The war which began in early December in Chechnya, the Russian republic in the North Caucasus, was a test of many things, but of Russia's claim to be an open society in particular. Leaving aside the special case of the assault on the Russian Parliament in Moscow in October 1993, this is the first full-scale military action in which the Russian state has engaged on what it perceives to be its own territory. It justified its intervention - on Sunday, 11 December - by reference to the presence on Chechen territory of large numbers of illegal armed groups apparently loyal to the Chechen President Dzhokar Dudayev, whose election in late 1991 is itself seen by the Russian authorities as illegal: these groups, the Russians said, were threatening the civilian population. Even if one accepts that this constitutes grounds for intervention it is still necessary - and here has lain the difficulty for the Russian administration - for journalists to believe that the questions do not end, but only begin, at that point.

LRB 12 January 1995 | PDF Download