The obscure land called Chechnya is about the size of Connecticut, a mere pinprick even on a large world map. Its 1.3 million people make up less than 1% of the population of the Russian Federation from which it is trying to secede. But the war in this mountain enclave in the northern Caucasus involves stakes that are hardly Ruritanian. Obviously, there are the lives of many thousands of Chechens and Russian soldiers that could be snuffed out in the promised guerrilla struggle; at week's end, at least 16 and possibly 70 Russians -- counts differed wildly -- and hundreds of...
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