Because Vladi couldn't keep his mouth shut, instead of Soviet War Crimes of WWII, more specifically the murder, rape and kidnap of German civilians after the capture of Berlin, we're doing Chechnya, and we're doing both wars, so we're going back to Chechnya. Can you believe it's been five months since that comp? It feels like it wasn't that long ago, actually I lied, it feels like it was forever ago. Back to the depressing war that is the Chechen war.
What the Russians did in Chechnya in inexcusable, however, what the Chechens did as well, can not be excused either.
A mass grave being discovered as well as a Russian Soldier confessing what happened to a few prisoners.
"... Alec- please don't do this. You and I both know that if you continue we both die. Please Alec, please pull troops back."
(Alec) "I cannot- these are my orders. I wish to pull back but can not. I have to. I'm sorry..."
"Alec please, this comes from my heart, I do not want to harm you but if you push forward you give me no choice."
(Alec) "This is my order and I will fulfill it."
"Alec please before it's not too late don't continue. What don't you understand? If you push forward you die and I die. What is the point in that?"
"Alec please do a favor for your boys and their mothers, turn them around, don't do this, don't do this."
Some except from this video, note, I don't speak this language.
Dagestan, it's a name I wish to forget, in 1996, near Komsomolskoye six Russian prisoners of war were executed, five by beheading, while the last was shot in the back while trying to run. One of those beheaded was Yevgeny Rodionov, who refused to convert to Islam as well as remove his cross around his neck, he also refused to defect.
In Grozny, the Chechen capital, Chechen forces would use civilians, often time native Russian civilians as human shields to divert any bombing.
I believe many of you are aware of the Russian theater hostage situation, in which Chechens took a theater in Moscow, which lead to a rescue attempt in which over 100 hostages were killed by a gas released by Russian forces. Two years later, Chechens seized about 1,000 hostages at a school in the southern city of Beslan, a raid that left some 330 people dead, half of them children. Other attacks have been directed against hospitals, public concerts and residential areas.
The Chechens have been accused to also have committed, murder, rape, torture, taking of loot, beheading and hostage taking.
The Russians were not saints either. 2,000-5,000 people have been said to have been disappeared by force. Many of their bodies were never found. Although mass graves of Chechen civilians and fighters were found, many of the missing still have not been found.
As, usual, I'm not trying to justify what was done, but when Russian Forces attempted to take Grozny, cluster bombs, artillery, aerial bombings and use of Ballistic missiles hit cities, buildings and civilian centers, sites that Chechen fighters would hide in.
Prisoners captured by the Russians would either be tied to the back of BMP-2s or BTR-90s. Captured snipers were executed, or as discussed in the video, ripped apart by tanks. They were also tortured, beaten and dragged by tanks.
At least 8 mass killings were reported and documented, many of them by Russian soldiers against civilians and safe centers. Many mass graves were found littered throughout Chechnya.
We all know Russia does not give a **** about civilians during times of war, so this just isn't too much of a surprised. Many who were convicted of mass killings and ordering air strikes on civilians centers were either let go, acquitted or given light sentences. Why did the US not speak out about this? Because for two reasons, during the first war, they tried to get the new Russian Federation to be pro-west and did not cry out against the death and murders the Russians committed. The second one was after 9/11 the US was looking for allies and saw Chechnya as another front to the war against Islamic Terror. So not many were really sentenced for war crimes during these two wars.
