Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Russian tragedy involving US ally and feared meeting

A bomb targeting troops, killing 10 in Russia and injuring 23 people, is a spillover from our allies the Chechens. This bombing coincides with Hu’s meeting with Putin and is yet again another act of violence timed to correspond with a meeting the US is vehemently against.

We are not only bombing Russia but we are also bombing Iran.
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President Hu leaves for Russia
Last Updated(Beijing Time):2005-06-30 13:54

Chinese President Hu Jintao left Beijing on Thursday morning for a state visit to two major neighboring countries and participation in two significant summit meetings.
Hu will visit Russia and Kazakhstan, attend a summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Kazak capital of Astana, and attend a G8 (Group of Eight) plus five summit in Britain. http://en.ce.cn/National/Politics/200506/30/t20050630_4097770.shtml


MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and China are bolstering reciprocal support on Taiwan and Chechen issues, Chinese President Hu Jintao said Friday.
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Published July 2, 2005
MOSCOW -- Ten Russian soldiers were killed when a bomb ripped through a military truck parked outside a bathhouse Friday in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, the latest in a wave of bombings and ambushes plaguing the North Caucasuses.


Shootout in breakaway Georgian region

This violence the first in a long time involves U.S. controlled Georgia and occurs right before the first ever ‘stand alone’ trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of India, Russia and China. This is a meeting the United States is not happy about.
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If you remember the Beslan school siege and slaughter of the Russian schoolchildren was timed to postpone Putin’s trip to Turkey and discussion of the Trans-Thracian pipeline which it did much to the delight of the United States.

At least this time Bush is killing troops instead of schoolchildren.

One should note the airliner explosions preceding the Beslan school siege coincided with Putin’s Sochi meeting with President Jacques Chirac of France and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany, another event the United States did not want to take place.
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-Am

Bomb targets troops, killing 10 in Russia
Dagestan blast spurs fear of ripple effect from Chechen unrest

By Alex Rodriguez
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published July 2, 2005


MOSCOW -- Ten Russian soldiers were killed when a bomb ripped through a military truck parked outside a bathhouse Friday in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, the latest in a wave of bombings and ambushes plaguing the North Caucasuses.

The explosion occurred as three Russian military trucks carrying special forces troops arrived at a bathhouse in the republic's capital, Makhachkala. Russian television showed images of a truck door pockmarked with shrapnel holes from the blast and a large pool of blood immediately behind the truck.

At least 10 other soldiers and four civilians were seriously injured in the blast, said Nariman Primov, a spokesman for the Dagestan prosecutor's office. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that 23 people had been injured.

The republic of Dagestan lies between the Caspian Sea and the republic of Chechnya, which has been ravaged by a 10-year conflict between Russian troops and Chechen separatists. In recent months, violence from the Chechen conflict has spilled over into Dagestan and the North Caucasus republics of North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria, as separatists strive to sow instability across the region.

In Dagestan, much of the violence has been directed at local police and soldiers. This year, bombings and shootings in the republic have killed at least 30 police and injured 40 more. Much of that violence has occurred in Makhachkala.

In some cases the attacks have been acts of revenge committed by relatives or friends of Dagestanis illegally arrested and then mistreated while being detained, said Alexei Malashenko, a North Caucasus affairs expert for the Carnegie Moscow Center.

However, Dagestan has been a tinderbox for years, largely because Islamic extremists such as Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev have been trying to stoke conflict across the region. After a three-year hiatus, the war in Chechnya resumed in 1999 when Basayev led separatist rebels on incursions into Dagestan.

Basayev also claimed responsibility for masterminding the school siege in Beslan, North Ossetia, that killed more than 330 people. At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the hostage-taking in Beslan was an attempt by Chechen rebels to inflame tensions throughout the Caucasus republics.

Dmitry Kozak, a top Putin aide and the president's envoy in the North Caucasus, warned in a recent report to the Kremlin that violence in Dagestan and the other North Caucasus republics could worsen, and pointed to the need to eradicate corruption and civic apathy there.

The report, unusual in its starkly pessimistic characterization of the Caucasus, warned that "the arbitrary nature of the authorities has created social apathy. . . . In many areas, authorities do not have any public support," according to excerpts published in a Russian newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolets.

"The Kremlin is very far away from resolving the problem in the Caucasus region," Malashenko said. "It's clear that the situation is very close to exploding, to becoming a crisis."

Friday's blast occurred at the site of a similar terrorist attack directed at Russian soldiers, Russian television reported. After that attack, soldiers were barred from using the bathhouse, but that ban was later lifted, according to Channel One television in Moscow.



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