Moscow's campaign, which aims at subduing independence forces and bringing the rebellious republic forcibly under its rule, has occupied 60 Chechen towns and villages but has to date shunned infantry battles with Chechnya's defenders. This was the first heavy fighting reported in the capital since the Russian invasion of the territory began over two months ago. Much of Grozny lies in complete ruins after the Russian bombardment which preceded this latest move. "There are no windows, no roofs. There is nothing there," one woman among the more than 200,000 people who have fled the city told reporters. Tens of thousands of people remain in a city that was home to a quarter of a million.

But aerial bombardment alone can't win a war. The armored column that entered Grozny December 15 "was surrounded by rebel fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades. The bodies of several dead Russian soldiers were seen sprawled around burning tanks and armored personnel carriers near the city center," CNN reported.

Before the clash General Valery Manilov, the first deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said in Moscow that Grozny would succumb in "a question of days."

Washington and its imperialist allies have seized on the events in Chechnya to pressure the Russian government, professing concern for the civilian population. "Russia will pay a heavy price for those actions, with each passing day sinking more deeply into a morass that will intensify extremism and diminish its own standing in the world," U.S. president William Clinton stated December 6.

Russian president Boris Yeltsin delivered a sharp rebuff to the U.S. rulers on December 9 in Beijing. "President Clinton permitted himself to put pressure on Russia," he said after his arrival in Beijing. "It seems he has for a minute forgotten that Russia has a full arsenal of nuclear weapons."

The major capitalist governments in Europe have outdone Washington in their criticism of Moscow's actions. On December 8 leaders of the 15 European Union governments threatened to impose economic sanctions against Moscow until the ultimatum directed at Grozny residents was lifted. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook referred to a decision by the International Monetary Fund on withhold a promised $640 million loan from Moscow. "The IMF charter makes it plain that its decision must be grounded in the economic conditions," he said. "But believe me, it will not be lost on Moscow that the decision was taken yesterday."

The capitalist rulers of the United States these other imperialist powers judge that their interests are best served by a more critical stance in the war. They have substantial interests at stake, both short and long-term.

Washington has demonstrated its determination to grasp the lion's share of the oil wealth lying beneath the Caspian sea. In November Clinton signed a deal with Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia for the construction of an oil pipeline that would bypass Russian territory. Much of the present pipeline crosses Russian territory and several republics near the Caucasus mountains, including Chechnya. If it is built, the new pipeline will also bypass Iran, toward which Washington has assumed a hostile stance the 1979 revolution which toppled the dictatorship of Shah.  
 

U.S. rulers' target is workers state

More than strictly economic assets are involved, however. Washington is turning up the heat on Moscow in an attempt to force march the pace of "reforms" aimed at increasing the influence and eventually establishing the dominance of capitalist property relations. Minimal progress has been made along those lines, however, even as Russia's economic crisis grinds on. No ruling capitalist class has sunk roots in the country, and workers and farmers resist the layoffs and other attacks that the imperialists want to impose.

An article in the New York Times printed in August 1998 titled "Soviet Mindset Defeating Rural Capitalism" illustrated the obstacle to the reintroduction of capitalism formed by social relations in Russia. "The demise of the Soviet Union gave workers an opportunity to break free of the collective," wrote Michael Gordon. "All workers received a handsome certificate allowing them to take about 10 acres of tilled and 5 acres of pasture and farm it for themselves. Instead the workers leased their land back to the farm, keeping only tiny plots for themselves to grow vegetables and perhaps raise a pig or a calf."

After initial high expectations following the end of the cold war, the U.S. rulers are increasingly less susceptible to illusions that they can reimpose capitalist relations in Russia by peaceful means. They are turning more to military and diplomatic pressure. That shift lies behind the eastward expansion of the membership of NATO, the military alliance that Washington dominates, to include Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Washington has rejected Moscow's protests at this move, and has refused to pledge that nuclear weapons will not be deployed in the new member countries.

Washington is pressuring Moscow to amend the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty that prohibits the U.S. and Russian military from developing anti-missile missile systems. Clinton is on course to give the nod to the development and deployment of just such a system.

Plans for deployment of such a system in Asia show that this new generation of weapons, designed to give Washington a first-strike capacity, is also aimed at the Chinese workers state.

The U.S. rulers are using their scare campaign over "Chinese spies" to demonize Beijing. Wen Ho Lee, a Chinese-American scientist, was indicted December 10 on 59 counts that included mishandling computer files containing U.S. nuclear weapons "secrets." He was fired from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in March amid a barrage of news reports smearing him was a "suspected spy" for the Chinese government. He was never charged with "espionage" and U.S. government officials have failed to present any evidence on the spy claims. .

More than a dozen Asian-American organizations have spoken out against the charges. "From what I've seen so far, this looks like prejudice and overkill," said William Chang, president of the Chinese American Engineers and Scientists Association of Southern California.

At the same time, Washington is hopeful that its new trade treaty with Beijing will provide a road to pressing forward market reforms in the still-growing Chinese economy. It has many fewer such illusions in regard to Russia.  
 
 
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