ABSTRACT
The nature of the threats in Chechnya to humanitarian actors, Chechen and Russian civilians and the Russian state, coupled with the associated discourse of fear pervasive in such a highly complex socio-political context, make for a rather challenging and provocative analysis. In the second war the Chechens, Chechnya and the associated external actors involved with the conflict were actively securitised by the state through a range of media. A context of conflict such as Chechnya can be considered as a state of emergency, a time of 'indistinction between violence and law'. The law itself was not the most important issue for those working in Chechnya, although the political context from which the NGO law sprang was essential background. The dominant narrative for international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) working in Chechnya was that, at some level, agency sat at the top of the Russian political structure, actioned by the security services.
