Remember the Moscow theatre siege from about ten years ago? The Russian security services pumped some kind of chemical agent into the room to pacify the hostage-takers. They won't say what they used, but it is believed to have been some kind of weaponised anaesthetic gas. They were able to bring the stand-off to an end, but dozens of hostages died. It has been suggested that the Russians knew the risks associated with the gas, and used it anyway. Can you imagine those tactics being used in America?
Sure there were risks. But doing without that gas was even more risky. The whole theatre was rigged with explosives, and any attempt of assault could result in death of ALL of the hostages. With that gas, the federals managed to rescue 786 of 916 hostages. Some hostages died because of their position - they were sitting when they slept and had their tongue blocked the breath, and suffocated. They weren't warned about the gas attack.
The real fail was - how could the feds miss three buses full of thugs equipped with guns and explosives in the centre of the capital? What were the cops looking at?
When it comes to dealing with Chechnya and the Caucasus insurgency, there is only one way to describe Putin's way of dealing with it: overwhelming.
This "overwhelming" is lasting for over 20 years. And what are the results?
Chechnya is doing relatively good today (Kadyrov has pushed the rats away, and Gerard Depardeu even has an apartment in Grozny), but Dagestan, Ingushetia and KBR are still deep in ****.
Today there was an operation in Hasavyurt, Dagestan. Two insurgents blocked an apartment with a 2 years old child inside. They were suggested to give up, but they opened fire at the feds.
Now, the media says - both are eliminated, the child is safe.
Soviet Union did not have such a bull****. This bloody party was started in 1991 and has no visible end.
What do you think: can Russia host the Olympics while it has such a hornet's nest under its ass? BTW, Sochi is much closer to that region than Volgograd.
