Chechen Parliament Threatens To Reignite Mexican American War, Send Weapons To Mexico

Chechen parliament members issued a strange warning to the U.S. on Thursday, threatening to insight Mexico into rekindling 1846 Mexican-American War. The announcment comes at a time when the U.S. is considering lethal aid to Ukraine, and President Putin is accusing America of "anti-Russian plots." For state lawmakers in the Russian region that lies a few hundred miles southeast of Ukraine, the current conflict between pro-Russian separatists and the government somehow resembles the The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

"We reserve the right to conduct conferences in Russia, Mexico and the U.S. to raise the question of breaking away [former Mexican territory] from the U.S., and [about] supplying weapons to resistance fighters there," said the statement, posted on a legislature website, according to The Moscow Times.

We know that state legislatures are crazy pretty much everywhere in the world, including the U.S. Consider Georgia state representative John Yates who said that "leaflets [should be] dropped all over Mexico [saying] that we will shoot to kill if anybody crosses and be serious about this." Assuming that Chechen Parliamentarians are not nuts, the threat was probably tongue-and-cheek. But it was enough to get the attention of Moscow, who issued a statement through a Kremlin spokesperson.

“Such statements cannot be approved by Moscow because individual Russian regions cannot send such equipment abroad,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency.

Citizens and soldiers from Chechnya have been perhaps the most vocal supporters of pro-Russian separatists fighting against the Ukrainian government. Hundreds of Chechen soldiers joined the rebel effort against Ukraine early in the conflict, according to reports, including an alleged 300 person “death battalion.” The U.S., by contrast, has been Ukraines staunchest ally.

The U.S. is also one of the major suppliers of military aid to Mexico, granting billions in the past decade, from technical training to blackhawk helicopters. As for the Mexican-American War and the resulting Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico seems to have found it’s peace with the outcome. In fact, they’ve turned down similar offers in the past.

“We make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona,” read a 1917 proposal from the German Empire addressed Mexican President Venustiano Carranza.

Mexico declined. The message, which was intercepted by British codebreakers, was a significant factor in formally drawing the foot-dragging Americans into the First World War. With the congress passing a resolution supporting lethal aid in Ukraine on March 24th, 2015, an intercepted telegraph (or email) probably won’t be necessary to shift public opinion in this war. Putin's chest-beating is probalby enough.