"The yeast with which to raise civil war"

David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen in his blog has this,

Indeed, President Putin is hoarse from trying to explain this to European and American 'human rights' advocates, who blame Russia for creating its Chechen enemies, the way they blame America for somehow creating its enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Most worrying: what the Jihadis have achieved in Chechnya is now being taken as a model for how to succeed everywhere. It is what they are attempting in the Sunni Triangle of Iraq: to use terror as the yeast with which to raise civil war. "

And,

In the words of a Georgian familiar with the landscape (among the more unusual correspondents to wash up in my e-mail): "The Arabs have taken over the Chechen 'insurrection', if they didn't start it. The Chechens were not a very religious people, and the Russians kept out the radical imams. They have no native tradition of nationalism. Almost universally, they view the Arab insurgents as crazy, and would rather be ruled by hated Russians than by Arabs, if they had to choose only between those two. Even better, to be left alone, but they know that's not going to happen."

President Putin has a sphinx-like reputation, yet in light of these realities, much of what he has been saying and doing makes sense. Example: he is on record telling Americans how he thinks they should vote. He was surprisingly indiscreet, saying that those who don't support George W. Bush need their heads examined. This seemed a paradox, given Mr. Putin's siding with the French and Germans against Mr. Bush's policy of invading Iraq.