[War] Russia: "Be All Our Sins Remembered"

[Michael Downey]

"Be All Our Sins Remembered"
President Leonid Nemerenko
Russian Federation
29 July 2014
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People died. That was a fact of life. As all things begin all things
must end. Even the sun would someday grow cold and dark. President
Nemerenko accepted these facts long ago. He had seen men die before
and suffered the loss of both friends and relatives who had gone
before their times. Yet while one could come to accept death, one
could not easily become accustomed to death. Unless of course you were
a sociopath.

"To be honest I didn't even like Yoselev that much," Nemerenko
admitted to Prime Minister Tretiak. "He was stubborn, paranoid, grim
and heartless."

"He was also immensely capable, loyal, honest and a strong proponent
of reform within the armed forces," offered Tretiak from the bar in
the President's office where he was pouring to glasses of vodka. "He
was a chief architect of the Initiative 18 Plan and was almost solely
responsible for trimming the corrupt and incompetent leftovers from
Putin's time out of the officer corps."

"Well I suppose there's that," admitted Nemerenko as he accepted a
glass of vodka from Tretiak. "His loss will be felt by the Cabinet.
Fucking Iranians. I hope the Аmericans and Chinese kill ever last one
of those animals." Nemerenko and Tretiak clicked their glasses and had
a drink. For as much of a SOB as he'd been, Yoselev was a man who got
things done and that was the most important quality in a civil
servant. "The FSO is my protection as well as the protection on all
Cabinet ministers," the President commented. "The Chechens that killed
Yoselev may have only been able to do what they did with Iran's
backing and instigation but that does not mean they won't do the same
thing again."

"Why?" asked Tretiak with a puzzled expression. "The Georgians won't
let us send troops through their territory to fight and it will be at
least a week before we can properly organize a force that can pass
through the mountains of Southern Dagestan to hit them directly from
out own territory. Why waste time and resources coming after us when
they are being butchered by the Americans and their allies down in
Azerbaijan?"

"The FSO can do what the FSO wants," shrugged Nemerenko. "And besides
comrade, never underestimate the insanity of a fanatic. Religion
poisons the mind and by its very nature drives men to do irrational
things." Nearly seven decades of Soviet rule had left a large legacy
of secularism among the Russians. To an atheist like Nemerenko who
despised religion, Islam or otherwise, it was perhaps on of Stalin's
more redeeming projects. "Even if the Iranians and their Chechen
lapdogs are out of the picture, that a man as important as Yoselev was
killed could attract others to try the same thing. We have many
enemies." Another stiff drink of vodka.

"We must soon pick and new Defence Minister, Comrade President."

"Rezakaev," said Nemerenko. General of the Armies Amir Rezakaev was
the Kazakh-born Chairman of the General Staff and another highly
capable man held in high regard by the Kremlin. "He too has had a
large hand in reforming the military and he is one of our most veteran
field officers. It's almost a shame to take him out of uniform but
he's the best choice and almost worshiped by the troops. What do you
think?"

"A good choice," nodded the PM. Now to the harder question. "Where
dose this put us with Chechnya?"

Nemerenko sighed and kicked his feet up onto his desk. Chechnya. That
terrible mark in Russia's history. The rebellious province had been
quite for almost ten years now with just the occasional outbreak of
isolated violence. Grozny and much of the North had been, somewhat,
rebuilt. The south still bore many of the scars from the brutal First
and Second Chechen Wars and remained a hotbed for rebels and other
dissidents. It had been a mistake to think sleeping dogs would lie
quite. Much could be blamed on Iran's treachery and meddling but they
had only fanned flames that had been smoldering for years.

"Something does need to be done about Chechnya but I want to avoid
bloodshed. For the moment this seems like and isolated group of
puppets to the Persians and restraint on our part seems the most
prudent course of action." Restrain. They'd shown no restrain in
either one of the wars. That was the nature of Russia as an enemy;
brutal and ruthless. The thing of it was that the Chechens *were*
Russians, or that's what the official line from Moscow was. That was
the whole justification for the carnage. "We're going to accelerate
our plans to rebuild Chechnya, both physically and socially. I'm going
to ask the Assembly for a lump sum of a hundred billion rubles to
invest into reconstruction. Much of it would be aimed to rebuild
infastructure such as roads, power, water and sewage. Not to mention
after the success we've had with police reform over the past two years
I want to introduce similar steps in Chechnya. A metropolitan police
force for Grozny and a provincial gendarme for the rest."

"What of the 'social' reconstruction?" inquired Tretiak.

Nemerenko pulled his feet of his desk and sat up straight, his
demeanor much more serious and intense. "Oleg, for years we've tried
violence, fear and intimidation, all with very limited success. True,
we were so brutal during the wars that even the zeal of the rebels was
largely broken but there is too much bad blood on both sides for us to
just use more violence to get the job done. There's been too much
killing."

"Leonid?" asked Tretiak. He didn't understand what the President meant.

"I'm going to issue a blanket amnesty. Everyone, Russian and Chechen
alike, who fought in the wars and committed some of the terrible
things men do to each other in wars would have full amnesty. That
included rebels who are still resisting in Chechnya now. No trials, no
invasion, no killing. I would have the Assembly form a commission for
truth and reconciliation, not unlike the system created by Mandela
after the fall of apartheid in South Africa. We need to face our
demons, not bury them with the corpses of the innocent."

"Such a proposal would be very hard to push through the Assembly,"
said the PM. "Many still feel a considerable amount of animosity
towards the Chechens." Tretiak himself had lost his own son in the
Second Chechen War. Not that the Prime Minister didn't agree with
Nemerenko, he did, but he also understood how many people would react.

"Then I am fortunate to have a skilled and capable prime minister,"
noted Nemerenko with a grin. Tretiak returned the smile and they had
another drink.
---

Actions:
1) General Amir Rezakaev, Chairman of the General Staff, will be made
the new Minister of Defence
2) Ask the Assembly for a lump sum of 121 billion rubles (USD 6
billion) for accelerated reconstruction in Chechnya. Focus on
infastructure such as roads, power, water and sewage.
3) Begin police reform in Chechya like that already being carried out
throughout Russia. Create a metropolitan police force for Grozny as
well as a provincial gendarme for the rest of Chechnya
4) President Nemerenko hereby issues a blanket amnesty for all
participatns in the First and Second Chechen Wars, both Russian
federal forces and Chechen rebels, which includes any rebels still
resisting in Chechnya (through not terrorists operating elsewhere).
5) Create a commission for truth and reconciliation to deal with
crimes committed on both sides during the Chechen Wars.