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YOU KNEW I WAS GOING TO REPLY TO THIS!
VIDEO #1: This could've been done by anyone. Local mafia, Russian military, Chechen rebels. The lady getting slapped in the beginning seemed ethnic Russian to me. For the child, the camera doesnt show around much, escept concentrating on the wound, which doesnt say much about who committed the crime. Both sides have committed crimes in the war. For that, this video is very vague to say that the Russians did it.
VIDEO #2: First of all, Stalin was an ethnic Georgian. He also deported and killed many of his own Georgians, Ukrainians, and EVEN ethnic Russians. In 1920s, peasants in Russian region of Tambov revolted against the communist regime, demanding land and rights. Stalin sent in the troops, which brutally massacred many villages, sent on fire farms, burning grain and raping women. In the end, over 100,000 of them died. In World War II, Stalin ordered officers to shoot retreating Russian soldiers. When Leningrad was about to become in blockade, he ORDERED TO SHOOT ANY PEOPLE LEAVING THE CITY - he forbid anyone to leave, and many thousands of its citizens were starved to death by the blockade. And there's more examples. So the point is, the brutal communist regime went against everyone, and sometimes against ethnic groups like Chechens because they posed threat to the central regime. It would be really dumb to deport Russia to Russia (Siberia), so in Russia he just massacred the civilians.
First of all, you cant really take what Soviets did into a fair comparison. Everyone knows they committed crimes, even my grand grand father was murdered by the NKVD bastards with no cause. They were terrible dictators.
Secondly, its what wars do. There's probably a ton of footage for war crimes of any conflict going on around the world. All participants commit murder, sometimes intentionally for their own personal benefit.
VIDEO #3: True, there were Russian war crimes, I wouldn't deny it. Russians have killed both ethnic Chechens and ethnic Russians, especially in the areas of bitter resistance to advancing Russian forces, or in areas where civilians were suspected of harbouring or helping the rebels. Terrible crimes, yes I know. However, notice how the Russian armoured cars are passing and not shooting the civilians and not questioning them. The Russian army is not all that brutal. BTW, Chechen rebels had their own civilian deaths and murders, though not as much as the Russian army did. Chechen rebels had their own massacres, and they used the same techniques so that their murders could be blamed on thee Russian forces.
I saw some great videos back home from videotapes seized from Chechnya where rebels, dressed in uniforms taken from dead Russian soldiers would videotape themselves before and after an attack speaking Chechen, laughing and such. Then they would drive around inn Russian cars, pulling over drivers, taking their money, and beating some up, speaking in Russian at the time. ---- There are plenty of examples ...
Video's description of genocide is very vague - by their definition you might as well say that Americans have committed genocide in Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan too. Any war between countries can be labeled as genocide then.
Plus, dont forget, what happened in Chechnya in 1996-1999 between the wars was just as brutal. In that occassion, their own Chechen people murdered, pillaged and abused their own republic, just when they had the chance to do something good, and instead they continued what they did in the war.
Russia is not trying to wipe Chechens out. Sure they used brutal force in the early years, but they have since given Chechnya autonomy, their self-governing republic to set its own laws. They're rebuilding the region, schools, mosques. I highly doubt that the tortures and rapes of women and children still go on today. And if they ever do, the policemen are prosecuted accordingly. There's been couple highlight cases in recent years where Russian officers were punished in court of law for murdering civilians. In 2005, a Russian internal police officer in Chechnya got drunk and he shot couple civilians. Well, now he is serving 2o-something years in the notoriously bad Russian prison.
When I'll visit Russia in the upcoming years, I'll see if I can visit Chechnya to provide you with some pictures of positive progress, and see if I can find online photos showing the same areas previosly demolished. You should compare what the country was in 2003 to now and later. Grozny is getting rebuilt as we speak.
Remember, Russia no longer has an army in Chechnya - they withdrew it in favour of local police and special Russian task forces that patrol for any rebels that still fight in the mountains. And border guards.
Cosncription into military service in Russia for fighting in a war is over this year. From now on the conscripts would not go to war, only the contractors do. And now you have to go through 12 month training first before proceeding to anything else in the military.
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