Russia's success in Chechnya was largely due to one of the rebel commanders breaking with the other rebels, who Russia then supported and helped kill his opponents (not just Russian kinetic ops). That wasn't an option in Afghanistan, not to mention the support from Pakistan.
https://twitter.com/GrayConnolly/status/1402166591588945926
And uh, lets wait to see how this works out for Russia long-term. Kadyrov has only shown deference to Putin, and has his own security services that are loyal to him, which Moscow allowed (and his assassinations in Moscow). Not sure what will happen with Putin's successor.
Not to mention, Russia faced a number of awful terrorist attacks from terrorists from the North Caucasus after the kinetic portion of the 2nd war, including Nord Ost, Beslan, the 2004 and 2010 Moscow Metro bombings, and the 2011 Domodedovo Airport bombing.
Another obvious difference is that Chechnya was/is a much greater national security threat for Russia compared to Afghanistan for the US. Russia *had* to do something, especially after foreign fighters arrived in the late 1990s, but it wasn't clear that the US had to stay in AFG.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
