Chechens sympathize with Georgia

Prague Watchdog's Ramzan Akhmadov discusses Chechen reactions to Russia's invasion of Georgia, and interviews some Chechen citizens:

"...The Georgians must be constantly alert, because they can expect a stab in the back at any moment. In 1997 people also believed that the Kremlin was sincere, when Yeltsin and Maskhadov signed a peace agreement. And what happened next?” asks a former deputy of the parliament of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“I have no doubt that the Russian media will now do its best to create an image of Georgians as enemies of Russia. They’ll do it all with the same methods as they used on us Chechens. A mass zombification of the public at large, the preparing of public opinion, perhaps one or two bloody terrorist attacks with a lot of human victims, which will of course be carried out by "persons of Georgian nationality", and Russia will once again enthusiastically respond to an incendiary call to ‘wipe out the terrorists in the toilet’", he says with conviction. “The Kremlin will seek at any cost to overthrow the regime of Mikhail Saakashvili, who is stubborn enough to lead his country into NATO, and they’ll put their puppet in Tbilisi. And there’s a suitable candidate to hand – an ‘opposition figure’ who’s been kept warm by Moscow, Igor Giorgadze, Putin’s colleague in the KGB. In my view, some serious ordeals await Georgia in the near future. Very serious ones," he says. (my tr.)

Read the whole thing here.