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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Medvedev issues stark warning on Caucasus |
| 2009-08-20 |
| Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has issued a harsh warning on the Caucasus region saying that "terrorists there must be liquidated without emotion." "The battle against terrorists must be pursued unceremoniously," Medvedev was quoted as saying at a meeting with members of his national security council in the southern Russian city of Stavropol. "They must be liquidated without emotion or hesitation, or else we will not succeed," he said. Medvedev spoke two days after a truck packed with explosives rammed the gates of a police station in Ingushetia, a province neighboring Chechnya, and exploded in a suicide attack that killed 24, wounded 130 and left nine missing. The Russian President said the situation in the north Caucasus, an area located in the south of the country, was still insecure. The Kremlin in April ended a 10-year "anti-terror" operation in Chechnya. Medvedev said the fight against terrorism in the volatile region would be expanded and would incorporate "different approaches", but did not elaborate on what measure would be taken. He cited "foreign" elements as a factor fomenting instability in the region, but pointedly said the root cause of the problem was within Russia itself, referring specifically to corruption among law enforcement personnel. Deadly attacks by militants on Russian law enforcement forces in the north Caucasus have become a daily occurrence, but Monday's bomb attack in Nazran, the main city in the province of Ingushetia, was unusually large. Medvedev's warning came less than two months after the new president of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, was seriously injured in a bomb attack on his motorcade. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Wouldn't it be better to spend trilllions democratizing them? Considering that it's the Russians, it should be tens of trillions. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-08-20 22:54 |
| #4 Wouldn't it be better to spend trilllions democratizing them? Yes. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-08-20 17:34 |
| #3 |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2009-08-20 15:34 |
| #2 Wouldn't it be better to spend trilllions democratizing them? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-08-20 07:44 |
| #1 " There, that's better. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2009-08-20 02:51 |