all the casualties in order to make it possible for them to continue the war in Chechnya, to contain the growing anti-war mood in society, and to demonstrate Vladimir Putin's decisiveness and strength of will."
The Russians have fully exploited the events of 9-11 by equating the Chechens to their version of Al Qaeda, and long before the Moscow theater incident, they had started to claim that the rebels were terrorists, hence justifying their heavy handedness.
America, in turn, has been slow to condemn Russia's brutal treatment of the Chechens, particularly after 9-11, having lost the moral high ground since its truculent unilateralist stance on Iraq (where Russia holds the high ground, by insisting that Iraq cannot be attacked without U.N. acquiescence).
This has given the Russians the leeway to operate with impunity. For two years in a row, they have rejected the resolution of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights calling upon Russia to "curb abuses by its forces, establish a meaningful domestic accountability process, and invite several of the Commission's key special mechanisms to visit the region."
The Russians have fully exploited the events of 9-11 by equating the Chechens to their version of Al Qaeda, and long before the Moscow theater incident, they had started to claim that the rebels were terrorists, hence justifying their heavy handedness.
America, in turn, has been slow to condemn Russia's brutal treatment of the Chechens, particularly after 9-11, having lost the moral high ground since its truculent unilateralist stance on Iraq (where Russia holds the high ground, by insisting that Iraq cannot be attacked without U.N. acquiescence).
This has given the Russians the leeway to operate with impunity. For two years in a row, they have rejected the resolution of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights calling upon Russia to "curb abuses by its forces, establish a meaningful domestic accountability process, and invite several of the Commission's key special mechanisms to visit the region."