The Conflict between Russia and the Chechen Republic - Essay Example

The Conflict between Russia and Chechen Republic Overview On 29 March, during the regular morning rush hour, 40 people were killed and over 65 people were injured in the suicide bomb attack in Moscow’s subway system. The Russian government quickly condemned the attack, accusing the Chechen terrorists for direct involvement in it (Edwards 1). Twenty-one years ago, in 1994, Moscow began a military operation which it expected to be a “blitzkrieg” (lightening war) against radical separatist in Chechnya, a small, self-proclaimed independent, oil-rich Russian republic, located in North Caucasus mountain region. But, the 1st Chechen war turned out to be Russia’s Vietnam as Russian army was forced to retreat in 1996. In 1999, Russia started the second Chechnya war which was officially declared successfully over by the Russian federation in 2009. Both the wars caused thousands of causalities and devastating economic and social effects for both the sides (Mirovalev). Even though Russian military operations were officially declared over in Chechnya, the continuous series of terror attacks in Russia, such as 2002 Moscow theatre hostage, 2003 suicide attacks in rock concert, 2004 Russian passenger planes bombings, and in recent, 2010 Moscow subway suicide bombings put a serious question over the Russian government’s declaration of the end of war and the control of situation (Trenin 2; “Timeline”). The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the Russia-Chechnya conflict through various aspects. By means of various researches and available data, the paper discusses history of the conflict and evaluates overall trajectory of it. 2. Defining ‘War’ Definition of war has always been controversial as there isn’t universal agreement among experts over specific characteristics and attributes of conflict that would categorize it as a war. Political science also doesn’t offer convincing and detailed definition of war (Moseley). For instance, the Correlates of War Project (COW), an academic scientific study on wars, defines war as a military conflict in which the number of battlefield deaths is more than 1000. The definition is clearly invalid as according to the criteria of this definition, the Falklands War, which involved about 900 deaths, can’t be called as a war, but less significant “Football War” between Honduras and El Salvador with about 2100 causalities qualify as a war (Gvosdev and Stigler). The definition of war is highly dependent on the individual’s perceptions on free will and determinism. Marcus Cicero defines war as “a violent struggle”; while Karl Clausewitz characterizes it as “the perpetuation of politics by forceful means” (Moseley). According to Webster’s Dictionary, “war is a state of wide, open and officially declared adverse armed conflict between state-groups or countries, or a period of such struggle” (Moseley). Overall, a war can be characterized as an intentional, actual and extensive violent conflict between various political entities. In a way, clashes between individuals can’t be called as a war, nor can be gang fights. Phenomenon of war can occur only between political entities which are either states or struggling to become states. War between different nations, like the World War I and the World War II, is a classical mode of war. On the other hand, intrastate armed conflict between rival communities or groups, like the American Civil War and the 2014 Ukraine Crisis, is another type of war. Also, if terrorist organizations are categorized as “political entities”, global fight against terrorism can be characterized as a contemporary mode of war (Orend). The long-term conflict between Russia and Chechnya republic satisfies majority of criteria that would certainly characterize it as one of the severe and devastating wars in recent years. 3. History of the Conflict 31. Geography and Chechen People Chechnya is a small Russian republic, located in the south-western part of Russia and the northern region of the Caucasus mountains. Besides Russia, Chechen Republic shares the border with neighbouring country, Georgia. According to the 2010 official census, Chechnya had around 1.4 million population in 2010 out of it 95.5% were Chechen (Vasilogambros et al.). Chechens, an ethnic minority group in Russia, are natives of the Northern Caucasus region. Islam came to the Caucasus region in the early 7th century. However, it wasn’t deeply rooted in the region until the 19th century when Chechens adopted Sunni Islam, allying with the Ottoman Empire to fight against the Russian Empire’s annexation of Chechnya. Grozny, a city situated on the Sunzha River with the population of around 271,000, is the capital of Chechen Republic (Vasilogambros et al.). 3.2 Chechen Republic Until 1991 Chechens, which were ethnically, culturally, and linguistically considered as the distinct people from Russians, were against Russian imperialism since early 17th century (Shah). In order to maintain control over the Caucasus region, Russian Empire built a fortress in Grozny, a current capital of Chechen Republic in 1818 and fought a lengthy 40-years war with the locals. This first Russian-Chechen war proved to be the beginning of later prolonged conflict. Annoyed by the Chechen forces’ tactic of hiding into the civilian areas, Russian army began to oppress and torture the civilians, triggering anger and desire for revenge among the Chechen population (Ayers). During the Russian Revolution, Chechen separatists seized the opportunity and declared independence of Chechnya in 1917. However, after coming to power, the Bolshevik government again captured the territory and formed the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic under the Soviet Union in 1924 (Shah). Low-intensity Chechen rebellion against the Soviet regime