Papism

'As clear-cut a case of Islamist barbarism as it is, though, it is difficult to make sense of the spiraling violence in Russia without reference to Vladimir Putinâ??s disastrous anti-terrorism policies.

Unlike his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, President Putin from the very beginning of his tenure in the Kremlin showed himself completely unwilling to consider any negotiated settlement with the Chechens and pursued a strictly military solution and a puppet regime in Grozny instead -- an attitude characterized by his vulgar promise to the resistance to â??rub them out in the latrine.â? He had no interest in exploring let alone exploiting the deep gulf between the resistanceâ??s hard-line, Saudi-supported Islamists and its secular nationalists, who had little in common except their vehement dislike of Moscowâ??s heavy-handed domination.

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