ABSTRACT
As turmoil gripped every other area in the Caucasus in the early 1990s, the northwest remained peaceful. Despite ethnic stand-offs and persistent tension, there were no armed conflicts and separatist movements lost popular support. Still, the major economic problems the region faced increased throughout the decade and inflamed animosities as a steady stream of immigrants from the wartorn parts of the Caucasus flooded into the northwest. The failure of the Federal government to adequately address these problems resulted in a gradual deterioration of society and acceleration of ethnic hostilities which were not taken seriously until the 1999 presidential elections in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, when the republic narrowly avoided civil war.
