Seamus is right on the money.

The civillian population in Chechnya is the specific target of the drunk soldiers of the Russian Army/interior forces/FSB. While I certainly do not agree with the way the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has been/is carried out, to compare those two with Chechnya is wrong. The US' targets are people defined as enemies. The Russian targets are both actual rebels and people they know are just civillians. As well as practicing the mobster way of killing/torturing family members of rebels they've killed, even though those peple had done nothing wrong.

Another point is of course that a lot of arussia's victims don't die from gunshots, but from torture. The FSB kidnaps and toures people at will. I loathe Gitmo. But at least they are still alive, and even released. A Chechen torture victim has little chance of that of ever seeing sunlight again.

A Chechen woman refused the sexual advances of a drunk arussian general? No worries, just call the army rent-a-mob, kidnap her, rape her and then kill her. And then start terrorizing her remaining family to keep their mouths shut.

Need evidence? 10 minutes of reading one of Russia last independent newspapers, Novaja Gazeta, should give you plenty. If their journalists are still alive by the time I've finished writing this, of course....