Chechnya

My conclusions were outlined in a press statement I made on 12th Feb 1996...to solve the problem it is necessary to face the facts...the efforts of the Russian leadership to solve the problem by force have failed; similarly Dudayev has failed to ignite a jihad and to separate Chechnya from Russia;

...The problem can only be solved through direct dialogue with those who bear responsiblility for the conflict and are in a position to find a settlement

-Mikhail Gorbachev

...my point here is that Chechnya was in a way characteristic of a more general pattern that we saw with Yeltsin. He would sort of stumble and lurch and bluster and kind of awkwardly throw himself about in getting to the right position. He never should have gotten into the war in Chechnya. But he did get himself out. And his successor got Russia back into the war and shows no sign of getting out. That’s an important difference between the two. There are a lot of other differences we can talk about.