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Granted that the threat facing Russia today is primarily of its own making. Putin's leadership is responsible for nearly five years of disastrous policy that has devastated the local economy in Chechnya and has alienated much of the population with brutality and scores of human rights violations by federal military and security forces. Unreformed and unaccountable military, security and intelligence forces have left the Russian people more vulnerable to terrorism than when Putin assumed power. Putin is also responsible for transforming the country's weak quasi-democratic polity into a semi-authoritarian state. The continual recentralization of state power, including further authoritarian measures announced by Putin on Sept. 13, appears very counterproductive in mobilizing Russian society to combat terrorism effectively. The record will show five years of expanding authoritarianism coinciding with a growing terrorist threat to Russia.
But in international affairs, ideal partners do not exist. Josef Stalin's Soviet Union was hardly a paragon of democratic virtue, but without the brave efforts of Soviet soldiers, the Third Reich may have been far longer-lived and millions more lives lost. Similarly, in the Cold War, the United States was allied with regimes like Turkey and South Korea that at times were notorious for human rights violations and authoritarian rule. Whether the United States likes it or not, Russia is an essential partner in any international coalition efforts to defeat al-Qaida.
In fact, alarm bells should be ringing now in U.S. policy circles about the dangers of Russia failing, and we should be mobilizing as much support for Russia as possible. The United States has been mightily distracted with Iraq for more than two years. From the standpoint of U.S. policy, the superficial and rhetorical character of the supposed U.S.-Russian strategic partnership stems principally from benign rather than malign neglect.
But many Russians today attribute malign intent on the part of Washington toward Russia. Putin implicitly alluded to this in his address to the nation on Sept. 4, when he referred to dark and mysterious forces that seek to weaken Russia and that fear its nuclear weapons. These comments have ignited a torrent of anti-Western and especially anti-U.S. commentary in the Russian written and electronic media. There is a strong dose of scapegoating non-existent enemies to distract from massive policy failures in Chechnya and the North Caucasus, as well as the failures of Russian security and intelligence forces to address terrorist threats. Suffice to say that there is a great deal of ambivalence and distrust on the parts of both Washington and Moscow in the bilateral relationship.
Russia's war on terror, of course, must be principally fought by Russians and the Russian government. Since governance in Russia more and more depends on one man, Putin will shoulder the principal responsibility to mobilize his government and people. Although the goals of Basayev and Co. have grown much larger than Chechen independence or removal of federal troops, enhancing the security of the Russian nation will have to begin in Chechnya. This will entail a more open and participatory political process, massive aid for reconstruction, punishment for human rights violations, and, of course, capturing and/or killing those responsible for the planning and implementation of terrorist acts in Russia. Simply eliminating Basayev will go a long way toward reducing the threat. That he is still running free 10 years after the beginning of the first war in Chechnya speaks volumes about Russian capabilities. Major adjustments to policy in Chechnya and increasing the effectiveness of federal security forces will require tremendous political will and acumen on the part of Putin that to date has been lacking.
The United States and its allies and partners can and should make greater efforts to support Putin in the following areas: 1) much fuller sharing of intelligence information; 2) material and technical support to better secure Russian borders, airports, other transportation infrastructure and nuclear power stations as well as nuclear and chemical weapons and materials; 3) more assistance to close off sources of financing from abroad for terrorist groups on Russian territory; and 4) training and possibly direct operational assistance in the search and capture of terrorists. Even modest success at U.S.-Russian cooperation to address threats to Russian security can go a long way in helping to break down the barriers of distrust. There is no doubt in our minds that some of the threats to Russia are threats to U.S. interests as well.
Russians and Americans are joined in grief from the experience of recent Septembers. After Sept. 11, 2001, Putin defied his chief foreign policy advisers and joined the United States wholeheartedly in defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan. He did not do this because of his special relationship with U.S. President George W. Bush or any abiding love of the United States. He did this because defeating the Taliban and the terrorists they harbored was directly in Russia's national interest.
Similarly, after Russia's most gruesome September, the United States cannot afford to let its justified reservations about Putin's authoritarian inclinations prevent it from making every effort to help him defeat terrorism. The stakes are too high.
Andrew C. Kuchins is director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, and Dmitry Trenin is senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They contributed this comment to The Moscow Times.
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