Word: chechens
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Russian commanders had boasted that Grozny would fall within days after a concerted effort to seize the city began on Christmas eve. But mounting Russian casualties in the face of ferocious Chechen resistance signaled that Moscow would pay a heavy price to capture the city. Despite a six-week siege and constant bombardment of the city, Chechen forces are reported to have broken through Russian lines and reoccupied a number of villages to the southwest of the city. That may be a sign that Chechnya's brutal winter conditions are hampering Russian battle plans by ruling out effective...
...specter of mounting Russian casualties in a Caucasian quagmire could eat away at his support. Still, suspending the assault - out of a sudden concern for the city's civilian population after six weeks of indiscriminate bombing - doesn't necessarily eliminate the risk. Russian generals have already conceded that Chechen forces are actively harassing their troops deep inside areas over which Moscow has ostensibly established control. Which means that right now there's no politically safe way forward - or back...
There should be at least a measure of concern, then, in Putin's camp, at the current state of the Chechnya campaign. Grozny is proving far more resilient than was allowed for by Russian generals who boasted three weeks ago that the Chechen capital would fall within days. Western news reports on Wednesday quoted Russian officers describing the heavy casualties their units have suffered in Grozny, and the Russian media has begun covering funerals of soldiers killed in the campaign. Although seizing Grozny would be more of a symbolic victory than anything else - the bulk of the Chechen separatist army...
...Although the early phases of the campaign - in which Russian losses were minimal due to a heavy-bombardment strategy - earned then-prime minister Putin unprecedented popularity for a neophyte government official, fierce Chechen resistance has slowed Moscow's momentum and raised the specter of heavy Russian casualties. That could pose a problem for Putin's bid to win the presidency in elections that have been brought forward to March by Boris Yeltsin's resignation. "Putin's people know that as much as the Chechnya campaign has sent his popularity rocketing among Russian voters, it could fall just as quickly...
...West managed for most of his rule to overlook the dark side of Yeltsin's personality and presidency. The 100,000 or so deaths during the first Chechen war were regrettable, Western officials said. His character was sometimes a problem, but things were never boring with Boris, they added indulgently. He insulted the West but never broke with it. He was firmly and uncompromisingly anticommunist...