This article is full of inaccuracies and has several very dubious conspiracy theories reported as facts. The quality of the Atlantic continues to decline. This

This article is full of inaccuracies and has several very dubious conspiracy theories reported as facts. The quality of the Atlantic continues to decline. This article basically has the accuracy of an anonymous internet forum rant. However, it is true that there has been a terrible off and on war in Chechnya during the last 20 years with some tragic consequences for the civilian population. There have been many abuses perpetrated by the Russian government, but also many terrible civilian murders perpetrated by Chechen islamic groups that cannot possibly be blamed on Putin. For what it worth I should say that ordinary Chechens are very much against terrorism and against the hardcore Muslim militarists. It is notable that when Chechnya was relatively independent after the first Chechen war, they elected a relatively secular president and not one of the hard core sharia law Islamists. Nevertheless, there is an armed Islamist minority in Chechnya that tends to make trouble. That secular president ended up declaring sharia law just to appease the militants. The most interesting thing about this article is how differently the atlantic treats chechnya and palestine. Regardless of the Russian abuses in the region, the life of the average Chechen is much better than that of the average palestinian. Currently, Chechens cannot vote for their chosen president and tend to get hassled by police when they travel in parts of Russia outside of Chechnya but otherwise their life is a far cry from what Palestinians in the occupied territories have to endure. They are not being starved intentionally in ghettos, they do not have settlers coming in and taking their houses and farms, they are not surrounded by walls, or military firing zones, etc., they do not have to wait 9 hours at a check point to go to a neighboring village, etc. Nevertheless, the Atlantic calls Chechnya a country, which it isn't and when it rarely mentions Chechen terrorism, it tries to justify it by referring to Putin's actions. The Atlantic would never call Palestine a country (even though under international law Palestine is much closer to being a country) and would never suggest that the Israeli occupation is a justification for Palestinian terrorism. In summary these are all tricky issues but one way to keep our journalists and politicians honest is to hold them to the same standard when dealing with separatists from countries they like (Israel) and countries they do not like (Russia).