March 6, 2000 Features Special issue: Election 2000 The First Stone BY JOEL BLEIFUSS Vanishing voters. Gush vs. Bore BY DOUG IRELAND Free Ride BY PAT MURPHY Meet the real John McCain. Cash and Carry BY JEFFREY ST. CLAIR George W. Bush's environmental menace. Fair Weather Friends BY JUAN GONZALEZ Candidates court the Latino vote. More Marketplace Medicine BY DAVID MOBERG Neither Democrats' health plan will fix the system. News & Views Editorial BY SALIM MUWAKKIL At death's door. A Terry Laban Cartoon The Highest Possible Price BY FRED WEIR Russia refuses to learn from its mistakes in Chechnya. Secrets and Lies BY STEVEN DUDLEY After a failed uprising, Ecuador's indigenous groups warn a civil war could ensue. Dirt Road Rage BY GEOFF SCHUMACHER Wise-users intimidate Nevada wilderness advocates. Appall-O-Meter BY DAVID FUTRELLE Profile BY SILJA J. A. TALVI Bert Sacks: A voice in the wilderness. The Flanders Files BY LAURA FLANDERS Natural born rapists. Culture Bohemian Raphsody BY SANDY ZIPP Studio apartments, grape nuts, S/M and Buffy. Shock Treatment BY JOSHUA ROTHKOPF FILM: The cinema of mental hygiene.

The Highest Possible Price Russia refuses to learn from its mistakes in Chechnya By Fred Weir Moscow A Russian soldier in the pile of rubble that once was Grozny. Credit: AFP/ITAR-TASS One thumbnail definition of insanity is when someone does the same thing over and over, but expects different results. By this measure, Russia's political and military elite are sliding inexorably into the blood and muck of a second war in the Caucasus because they have taken leave of their senses. Whatever the Kremlin may say, the 4-month-old "anti-terrorist" operation against the tiny separatist republic of Chechnya is turning into a full-scale replay of the disastrous two-year conflict that ended in humiliating defeat and the withdrawal of Russian troops in 1996. "The new war in Chechnya is part of a political strategy for consolidating power in Moscow," says Alexander Iskanderyan, director of the Center for Caucasian Studies in Moscow. Acting President Vladimir Putin, who faces elections on March 26, has staked his reputation on bringing rebel Chechnya to heel, halting the disintegration of Russia and restoring "order." Strong public approval of the war brought the Kremlin victory in December parliamentary elections. But the war news has turned grim, and Putin's popularity is declining. "We are headed down a well-trodden path to disaster, like the last Chechen war, or the Soviet Union's failed intervention in Afghanistan," Iskanderyan says. "What is meant to be a swift military operation to solve a political problem turns into a long guerrilla struggle. We respond with massive repression against the civilian population, and in the process we lose any hope of solving the political problem." Fred Weir is a contributing editor of In These Times.   TOP HOME SUBSCRIBE MAIL   In These Times © 2000 Volume 24, Number 7