Talk about Russia and Vladimir Putin fills the news in the Euro-Atlantic region. But in considering the problematic aspects of cooperating with the Russian government, too many focus on relatively trivial and ambiguous issues such as Russian operatives exposing embarrassing statements by American politicians. Even those who do criticize the Russian regime seem to go no further than the murders of political opponents and journalists, awful as those might be. More serious problems, in particular Russia’s record of genocide-like war crimes in Chechnya, are either forgotten or willfully ignored. During the two Chechen wars, Russian military and security forces destroyed virtually every building in the capital of Grozny and devastated other Chechen towns and villages. The Russian security services had begun with a campaign to demonize and scapegoat Chechens. There were serious allegations that the FSB itself blew up large apartment buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in the...(Read Full Article)