Common cause

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 510.

Pointing to al-Qaeda

His address went more or less as predicted by Russia watchers, who say that Mr Putin is so wedded to his policy of refusing to give independence to Chechnya that he has little room to manoeuvre. "He may use this to his advantage and come out with an aggressive defence of his position," said Dr Sean McGough of the Department of Politics at Birmingham University. "This attack was a declaration of war against the Russian people. Each incident recently has increased in ferocity and this one attacked the thing most dear to the Russian people - the safety of their children," he told BBC News Online. "President Putin will have a good defence if he can blame the hostage-takers. He might argue that with such people there can be no compromise and that they must be faced and defeated. "To start with, he may try to root out terrorist elements in Russia itself, which could mean a more stringent security policy. "He could use this as a reason for a clampdown. Internationally, he will probably present Russia's case more forcefully and claim that the Chechens have links with al-Qaeda."

Certainly, the taking of children as hostages will have lost the Chechens rebels international sympathy. It will help Russia's arguments. One of the features of the war in Chechnya has been the lack of pressure on Russia, which has managed to link its own crisis to the wider American-led war against al-Qaeda. President Putin has made common cause with President Bush.