ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to reflect about the role of Chechen insurgents in the recent upsurge of violence in the North Caucasus since the official end of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya in April 2009. It argues that the concept of the Chechen spillover solely focuses on Chechnya as the catalyst to the violence in the North Caucasus; this depicts an incomplete and inaccurate picture of a more complex phenomenon. The chapter explores that Chechen insurgents remain mostly driven by nationalistic goals compared to fighters in Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan. It focuses on the spillover of the Chechen wars, particularly focusing on the narrative depicting violence in the North Caucasus as the result of Basayev's network. The chapter examines the details of the recruitment process in Chechnya, the factor that explains why the post-Soviet generation of young individuals joined the insurgency remains very similar to what was described in the literature for the first and the second Chechen war.
