Monitor: International press comment on the renewed Russian assault on Chechnya

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WHAT JUSTIFICATION can there be today for shelling Grozny - the television station, the energy infrastructure, civilian housing? The terrorist bombings have not been linked in even a remotely convincing way to Chechnya. Basayev - who has a track record of frankness about the terrorism he carries out - denies involvement. Even if it is Basayev, or some other Chechen faction, why bomb Grozny? The lone point of sanity in Chechnya is President Aslan Maskhadov. He shares Russian distaste and hostility for Basayev. If the goal is national security, Russia should be strengthening Maskhadov's hand by granting Chechnya formal independence. But clearly - and frighteningly - national security is beside the point. We are about to rescue Basayev from irrelevance, just as a previous ill-considered war revived General Dudayev's flagging career. The Russian government is waging a reckless war of revenge - one with full public support, and even some hesitant Western support. This is utter disaster. And aside from the immorality of it all, does anyone believe the Chechens intend to lose a game of revenge?

The St Petersburg Times

BOMBING GROZNY to get at the bandits is like bombing New York to get at drug dealers: it makes no sense, and it causes the wrong people a great deal of pain. The Russian authorities apparently have taken a page from Nato, or at least think they have; they hope to use air power in Chechnya to the same good effect that Nato did in Yugoslavia. The Russian military is keen to avoid a ground war, recalling how badly its troops were mauled by rebel forces during the disastrous war that ended in 1996. But Chechnya isn't Yugoslavia, and the Nato lesson would appear to be badly misapplied. If bombing won't work, what will? Perhaps the Russians might try words. President Maskhadov already has called on the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to open talks; presumably Maskhadov has at least a chance of bringing the rebels to the table as well. Putin has declined the invitation, unwisely. He should reconsider, for there is no way in Chechnya that he can bomb his way to peace.

Star Tribune, US

THE WEST needs a competent, forward-looking Russia, not one caught in the coils of a dirty ethnic war. It is particularly disturbing to find the Yeltsin government disdaining talks with the Chechen government, which has its own reason to restore local order. There is no good solution to this conflict, but some solutions are better than others, and Moscow does not yet appear to be heading toward them.

The Washington Post

Apart from the political uncertainties that abound in Moscow, the Russian military is in poor state and the political authorities must evolve a strategy to tackle the Caucasus problem. One hopes that threat of ground troops in Chechnya again remains just that. The agreement that brought the Chechnya fighting to an end in 1996 merely postponed the question of the republic's status and is now strained to the breaking-point. Talks with Yeltsin suggested by the Chechen President have met with a frosty Russian response but the latter is in no position to guarantee the conduct of his warlords and can only plead his own innocence. A meeting of Caucasian leaders with President Yeltsin and his advisers could be more productive, but the problem of policing a lawless region with the central authority in Moscow in its present state, is still formidable.

Khaleej Times