PEN-L message, Re: Chronology of Russian-Chechen relations -- part two

OK. Different left than here, fair enough.

Brother Melvin begins the process of properly framing the critical questions. We have a condition of economic, social deconstruction, devolution, where the centrifugal forces part and parcel of interrupted, confined Russian Revolution, overwhelm the entire social fabric.

Banditry, financial and/or armed, are results. I don't think that calling for "national self-determination" begins to address that real driving forces-- not in Chechnya, Afghanistan (pre Taliban, post Taliban), Iraq, Angola etc.

There is a somewhat paranoid theory of economic history that states that heroin is at the root of all this-- "self-determination for drug-dealers," "poppy pipelines," --- arguing that Kosovar secession was a way to expand transit of heroin from Albania (the gateway to Europe for heroin from Southwest Asia, i.e. Afghanistan) and that the invasion of Afghanistan was was the way to restore poppy cultivation. Chechnya was to become the transit point for movement into all of Russia, with the additional benefit of threatening oil pipelines and pipeline revenues important to Russia.

This argument is not without merit-- as the role of heroin in sustaining and prolonging the war in SE Asia has been documented.

----- Original Message -----

From: Chris Doss

To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 7:29 AM

Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Chronology of Russian-Chechen relations -- part two

Delyagin is a friend of Kagarlitsky, isn't he? I mean left-wing in the economic sense of the term -- he's in Rodina, which is sort-of Keynesian economically and nationalist. (This is usually what "left" means in Russia.)

Afghanistan is a close parallel -- destruction of infrastructure accompanied by the growth of armed bands that rule whatever economy still exists. In Afghanistan, the bands were the former Mujaheedin; in Chechnya, they are the former anti-Russian fighters.

sartesian <sartesian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Read the Delyagin. Must say that if Delyagin is a "left-winger," the right wing must be to the right of John C. Calhoun and Albert Speers.

The information provided by Delyagin quite is the result of the deconstruction of the economy, its warlordization, and bears striking similarities to conditions in Afghanistan, Nigeria, even Iraq.

----- Original Message -----

From: Chris Doss

To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 6:45 AM

Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Chronology of Russian-Chechen relations -- part two

Hey, I did manage to find something in English on the Chechen economy in 2002 by Mikahil Delyagin. (Delyagin is a left-wing quasi-Keynesian economist who looks kind of like a chipmunk.)

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