his first-hand accounts of the various trouble -makings & -makers in that 'hood are miles and miles above most others. There are some other views of Russia at the site, Cali Ruchala's most effectively. I like the mag for they cut across most of the usual bullshit (with some of their own, I suppose) from most of the usual approaches, and I can always appreciate that in somebody/somebodies. A pretty wide swath for the things covered, but it's not fast on the uptake sometimes--a LBN wire service, it ain't, but that's ok.
I'm actually undecided on Putin. I guess I'm like that on a lot of things, having too much info at hand to pick from and not giving much a fuck for doing so.. He's quite a bit like what Mr.W would
like to be--especially with the media--, but then he actually
is and in a completely serious way (which is a shame, since our baffoon's baffoonery at least provides for the comic relief inbetween the shrieks and gasps).
The disintegration tendencies are from before and represent something he doesn't completely deserve credit for (though he drifts into that quite stupidly on occasion and seems to like it), and seems rather to be grinding a little bit slower under Pootie, with a couple quite notable exceptions. Like the drunkard who came before, he obviously wasn't planning on the Chechen 'shithouse' lobbing a few rounds back at their blitzkreig and it's worse this time. I agree on the 'flying blind' bit, though in these situations somebody like him technically has no shortage of ideas, just not good ones--the familiar idea is obviously to work harder at most of the things making matters fucked, and taking advantage of that to pull in the burning reigns a little tighter than anyone else would like, of course making it all more fucked and generally making a bother for anybody who wasn't bothered before. Maybe that's the idea, I don't know. :shrug: I sorta pride myself in not intimately understanding the sort
too intimately.
I wonder, though, whether Putin geniunely considered Shamil's letter, or whether it got to him with enough time to think over the real meat of the matter before the place went down. From the public face, the answer to that is obvious but it's also obvious where that's coming from and why. What was offered by the commander, stripped of most of the gruesome bombast and typically remarkable insight, was actually the best that Putin and his gang could hope for: loss of direct control, but they never had that and never will, but that with a guarantee from the only man who could really provide one (and provided it was in good faith, one that would necessarily be upheld) and still, short of direct control, some amount of economic influence in terms of the CIS & ruble. The years have humbled even Shamil. I think he just wants an excuse to trim the beard again, like when he put back on the Bermuda shirts & khaki shorts of his Soviet computer salesman days, after 1997.
I see now, which I had reflexively denied previously, the event was staged, on the one hand to gather up a great amount of attention and knowingly not much of that positive (then again, see most of your family butchered and all of your friends dying in regular succession, maybe that ceases to matter and the 'big picture' alone takes over with a cold breeze), but more importantly to be something big enough to be capable of forcing an ending to the whole matter. He speaks this plainly in the most recently issued communique, which I finally found a full & decent copy of in the language I actually understand well. The Russians have at least learned a few things from Buddenovsk & Pervomoskoyie, and that's not to allow the bad guys to make total asses of the 'liberators' and somehow have the former blast their way into the saviors of the whole affair. The media are trained pets, even more than here.
As it happened, it is, indeed from Shamil's point of view, that of Riyadh as-Salakhin, and most everybody else, a catastrophic tragedy. The far greater tragedy it was intended to put a halt to would have been a miraculous blessing had it gone down as intended. Cauterizing that bleeding wound, which was supposedly the intention of blasting thousands of people into Nothingness and carving doodles into some of the rest, on what would sort of pass for mutually beneficial terms would do much to halt both the crumble & the excuses for the State's Hammer--which may actually be why that in itself is far too dangerous a thought to actually think about progressing towards. :shrug:
Maybe I'm too optimistic and picking the wrong sets of facts to lean on, and it is "Hitler with atomic weapons" as
Musa Shanibov said as the first bombs fell on Djokharkala and as his western & eastern enemies would like to say. I definitely get that "Hitler" vibe from some of the old Ossetian women quotes in the press, but Vlad himself has been somewhat restrained this time. What the pols do in quiet is more discomforting, I suppose. It will be seen clearly enough eventually, so I don't suppose my speculation means much.
On a completely random note that I haven't been able to work into other posts before: they pardoned Colonol Budanov again. He was that guy who raped and strangled a Chechen girl to ... well, generally wide applause from his patriotic brothers to the north. That 'temporary window of insanity' plea seems to have a lot of mileage for him, though the admiration held for his deeds is only thinly veiled anymore and that indeed holds the greater sway. Still a few more whispy bureaucratic hurdles to tip over (including Pootie's John Hancock eventually), but the 'hero' will walk and will continue to be emulated regularly.
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