Russia Mustn’t Overreact

Moscow has become a city of fear. Three terrorist explosions in the last two weeks, one in a shopping mall, two others in apartment buildings, have taken more than 260 lives. Authorities blame separatists from Chechnya, the largely Muslim territory in the Caucasus whose independence movement in 1994 drew Russian troops into a disastrous and inconclusive 20-month war. More recently Russia has had to deal with a rebellion in Dagestan, which is being aided by neighboring Chechnya. The government has offered little evidence to back its allegation of responsibility for the bombings, though among a populace long hostile to Chechens and other Caucasian peoples the claim is readily accepted.

The bombings have diverted attention from Russia’s high-level financial scandals, some of them touching President Boris N. Yeltsin and his family. They have also raised concerns that Yeltsin could use the threat to domestic security to proclaim a state of emergency. That would permit him to order postponement of December’s parliamentary elections and possibly even next summer’s presidential balloting. In countries that have only fragile links with democracy, states of emergency have a way of remaining in force long after the emergencies have passed. Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin is right to oppose a state of emergency.

The threat of domestic terrorism always puts the rule of law at some risk. The challenge for Russia is to meet this crisis without recourse to regressive measures. Timetables for the scheduled elections should not be changed, first because postponement isn’t warranted, second because Russia urgently needs a parliament more effective than the one it has now and a new president with a broader base of popular support. The terrorism danger can be overcome without sacrificing the gains Russia has made toward representative rule.