European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 06, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday. January 1995 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 Hope for democratic Russia not a lost cause the Case of Chechnya the caucasus enclave whose secession Boris Yeltsin has met with fire Sharpens the Core ques Tion of How Long the West must wait for Russia to walk straight on the democratic path. The answer born of the Hopes that ushered in the end of the cold War was not Long. The implicit premise of that Stephen s. Rosenfeld period was that Russia by its connections to demo cratic culture by the helpful hand of modern technology and by applications of Wise Western policy would move smartly into the company of the politically select. But the answer delivered by the experience of the past five years is More sober ing. It will take a very Long time for rus Sia to become what the West might regard As a Normal country. Modernizing culturally and politically is not the same As modernizing economically and techno logically. Contemporary Russia with or without a heroic Leader comes with an immense historical Load. Yes it would have been better if we had not gotten our Hopes up excessively five years ago. It would have saved us two things that Mark the current scene. One is dismay and embarrassment. The other is the increasingly visible tendency to write off Russia As a country capable of modernizing and to Tell ourselves that we must Settle in for a Long haul of detachment and tension or worse. We must indeed Settle in for a Long haul but of a particular kind. We must expect that there will be ups and Downs in Russia s passage periods of outward looking Confidence in Moscow and Peri ods of inward looking self doubt phases of comity with the West and sometimes overlapping phases of Challenge. The transition from the existing weakly rooted democratic institutions to ones with real solidity will be irregular and slow. At Best. Slippage from today s Levels can t be ruled out. But it can t be ignored that All of this movement and friction is taking place within a fundamentally new context. Rus Sia is no longer a stalinist society. It is a partly modern partly traditional society struggling for varying sorts of rebirth. The wonder is not that five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall it still faces a problematic future. The to ruler is that in Only five years it has put itself at Leas within striking Range of deeper democratic Market reforms. It warps russian reality and i warps american policy to consider Eusbia As a lost cause. Such a conclusion kind of historical determinism on the part of the West that the West decried when it was expressed by the eld communist order. Some of our smart pm or but Ives seem to have fallen into this to in their minds they have closed off ions that Are i believe still open on in found if you make room for the evident delay ruggedness and disorder. We arc not Liv ing any More in a world of clean edges. The Clinton admini-su1 ? has not particularly helped by Cliffin so lightly to Yeltsin. Not that he hits not had his exalted moments standing Down the tanks and his responsible Reform Niak ing passages and not that it is Provin to conduct s fairs with a treating respectfully its ice Jar especially tis first Ever democratic ally elected Leader. But Lille is a moment when an i i one Leader or the appear Ance of it can turn sour and create Thor extra difficulties that Bill Clinton Mun now expect from a Republican con a signal Mojo i a Cibo Laened by cons of r a tons of politics As Well As policy. It could get bloody especially if publicans succumb to the avenge of s temptation of moving lopsided Day Agni Psi Russia As Well As Yeltsin. The Smaic course is to try balancing what arc in truth competing but essential pure cd enlisting Russia As a partner Liere that is useful Aryl feasible but avoiding giving Moscov a free hand to return to ways of repression and adventurism. A grim tone is ,.on"american debate on Ivr is it s familiar and Handy some of the old cold War vocabulary is coming Kirk into play. So is the notion of run. I an enemy. Let s be careful. What a pining in jul shia is not an Advance .1 Post communist version of the Cutri Var but a re turn to a pre communist version of a 19th Century balance of Power National interest world. We May have hoped the new Russia would take up duty As an american or Western partner. It May yet if it finds it in its interest in joining the global Economy for instance or in con Taining China. But meanwhile,7he new Russia is filling out the psychological and political of Pace of the old Russia. _ _ _ _ we should be thinking How Best to live in this new universe. C Washington Post Kerr Lin Miscal ulsted badly in chechen attack by Deborah Seward t r Moscow chechen rebels have stung the Krum pm with bitter truths big is not always better the desire for Independence is a powerful weapon and Moscow military machine can be made to bleed profusely. Out manned and outgunned the chechen fierce resistance has stunned and humiliated the russian army. And made fools of generals desperate for Victory. is As of Russia s leaders had never opened a history. Book As if they forgot the afghan debacle and believed their on propaganda As if they never considered the consequences of War inside Russia s own Borders and against is own citizens. For chechen fighting russians is second nature. Tales of chechen bravery Are handed Down from father to son. Morale is High. A deep sense of injustice at the Kremlin s hands drives the entire nation. The chechen fought the czars throughout -.trie". 19th Century. I hey opposed soviet efforts to Sei a their land and survived Stalin s brutal deportation to the icy Steppes of Central Asia in 19-14. The chechen were never willing to accept russian domination said Sergei Arutyunov a Chechnya expert at the russian Academy of sciences. They Don t hate russians but they hate russian Imperial it is no different today. --.-. The furious russian attempt to destroy Gro by and topple chechen president do Hokan Dunayev has Only unified the chechen a nation of More than 160 clans usually feuding among than Iscle is. V a while the Kremlin has painted the chechen fighters As criminals drug runners and arms dealers the entire Republic has rallied to the cause. X the russian invasion has prompted to reared More chechen to take the oath alg Zavat holy War against invaders and revived ancient traditions of blood revenge Andri Mystic islam. T against the chechen the russian soldiers appear a miserable lot. Morale is Lowi As casualties mount and the Campaign drags on their generals seem hapless fools or hopeless to has shown devastating interviews wit re Young soldiers who say they Don t know Why they Are fighting russian civilians in or Bony living Side by Side with chechen say they cannot understand Why the Kremlin is destroying their Homes. President Boris Yeltsin says the War is to prevent Chechnya from seceding from Russia but he seems to Lack a vision of what Russia should be. His generals have miscalculated what it would take to subdue Chechnya. ". ". They seem Urh ave Learned Little from their Mili tary operations of the last 40 years. The soviets sent tanks into Afghanistan Only to Vit her a it or a Lowig and blood Ilc cil. As in Afghanistan the russians face a highly motivated and Well armed opponent willing to fight to the death. A1- a ,./.- v defense minister Pavel Grachev boasted in novem Ber that a single Parachute regiment could subdue Chechnya in two hours. He recently said Only an in competent commander would use tanks in a but that is exactly what he did. _ it Willat the russians did not anticipate is just what easy prey they Woulff become for the chechen fighters. _ in their armoured vehicles the russians were sitting7 ducks for the fighters perched in every House guarding every Back Alley of their capital Rover the past three years the chechen have stolen huge of russian military equipment from badly guarded russian weapons depots they also have purchased armaments from poorly paid russian sol a Dicks and other former soviet republics including tanks missiles and artillery. Each Day Grachev throws More troops and fire Power at the chechen to no Avail. Three weeks after sending in tens of thousands of troops Victory eludes the russians l but Chechnya is Small Only about 1 million people it is not a foreign country and has attic Prospect of win Ning real Independence. 30fjh of Aarre. News Ednoff in the Moscow Bureau of the associated Pruvy. Hao acc i Jav a and Union for Hoap 1988 \ "
