hist2004
07-28-2004, 01:59 PM
Russia to hunt Chechen rebel leaders with new airborne units (10 August 2003)
Russia's Airborne Troops have started setting up rapid response units to pursue insurgents in Chechnya amidst widespread dismay at the recent devastating rebel bombing of a military hospital in Mozdok. The new units are likely to be recruited from men of the 7th Airborne Division based near Novorossiysk. The following is the text of a report by Sergey Ishchenko, published in the newspaper Trud on 8 August under the headline "'Blue Berets' decide to catch Basayev, and counterterrorist Airborne Troops battalions are being created for this purpose". The subheadings have been added editorially: For the Russian government, the recent tragedy in Mozdok [in North Ossetia on 1 August, when a lorry exploded, destroying the military hospital in the town] seems to have represented something like a Rubicon on the road to the dramatic intensification of the struggle against terrorists in the North Caucasus. Military and law-enforcement agencies responded to the president's harsh condemnation of the "negligence" that essentially contributes to the criminals' reckless raids by quickly reporting their own heightened determination to get rid of the terrorists. Russia's Airborne Troops were among the first to make this declaration. Who is to blame? On the eve of their official holiday, the commander of Airborne Troops, Col-Gen Georgiy Shpak, tried to find an answer to the question everyone has been asking for a long time: why has it been impossible to get rid of the most despicable rebel leaders in Chechnya? After all, there is a large contingent of troops there, not to mention special forces from all parts of the country, and the mountainous part of the republic, where the gangs of [field commander] Shamil Basayev and [Chechen rebel leader] Aslan Maskhadov have taken cover, is actually not that big.
Why are these two "bad guys", who have left a trail of blood throughout Russia, so unstoppable? When Vladimir Kolesnikov, currently the deputy prosecutor-general of the Russian Federation, was still first deputy minister of internal affairs, the author of this article asked him these questions, and his reply was brief and cryptic: "Because there is a shortage of brains in the government." Col-Gen Shpak was more specific: "If the operation had been entrusted wholly and completely to me, we certainly would have seen some results." New counterterrorist units Apparently, the Airborne Troops command once suggested that a rapid response team, consisting of several hundred personnel and a helicopter detachment, should be established in one of its regiments. The line of reasoning behind this suggestion was the following: the rebel leaders were difficult to neutralize because they were moving from place to place with their gangs in total radio silence. The Airborne Troops reconnaissance teams were operating throughout Chechnya, working closely with the special services, and occasionally learned about the route the terrorists would be taking. Their elimination would require the immediate isolation of that region by sufficiently large groups of personnel. This could be done by airborne rapid-response teams. No-one listened to his suggestion, however. Shpak complained a few days ago: "They kept using their own methods to locate the rebels." This time, however, the commander's bold statement immediately aroused the attention of top officials in the Ministry of Defence. They decided to let the Airborne Troops take the lead.
A few days ago, the Airborne Troops Staff finally was able to start forming counterterrorist subunits. Airborne-paratroop and airborne-assault battalions with support weapons will constitute the basis of these subunits. They will be on alert duty, ready to take off in 12 hours, along with military-transport plane airfields. The personnel and weapons will be transferred to the locations of large rebel gangs either by landing on nearby airfields or by parachute in the most remote and nearly inaccessible places. Of course, in view of the enemy's mobility and caution, 12 hours to take off might be too long for interception, so some of the airborne troops will be on alert duty next to the planes, ready to take off as soon as anything happens. The first place these counterterrorist Airborne Troops battalions will be formed is a military secret, but we can safely assume that the pioneers will be the soldiers and officers of the 7th Airborne Division, deployed near Novorossiysk. The flight from there to Chechnya takes almost no time at all.
Regards,
Hist2004
Russia's Airborne Troops have started setting up rapid response units to pursue insurgents in Chechnya amidst widespread dismay at the recent devastating rebel bombing of a military hospital in Mozdok. The new units are likely to be recruited from men of the 7th Airborne Division based near Novorossiysk. The following is the text of a report by Sergey Ishchenko, published in the newspaper Trud on 8 August under the headline "'Blue Berets' decide to catch Basayev, and counterterrorist Airborne Troops battalions are being created for this purpose". The subheadings have been added editorially: For the Russian government, the recent tragedy in Mozdok [in North Ossetia on 1 August, when a lorry exploded, destroying the military hospital in the town] seems to have represented something like a Rubicon on the road to the dramatic intensification of the struggle against terrorists in the North Caucasus. Military and law-enforcement agencies responded to the president's harsh condemnation of the "negligence" that essentially contributes to the criminals' reckless raids by quickly reporting their own heightened determination to get rid of the terrorists. Russia's Airborne Troops were among the first to make this declaration. Who is to blame? On the eve of their official holiday, the commander of Airborne Troops, Col-Gen Georgiy Shpak, tried to find an answer to the question everyone has been asking for a long time: why has it been impossible to get rid of the most despicable rebel leaders in Chechnya? After all, there is a large contingent of troops there, not to mention special forces from all parts of the country, and the mountainous part of the republic, where the gangs of [field commander] Shamil Basayev and [Chechen rebel leader] Aslan Maskhadov have taken cover, is actually not that big.
Why are these two "bad guys", who have left a trail of blood throughout Russia, so unstoppable? When Vladimir Kolesnikov, currently the deputy prosecutor-general of the Russian Federation, was still first deputy minister of internal affairs, the author of this article asked him these questions, and his reply was brief and cryptic: "Because there is a shortage of brains in the government." Col-Gen Shpak was more specific: "If the operation had been entrusted wholly and completely to me, we certainly would have seen some results." New counterterrorist units Apparently, the Airborne Troops command once suggested that a rapid response team, consisting of several hundred personnel and a helicopter detachment, should be established in one of its regiments. The line of reasoning behind this suggestion was the following: the rebel leaders were difficult to neutralize because they were moving from place to place with their gangs in total radio silence. The Airborne Troops reconnaissance teams were operating throughout Chechnya, working closely with the special services, and occasionally learned about the route the terrorists would be taking. Their elimination would require the immediate isolation of that region by sufficiently large groups of personnel. This could be done by airborne rapid-response teams. No-one listened to his suggestion, however. Shpak complained a few days ago: "They kept using their own methods to locate the rebels." This time, however, the commander's bold statement immediately aroused the attention of top officials in the Ministry of Defence. They decided to let the Airborne Troops take the lead.
A few days ago, the Airborne Troops Staff finally was able to start forming counterterrorist subunits. Airborne-paratroop and airborne-assault battalions with support weapons will constitute the basis of these subunits. They will be on alert duty, ready to take off in 12 hours, along with military-transport plane airfields. The personnel and weapons will be transferred to the locations of large rebel gangs either by landing on nearby airfields or by parachute in the most remote and nearly inaccessible places. Of course, in view of the enemy's mobility and caution, 12 hours to take off might be too long for interception, so some of the airborne troops will be on alert duty next to the planes, ready to take off as soon as anything happens. The first place these counterterrorist Airborne Troops battalions will be formed is a military secret, but we can safely assume that the pioneers will be the soldiers and officers of the 7th Airborne Division, deployed near Novorossiysk. The flight from there to Chechnya takes almost no time at all.
Regards,
Hist2004