continued; but, over the next two decades, Soviet army successfully suppressed all anti-Soviet revolts. In the mid-1940s, suspecting that the Chechens were supporting the Nazi Germany during the World War II, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin tried to “settle” the Chechen issue by detaining over 500,000 Ingush and Chechens to Siberia and Central Asia. Over 100,000 of them were died in harsh conditions of the Soviet concentration camps. After the death of Stalin, Soviet leader Khrushchev dismissed Stalin’s order, allowing the Chechen population to return their home (Ayers). Even after many years, majority of Chechens didn’t forget their exile and genocide of their population by the Soviet regime. Such anger and hatred against the Soviet regime were eventually outburst into the first and second Russia-Chechen wars. 3.3 Russian-Chechen Wars With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the autonomous republics, like Ukraine and Uzbekistan were declared independent states; also, Georgia successfully separated from the Soviet Union. Motivated by such successful secession attempts of other Soviet republics, a Chechnya separation movement was established after the collapse of the Soviet regime. However, unlike other republics, Russia refused to separate Chechnya, triggering two lethal wars between Russia and Chechen republic (Vasilogambros et al.). In 1994, the growing tensions between the Chechen leader Dzkokhar Dudayev and the Yeltsin’s government escalated into the first major Chechen war. The war which was supposed to be dominated by powerful Russian military turned into a humiliating disaster for Russia due to bitter resistance of the Chechen guerrilla army. In the war, over 80,000 people died; majority of them were Chechens. With the growing media pressure and domestic protest, the Russian federation withdrew from the war in 1996. After the Russian retreat, local militias and Islamic insurgents gained control over Chechnya (Shah). In mid-1999, the Russian government accused the Chechen government for penetrating Chechen Islamic militants into Dagestan, which was still Russian territory, to promote separate Islamic state movement and overthrow Russian aggression in Dagestan (Ayers). In September, 1999, the Chechen terrorists executed a series of lethal explosions in local apartments in Moscow, Volgodnsk, and St. Petersburg. Eventually, Russia declared its second war with Chechen republic in 1999. The war which was initially intended to protect Russian minorities in Chechnya quickly turned into invading Chechnya and regaining the control over the territory. Compare to first Chechen war, second Chechen war was more devastating and deadly. However, for the Russian government, it gathered more public and media support than the previous war (Ayers). 3.4 Recent Trajectory After the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin established the Kremlin-supported government under the leadership of Akhmed Kadyrov in Chechnya. However, the separatists and Islamic radical groups in Chechnya continued their terror attacks, expanding their activities even across the border in Russia. The number of Chechen terror attacks in Russia and Chechnya has continuously growing since 2001. In 2009, Putin declared the anti-terrorist operations in Chechnya to be over just when terrorism was getting to its peak in the region (Mirovalev). 4. Analysis of the Conflict 4.1 The Hidden Politics of the Conflict In Chechen conflict, the global politics has played a crucial role. After coming to the power, the Putin administration adopted new foreign policies which were mainly focused on protecting Russia’s own market while capturing new markets on a global level and maintaining the dominance of Russia over former soviet territories (Giannella 6). Russia is the largest natural gas producer and exporter and the 2nd top producer of oil in the world. As Russian petroleum sources play a crucial role in the international energy market, Putin mainly used energy as a political weapon in order to establish dominance of Russia in a global market (Giannella 3-7). As Europe was entirely dependent on Russian natural gas, Russia enjoyed high revenues from gas exports to European countries. However, after discovery of oil and gas in Caucasian countries, especially Azerbaijan, western countries attempted to diversify energy supply by importing oil and gas from these countries, threatening the petroleum revenues of Russia (King). Chechnya holds vast oil reserves. Prior to the war, millions of barrels of oil were exported to Russia, but as the war began in 1999, the oil supply from Chechnya disrupted, causing around $30 million of loss per day to Russia. In other words, Chechen natural resources are vital for Russian economy and the Russian regime couldn’t afford to lose the control over the territory by allowing the separation (Arquilla and Karasik 209-210). Also, the strategic geographic location of Chechnya has further enhanced its importance for Russia. Russia and the United States have long history of rivalry. This rivalry became even more intense with the confrontation between the Western powers and Russia over the NATO’s (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Eastern Partnership program. The NATO and EU’s (European Union) policies of integrating former soviet republics into their organization were seen as the threat to Russia’s dominance in the Eastern Europe (McMahon). Disintegration of Chechen republic from the Russian federation would expose Russian borders to the West. Over the years, the former soviet republics have acted as the buffer states for Russia and loosing the grip over these territories would never be compromised by the Russian government. Overall, the global politics and the struggle for regional sovereignty have highly influenced the Russian policies towards Chechnya. 