From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24 (Original Message) Sent: 7/14/2006 9:04 AM
BASAYEV'S DEATH CREATES FATEFUL CHOICE FOR RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP.
The death late on July 9 of Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev
creates a window of opportunity for those few Russian officials who
advocate peace talks as the only logical way to end the ongoing
fighting across the North Caucasus. At the same time, if the Russian
leadership chooses to spurn that opportunity, the North Caucasus
resistance is already planning -- apparently in line with an eight
year plan of action drafted and endorsed four years ago -- to take
the fighting across the Volga and into the heartland of Russia.
The circumstances of Basayev's death remain sketchy: he
is said to have been killed when a lorry packed with explosives
detonated near the village of Ekazhevo, south-east of the Ingushetian
town of Nazran. Whether the explosion was freakishly fortuitous -- as
the deaths of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov in March 2005 and of
Maskhadov's successor Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev ...
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