Financial Times

Letters

Crimes in which the Russian leadership is implicated

By Jeremy Putley

Published: June 23 2003

From Mr Jeremy Putley.

Sir, As Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, prepares to come to this country on a state visit tomorrow, it is timely to remember the conduct of the two Chechen wars, in which it is conservatively estimated that upwards of 100,000 Chechens have died and hundreds of thousands have fled from their homes.

War crimes perpetrated by the Russian military sent to Chechnya have included the complete destruction of the capital, Grozny, by shelling and by bombing while large numbers of civilians were in the city, and the use of ballistic missiles and fuel air bombs against civilian targets. The Russian leadership is implicated in these crimes.

It should be remembered that, during the recent war in Iraq, American officials made it clear that General Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was Saddam Hussein's agent in the murder of some 200,000 Kurds, would be tried after the war for crimes against humanity.

There is no moral difference between the crimes of the deposed Iraqi government against the Kurdish people and those of the government of the Russian Federation against the Chechens, except that the Russian government is democratically elected, which renders its war crimes against its own citizens historically unique.*

Referring to the presidential visit, Tony Blair has said he will raise the subject of Chechnya with Mr Putin but will make clear that he condemns the terrorism "emanating from Chechnya". It is by now eminently clear that Mr Blair's sympathies are entirely misplaced. The origins of terrorism, in the Chechnya conflict, are the Nazi- style atrocities of the Russian armed forces and agencies sent there by Mr Putin. It is a tragedy for the Chechen people that this truth has not been recognised
by western governments.

While organised murder squads are operating under the control of government ministries in Chechnya, it is an extraordinary lapse of judgment that the prime minister has seen fit to invite Mr Putin to this country. It is not appropriate to honour a national leader who has waged an aggressive war against his own people.

Jeremy Putley, Harrogate, North Yorks HG1 5JU

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Comment: * That's not quite correct. Hitler's third Reich rose from the ashes of a democracy too. Moreover now there is no democracy in Russia anymore. Most Russians are not at all informed about what is going on really in Chechnya.