Russian military says it killed leading Chechen rebel

[bemildred]

Pooty-poot convering his butt, PR-wise.

The Russian military claimed to have killed a leading Chechen warlord
on Saturday, while the past day of rebel attacks left 11 servicemen dead,
an official said.

Russian troops killed Aslan Gasayev and three of his bodyguards during
an operation near the village of Alkhan-Kala, military spokesman Ilya
Shabalkin said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency and NTV
television.

Hindustan Times

Another piece detailing the continuing Russian "victory" in Chechnya:

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6743126%255E1702,00.html

It almost sounds like Iraq, but the Chechnyans are meaner and
farther along in their tactical development.

[Aidoneus]

1. something I'm always curious about when I see these reports..

What is the criteria for these government/media types to throw around the label of "leading"? I mean, Israel must have killed/arrested thousands upon thousands of "leading" Hamas officials so far.. This Gasayev fellow must've been a real go-getter to be a leading "warlord" at the age of 21, all the while careful to not rack up a single mention on Google/AllTheWeb.

The fighters have been very active lately, 3yrs after the big "victory" and they're still operating on any inch of the "liberated" plains areas. I wonder if they're planning on a full offensive this summer like what ended the '94-'96 war, to peak off around election time and make Pooty-poot look bad. What won him an election last time could lose it for him this time?

[bemildred]

2. Leading == Dead.

I dunno what their plans are, but you are right that they seem
busy, and Pooty-Poot certainly looks vulnerable at this point.
The "War is over, stability is coming, it's getting better all
the time" Dog-n-Pony show wasn't nearly convincing, and the
attacks in Moscow look bad, and the handling of them looks bad.

[Aidoneus]

4. ah yes

and there's more in the last day,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2903138,00.html

Going by the list of places artillery/airplanes have hit lately near the end of the article, that's the entire belt of foothills villages and two of the larger cities on the middle plains that they're still in despite all the "cleansings". If I didn't know how useful war is for leaders I'd wonder why they didn't catch on to failures like that, but if anybody in Russia still cares that has to look awful. I may follow Russian internal politics closer this year to see the election-year reactions, for that is suddenly the period where politicians have to care about this sort of thing rather than just occasionally pretend to. (that would be a lot easier if Babelfish's Russian->English translations didn't make less sense to me than the originals, but that's a whole other global crisis altogether..)

[StevenLee]

3. this doesn't mean Jack....

someone else is gunna take his place...