ABSTRACT
This chapter will focus on self-determination as it played out in the Russian province of Chechnya. Although the Chechens achieved a large measure of de facto independence in the early and mid-1990s, they were forcibly brought back within Moscow’s rule. The great powers were not to get involved in this self-determination struggle, for fear of alienating a great power itself, Russia. For the same reason, the United Nations Security Council was never seized of this matter, despite allegations of gross human rights violations in Chechnya. Chechnya has not been able to secede from Russia de jure, because one of the great powers (Russia) has firmly opposed this idea. This chapter will thus examine the history of Chechnya, before turning to a discussion of the Chechens’ right to self-determination, and the role of the great powers in this region.
