THE PROPAGANDA WAR…

Moscow is conducting a full public-relations campaign to make the war in Chechnya synonymous with the “struggle against terrorism.” Russian officials last week blamed unnamed Chechens for last February’s assassination attempt in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, that killed nine but missed President Islam Karimov. On Russian television, a Georgian who confessed to an attempt against the life of Georgia’s President Eduard Shevardnadze said he had trained at a terrorist camp in Chechnya. President Boris Yeltsin in a letter to President Bill Clinton insisted on Russia’s desire for a political solution in the northern Caucasus–but one that destroys “the nest of terrorism.” Russian diplomats sponsored a UN Security Council resolution condemning terrorist acts as “criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivation.” Western officials were co-opted in this propaganda exercise when Prime Minister Putin addressed U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and justice ministers from the leading industrialized democracies, gathered in Moscow for a conference on organized crime and terrorism. “Russia has come face to face with this beastly challenge,” he told them, calling for a “pooling of efforts of all countries in the struggle against terrorism.” That sound bite made the news.