The Chechnya Model

Writing for The Washington Post, of which he is deputy editorial page editor, Jackson Diehl describes the model Putin used to pacify Chechnya. Diehl argues Putin follows the same model in Syria on behalf of the Assad government.

The first stages of the Russian military campaign in northern Syria have followed a familiar pattern. Heavy bombing and shelling of civilian areas preceded scorched-earth sweeps, just as in Chechnya.

According to a report on Chechnya by the International Crisis Group, “war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by [Russian] troops” included “indiscriminate shelling and bombing, secret prisons, enforced disappearances, mass graves and death squads.” One common tactic, the report said, was “taking insurgents’ relatives as hostages, subjecting them to torture or summary execution and burning their homes.”

Not unlike the Roman Empire's model of pacifying hostile tribes.