Moscow Times You have reached an old and outdated link. The Carnegie Endowment has a new website. By Michael McFaul, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and a professor of political science at Stanford University. Originally printed in the Moscow Times , October 26, 1999.
All countries have the right to defend their people from terrorists.
Russia is no exception. The Russian military campaign in Chechnya, however, has moved well beyond the earlier limited objective of combating terrorism. If the original motivations and objectives of the Russian counteroffensive were the right ones, the means now being deployed are the wrong ones. The Russian military should have kept its focus on the Chechen commanders who invaded Dagestan. Instead, the Russian forces currently occupying northern Chechnya now seem poised to seize the Chechen capital.