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Head Chechen Terrorist Killed by Russians

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, but more accurately since the mid-1990s, Russia has been battling with Chechen separatists and counted few true victories to its credit ? even though, autonomously, Muslim Chechnya remains part of the Russian Federation. Even when federal forces were successful in quelling major warfare in the breakaway republic not long after Vladimir Putin first entered office, thousands of civilians died as a result. In hostage situations, Russian security forces can count only Pyrrhic victories as the deaths of terrorists have been meet or exceeded by the number of deaths of innocent civilians.

Russian civilians have also had to deal with terrorist attacks in Russian cities such as Moscow and Beslan, and one of the key Chechen separatist terrorists responsible for them has been Shamil Basayev. Apparently, though, Russia?s ?public enemy number one? is no longer a threat, as the Russian government has announced that Basayev has been killed, and not too soon, either: another terror attack, on a scale equal to or greater than past attacks, was in the final planning stages.

Of course, this victory of sorts for President Putin might be used to strengthen the position of his stature and his party, Russia has gone down an increasingly autocratic road in recent years, and while Moscow can claim more prosperity, more freedom doesn?t seem to be in the cards at the moment. Whether the death of Shamil Basayev leads to a calmer Chechnya or an increase in terrorist attacks remains to be seen, but Russia will move on and the world will move on, all the while wondering just what Putin is up to.