ABSTRACT
The North Caucasus is now the new frontier of Russia, following the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. It constitutes a region of six republics and is populated by at least 18 different ethnic and religious (mostly Muslim) groups. Chechnya is one of those republics where there are claims for independence from Russia. The Chechen territory lies on the edge of the two main routes from Russia to Transcaucasia: the road from Vladikavkaz to Tbilisi in Georgia; and the Caspian coastal road. The oil pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan to Novorossiisk, Russia’s Black Sea port, also crosses Chechnya and near its capital, Groznyi. Chechnya’s strategic importance was upgraded after the end of the Cold War with the discovery of additional oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Sea. In August 1991, taking advantage of the dissolution of the USSR, the Chechen leader, Gen. Dzhokhar Dudayev, demanded total independence for Chechnya (which, for a while, included the now separate Ingushetia). The Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, orchestrated a covert operation to undermine and thwart Dudayev’s project, but it failed dismally. Yeltsin then decided, despite the plight of the Russian army, on a full-scale military operation to take Groznyi and restore a proRussian regime. The operation, which took place in December 1994, cost Russia an arm and a leg, as the Russian army failed to take the Chechen capital with an armoured dash in front of television cameras. Groznyi was finally captured in February 1995, but the Russians never really managed to restore order in the rest of Chechnya. Chechen rebels retaliated with acts of terror in Chechnya, Dagestan and in Russia proper; it has been alleged that the USA, along with Turkey, were assisting the Chechen rebels. In August 1996 the Chechen rebels signed an agreement with Moscow, stipulating the withdrawal of Russian troops. Three years later fighting broke out in Dagestan between Russian forces and proChechen Dagestanis. The Russians could not allow this to continue, because violence in Dagestan could easily spill over to Chechnya and elsewhere, and decided to intervene in Chechnya proper to end the conflict. This time around, the Russian army was more successful, whereas fears of a general anti-Russian and
pro-Islamic uprising in the Caucasus failed to be substantiated. Overall, and although world public opinion since 9/11 has been more sympathetic to Moscow (thanks also to Russian efforts to equate 9/11 with Muslim acts of terror on Russia’s own territory), terrorist forms of resistance to Russian rule by Chechen and other Islamic groups continues to the present day.
