ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the securitization of the Chechen issue in official Russian discourse did not simply emerge out of contemporary events in Chechnya and Russia, nor did it merely develop due to historical animosity between Russia and Chechnya. It begins by examining the way in which the Chechen issue was initially securitized by the Putin regime upon coming to power. The chapter argues that the main thrust of the official securitization discourse was premised on the notion of weakness and existential threats that stemmed directly from the Putin regimes characterization of Russia as a weak state. In addition, the particular form that the securitization of Chechnya took also suggests that securitization processes rarely function exclusively in either the internal or the external security spheres. If Russia sovereignty had already been undermined by its domestic collapse and forces of global terrorism it was not prepared to erode them further.