4.2 Evaluation In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights sentenced Russia guilty for the numerous cases of war crimes and serious human rights violations in Chechen republic during the armed conflict between Chechen rebels and Russian forces began in the late 1990s. During the war, 3500-5500 Chechen civilians were “disappeared” at the hands of Russian security forces yet not a single officer was trialled for forced detention of Chechen locals. Besides, the court found the Russian regime responsible for severe torture, mass executions, detaining locals on false basis, failure to perform proper war crime investigations, and systematic abuse of human rights in Chechen republic (“Justice for Chechnya” 1-3). In Chechnya, basically three major groups are fuelling the conflict. The first major group is the Russian security forces which still mark their strong presence in the region. The forces are proved to have direct involvement in illegal trade of local petroleum sources and regular extortion raids on Chechen villages. The excessive governmental benefits, like high salaries, pensions, and opportunity to exploit local properties motivate these forces to maintain the conflict (Lieven et al.). A second group is Kadyrovtsi, a pro-Russian militant group led by the assassinated ex-Chechen president Ahmad Kadyrov and currently, by his son and President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov. The group is notorious for carrying raids and exploiting locals with the support of the Russian forces (Lieven et al.). Ramzan Kadyrov is regularly accused for involving in contract-killings, kidnapping, torturing, and killing political rivals and suspected separatists (Mirovalev). According to many experts, Chechen locals were not allowed to participate in fair elections. After the war, the Putin administration made sure that there won’t be potential rivals for the pro-Russian Kadyrov regime. Overall, the legitimacy of so-called democratic regime in Chechnya is seriously questionable (Mirovalev). The third major group triggering the conflict is the radical separatist forces. The present rebels significantly differ in terms of agenda and motives with the separatists from the era of 1990s. Previous separatists groups’ activities’ were mainly focused on the independence. But, the present rebels’ ideologies are highly motivated by the radical Islamists beliefs and the idea of jihad, i.e., the religious fight against non-Muslims to establish universal Muslim state (Lieven et al.). The flaws in Russian policies in Chechnya have played a major role in escalating terrorism in Chechen republic. Russia’s oppressive policies in Chechnya, including the bombing in civil areas, torturing and killing innocent villagers, fuelled extreme anger and hatred among the locals towards Russians. The Islamic terrorist organizations, originated in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Central Asia, took advantage of this situation and systematically transformed secular nationalist movement into radical Islamic terrorism in recent years (Edwards 38-40). Also, the long dark history between Russia and Chechnya can’t be ignored. From the Chechen people’s perspective, the conflict has been viewed as the struggle of colonized state for its independence against the colonizer state. Also, the rebellion of Sheikh Mansur in 1784-92, the 1817 Caucasian War, and the Shamil Rebellion in the 1840s highlight the glimpse of ‘clash of civilizations’ between the orthodox Christian and the radical Islamic world in the Chechen-Russian conflict. Further, the brutal mass killings and torture of Caucasians by the Soviet regime during the World War II have kept fresh bruises in the hearts of Chechens (Hughes 18-23). All these factors are combined with the flawed Russian oppressive policies towards Chechnya which have collectively escalated the issue to the critical level. 5. Conclusion Today, the conflict between Russia and Chechen republic is evolved into one of the biggest global political issues. Even though the conflict is backed on the long bitter history between Russia and Chechen republic, it is further fuelled by regular exploitation, torture, and human rights abuse by the Russian forces in Chechnya. It is necessary for the United Nations to take a lead to solve the issue and promote fair democracy and security in the region. From the Russian perspective, it is necessary to eliminate growing radical Islamic terrorism in the region with the help of other leading nations because in the nearest future, growing instability in Chechnya will not only affect stability in Russia but also global peace and security. Works Cited Arquilla, John, and Theodore Karasik. “Chechnya: A Glimpse of Future Conflict?” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 22 (1999): 207-229. Web. 28 May 2015. Ayers, R. William.“Chechnya and Russia: A War of Succession.” History Behind the Headlines: The Origins of Conflicts Worldwide, 2001. Web. 28 May 2015. Edwards, Michael. “Collective Political Violence in the North Caucasus: Chechen Conflict and Insurgency Analysis.” diva-portal.org, 2012: 1-61. Web. 28 May 2015. Giannella, Margerita. “Energy: the Russian geopolitical weapon.”academia.edu, 2014: 1-21. Web. 28 May 2015. 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Web. 28 May 2015. “Timeline of Russian Terror Attacks.” The Guardian, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 28 May 2015. Trenin, Dmitri V. “The Forgotten War: Chechnya and Russia’s Future.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2003: 1-8. Web. 28 May 2015. Vasilogambros, Matt, Cory Bennet, and NirajChokshi. “What You Need to Know About Chechnya.” National Journal, 19 Apr. 2013. Web. 28 May 2015. Yevsyukova, Mariya. “The Conflict between Russia and Chechnya.” University of Colorado, 1995. Web. 28 May 2015. Read More