Correct. Putin’s first task upon assuming office was to rein in not just the semi-autonomous republics and the border states but also Russia’s rebellious regional governors, who in the wake of the SU’s collapse have been ruling like semi-autonomous barons from the Tsarist era.

That may already be a hopeless cause in the case of the Far East regions, which are now either de facto Chinese vassal states or else firmly in the grip of lunatic governors who dominate a large chunk of the region’s economy as well as the local councils, courts, and the media.

Chechnya may eventually have some autonomy but the problem now is simply one of restoring some degree of order and a semblance of normal like. The Chechen “rebels” are for the most part bandits who pillage and terrorize their own as much as they terrorize the Russians. And now they’ve been infiltrated by Arab jihadists.

Breslan is Russia’s 9/11: the end of an era. Either Russia gets serious about reversing the criminalization of the Russian state and the crippling of the security forces or it will simply cease to exist as a coherent major power.

I say we give Putin a hand. Screw the EU dwarves.