1) Either colonizing an area and using nearly all means possible to subdue insurgency and/or rebellion is justifiable and right, or it’s not.

2) If it is not right, then any profits gained from such activities should be given back, and the acts apologized for.

3) A host of countries (among them England, France, and the United States) have committed acts of the kind described in (1).

4) None of the countries referred to in (3) believe that they are under any obligation to commit to any actions of the sort described in (2).

4) Therefore, none of the countries referred to in (3) believe that the actions described in (1) are wrong.

Logical leap made by Russians: Therefore, they are accusing Russia of doing something wrong for some other reason, namely, because they do not like Russia, they do not trust her, and they want to see her as small, impotent, and miserable as possible. This is yet another reason that Russia must defend her own borders and interests at any cost- because she has no real allies.

Certainly, they could not possibly object to Russia’s intervention on moral grounds, because in that case, they would at the very least apologize for Scotland, the Cherakahua-Apache displacement, and oh so much more. But they won’t. They don’t think they were wrong. They think such things are justifiable.

And so does Putin.

Russia and China are poor. America and Britain are rich. They are all sons of bitches- the only difference is who writes the history books, and which news channels you watch.

The main difference is that while European countries and the Americans committed mass genocide and culture-o-cide (see: Basque regions, Bretagne, Savoie, etc.) 150 years ago, Russia never finished it because the Chechens were subdued under overwhelming Soviet might. So where is the moral superiority there??? “Sorry, Russia, that was okay when we did it to keep our national integrity, but you are too late.”

Moral standing, indeed.

Putin’s straight talk is why many Russians like him. And he doesn’t need to beat around the bush with vague terrorism yadda-yadda to defend his stance on Chechnya. He directly told the European press (I think it was the Netherlands news agency, but I forget, anyway he says it all the time) that Russia had a right to keep Chechnya, just like France and Spain kept the Basque regions and Britain keeps Northern Ireland, and if they think it’s any different, they can explain why.

Actually we are all still waiting for an explanation, but so far, none have been forthcoming.