The first foreign leader to ring Bush after 9/11 was Vladimir Putin, President of Russia. Putin offered his sympathy, and pointed out that Russia had also experienced terrorism.
I found this excellent docu-drama on Google video. Its called Disbelief and it's about the September 1999 bombings of Russian buildings that killed hundreds. Before the bombings, Putin had 30% support. Then, on 09/09/1999 a working-class appartment building blew up in the middle of the night. The government immediately blamed the Muslim people of Chechnya in Russia's south and launched a major war there. Putin's support shot up to 90%. Sound familar?
But a few days after 09/09/1999, alert residents of another appartment building spotted several men planting explosives in their basement. They called the local police, and by luck and quick wittedness, the culprits were caught... and then immediately released. They had FSB badges (former KGB). The FSB official explaination was that it was a training excercise and they forgot to tell the local police.
The war in Chechnya is on-going. 10% of the Chechen population is dead. Thousands of Russian conscript soldiers are dead.
I found this excellent docu-drama on Google video. Its called Disbelief and it's about the September 1999 bombings of Russian buildings that killed hundreds. Before the bombings, Putin had 30% support. Then, on 09/09/1999 a working-class appartment building blew up in the middle of the night. The government immediately blamed the Muslim people of Chechnya in Russia's south and launched a major war there. Putin's support shot up to 90%. Sound familar?
But a few days after 09/09/1999, alert residents of another appartment building spotted several men planting explosives in their basement. They called the local police, and by luck and quick wittedness, the culprits were caught... and then immediately released. They had FSB badges (former KGB). The FSB official explaination was that it was a training excercise and they forgot to tell the local police.
The war in Chechnya is on-going. 10% of the Chechen population is dead. Thousands of Russian conscript soldiers are dead.
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