Russia's human rights record with regard to its own citizens under Tsarist, Communist and now ostensibly democratic rule has been abysmal. The Stolypin Carriages which railroaded dissidents to the east in Imperial Russia and the Gulags in which another generation's freedom was crushed under Stalin are now obsolete. It is still possible, however, to be arrested and imprisoned for walking the streets of Moscow without one's documents. Such an arrest is all the more likely if the offender has a dark complexion which might point to north-Caucasus origins.
In a report issued last week the Human Rights Watch organisation drew attention to what it described as the use of torture on an "epidemic scale" by the Russian police. Beatings, strangling, electric shocks and permitting criminals to assault victims have been widespread, according to the agency. But all these allegations pale before the denial of the most basic of human rights, the right to life, to tens of thousands of unarmed civilians in the first Chechen War from 1994 to 1996. In the course of that campaign President Yeltsin presided over the deaths of a greater number of his citizens than any Kremlin leader since Stalin. Estimates vary but it is generally agreed that, at the very least, 20,000 innocent people died.
That conflict ended in an agreement by which Chechnya gained significant autonomy within the Russian Federation. In the period since the end of that war the Chechen administration has signally failed to move towards the observance of the rule of law. Banditry is rife. Three thousand people have been kidnapped in three years. Hostages have been ritually beheaded, physically mutilated and kept in conditions of the utmost savagery. Initially federal forces fought the warlords and the militants but more recently the campaign has become indiscriminate. Innocent people are seen to be suffering in far great numbers that the "bandits" and "terrorists" against whom the campaign has been officially directed. Senior officials have admitted that "tragic mistakes" have been made. Not the least of these was a murderous attack on a Red Cross convoy.
NATO's air war in Yugoslavia was severely criticised by Russia not only in principle but also for the incompetence which cost so many innocent lives. Now Russia apes NATO's actions by conducting "war-at-a-safe-distance" and holds itself to be above criticism. In the meantime more than 200,000 refugees have been left without proper shelter at the onset of the harsh winter. On the one hand Mr Putin claims that the conflict is purely an internal matter; on the other he is asking for millions of dollars from the International Monetary Fund to boost Russia's economy.
He should perhaps be taken at his word. If he insists that the Second Chechen war is no business of other countries or organisations then it is entirely logical that no money should be paid to Russia by the west until this "internal matter" is settled. The IMF, and the western taxpayers who fund it, have the right to ensure that their money is used for peaceful purposes.