THE PERILS OF GIVING PUTIN A GREEN LIGHT IN GEORGIA

摘要

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin is upping the stakes for George W. Bush just as the White House wants Russia's support in the U. N. Security Council for a showdown with Saddam Hussein's Iraq―a showdown Washington sees as inevitable even after Baghdad's Sept. 16 agreement to let in inspectors. The issue concerns a matter of top priority to Putin: Chechnya. In a war both sides have fought in brutal fashion, Russian troops have been battling rebels for three years in the nation's breakaway Chechen republic. The Chechen forces, with help from al Qaeda-linked Arab fighters, have used the Pankisi Gorge in neighboring Georgia as a launching pad for deadly strikes against Russian units in Chechnya.