In the Ukrainian capital, where the murderous roar of Russian heavy artillery resounds, many things seem familiar to me. Starting with the prevailing feeling of terror.
Almost thirty years ago, I was in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. In full dislocation of the Soviet Union, this territory of southern Russia had dared to proclaim its independence vis-à-vis Moscow. The Chechens had been presumptuous and paid a heavy price.
reign of terror
Two times [en 1995 puis en 2000]the Russian army invaded and razed Grozny, implementing a strategy that has since become Moscow’s preferred method of seizing control of the outlying regions that once marked the borders of the Russian Empire and subjugating their population.
The two situations are very different. Chechnya was a small territory in the North Caucasus with one million inhabitants. Ukraine is a sovereign state of 40 million inhabitants, with an army of more than 200,000 soldiers.
But despite these differences, it is worth remembering what happened in Grozny. Chechnya is indeed the first region where Vladimir Putin [durant la seconde guerre de Tchétchénie, à partir de 1999] developed his plan of attack to reassert Russian dominance wherever he saw fit.
His method? To reign terror by brute force, to bombard and besiege cities, to target civilians, to kidnap and imprison journalists and local elected officials to replace them with people in the pay of Moscow. All these practices are direct borrowings from Stalin’s methods.
Demonstration of incompetence
The [première] War in Chechnya had begun with a stark display of Moscow’s incompetence. On December 31, 1994, the Kremlin [Boris Eltsine était alors au pouvoir] had sent his troops to Grozny – a mistake. Composed mainly of conscripts not knowing what to expect, the Russian army had brought long columns of tanks and armored vehicles into the city, certain of overthrowing the Chechen leaders in a flash.
On the spot, the Russian tanks had come up against units of ultra-motivated Chechen fighters, armed with anti-tank missiles. In the space of one night, hundreds of Russian soldiers and armor had fallen into Chechen ambushes and found themselves trapped in flames. The Maikop motorized brigade was even almost entirely decimated.
In Russia, this setback had resulted in several days of stunned silence. The Kremlin was trying to analyze what had just happened and was sending military reinforcements. The Chechens were celebrating their victory. They even let their prisoners telephone their mother, and call for the withdrawal of Russian troops at the same time. But this lull was going
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