Chechnya

2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.
2007 Getty Images, Inc.
Chechnya is a small Muslim entity within the political borders of Russia (technically the
Russian Federation). It lies about a thousand miles south of the Russian capital, Moscow,
and just north of the Caucasus Mountains.
Chechens want independence, but Moscow refuses to grant it. In part, the Russian
government is afraid of abandoning a troubled borderland full of heavily armed, antiRussian Islamic militants.
The area that today constitutes Chechnya has been ruled by Russia, or the Soviet Union,
since the early 1800s, with only occasional interruptions.

One such interruption came when the Chechensexploiting turmoil in the

Soviet Union following the 1917 Communist Revolutiondeclared an
independent Islamic state.
But Chechen independence did not last long. On Soviet leader Joseph Stalins
orders, Soviet forces invaded Chechen territory, burning down homes and
disarming the population.
In 1944, as World War II neared its end, Stalin committed his greatest crime against the
Chechen people: he deported them to Siberia. About a quarter of the 400,000-strong
population died on the journey or in exile.
New Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev allowed the Chechens to go back to Chechnya in 1957.
But the damage had been done. Most Chechens returned home, harboring an intense
hatred for the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, relations between Chechnya and Moscow remained

relatively peaceful until 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down and
Communism collapsed throughout Eastern Europe.
The Soviet Union disbanded in 1991, and the Chechens renewed their push for
independence. They refused to sign any agreement making Chechnya part of the
Russian Federation.
In December 1994, Russian president Boris Yeltsin ordered troops into Chechnya,
officially to restore order but in practice to put down the independence movement.
After a disastrous start to the campaign, the Russians gained the upper hand.

But then, in June 1995, Chechen commander Shamil Basayev led a group of volunteers
into the Russian town of Budyonnovsk. There, they held hundreds of civilians hostage
in a nearby hospital. Dozens were killed.
The raid on Budyonnovsk led to a cease-fire, which Chechen fighters used to rearm.
Then, in July 1996, they recaptured the Chechen capital, Grozny, from Russian forces.
Soon after Grozny was lost, Russian national security advisor Alexander Lebed (top left)
struck a deal with Chechen commander Aslan Maskhadov (top right). The treaty signed by
Maskhadov and Yeltsin (below) gave Chechnya independence in all but name.
But things fell apart in Chechnya. With Maskhadov as president, lawlessness and Islamic
extremism rose to new heights. During the summer of 1999, Islamic militants under the
command of Shamil Basayev (pictured left) twice mounted raids into neighboring Dagestan.

Russian president Boris Yeltsin and his prime minister, Vladimir Putin, prepared to
send troops back into Chechnya. Popular support for a second war rose sharply
during the summer of 1999, when Chechen militants were blamed for bombing
apartment buildings in Moscow.
The Russian military went back into Chechnya during the fall of 1999, ostensibly to root
out terrorists. Relying extensively on aerial bombing, the Russians operated with very
little regard for the lives of Chechen civilians.
By 2000, much of the Chechen military leadership had been killed, and Grozny lay in ruins.
A low-intensity war followed, with dozens on both sides dying every month. Human
rights reports documenting illegal detentions and executions carried out by Russian
troops prompted widespread international condemnation.

But the 9/11 attacks on the United States recast the Chechen war in terms favorable to
Moscow. World leaders now regarded Chechen violence less as a nationalist struggle
than as al-Qaida-inspired terrorism.
A series of spectacular terrorist strikes, reportedly masterminded by Shamil Basayev,

bolstered Moscows contention that Russian troops were not fighting a war but
carrying out a counter-terrorist cleanup operation.
The worst attack occurred on September 1, 2004, when 35 militants answering to

Shamil Basayev stormed a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan. A botched
rescue attempt left more than 330 people dead.
The carnage extinguished whatever international sympathy there had been for the
Chechen cause, effectively giving Moscow a free hand in Chechnya.

After Beslan, Moscow continued Chechenization, the process of transferring power

from the federal government to sympathetic Chechen officials opposed to Chechen
independence.
The most powerful of these officials is Chechen prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov. He
controls the Kadyrovtsi, a brutal counter-terrorist force known for its indiscriminate and
vicious violence.

Working with Kadyrovs forces, Russian forces have assassinated several Chechen
leaders, including former president Aslan Maskhadov (2005) and military-commanderturned-terrorist-mastermind Shamil Basayev (2006).
Meanwhile, Islamic militancyhistorically not a feature of Chechen religious practicehas

steadily risen, as Chechen fighters have increasingly attached their nationalist struggle to
the global jihad.
As a result, Chechen civiliansmost of whom still live in appalling conditions

often have to make a tough choice: join one of the radical Islamic militias, or support
Kadyrovs army of thugs.

Meanwhile, Kadyrov presents a tricky problem for Moscow. If he gets too powerful,
there is a chance he could turn on his strongest backers, the Russian government,
thereby instigating a third war.

Chechnya

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Chechnya

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2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.

2007 Getty Images, Inc.

2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.

One such interruption came when the Chechensexploiting turmoil in the

2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.

Nevertheless, relations between Chechnya and Moscow remained

2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.

2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.

2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.

A series of spectacular terrorist strikes, reportedly masterminded by Shamil Basayev,

The worst attack occurred on September 1, 2004, when 35 militants answering to

2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.

After Beslan, Moscow continued Chechenization, the process of transferring power

2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.

Meanwhile, Islamic militancyhistorically not a feature of Chechen religious practicehas

As a result, Chechen civiliansmost of whom still live in appalling conditions

2007 ProQuest-CSA LLC. All rights reserved.

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