TruthOut10
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- Dec 3, 2012
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Editors note: Robert Schaefer is a Special Forces (Green Beret) and Eurasian Foreign Area Officer and author of The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus, From Gazavat to Jihad. The views expressed are his own.
As we all struggle to make sense of the Boston bombings, and the revelation that the two suspects are ethnic Chechens, there has been a rush to reacquaint ourselves with the troubled North Caucasus region in the hope that we might be able to answer questions like why did this happen, or are we under attack again? And as the airwaves and the blogospheres are swarmed with facts and opinions, its worth taking a step back to put this deluge of information in some context.
Its not as though we havent heard of Chechnya before, its just that its one of those places that is only occasionally in the news before fading again as our attention is pulled elsewhere. Yet it isnt actually all that long ago that we were hearing about the two wars of independence that Chechnya fought against Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. And although we may remember President Bill Clinton drawing comparisons between Boris Yeltsins efforts to quell the Chechen independence movement with the U.S. Civil War, many may not be aware that the same law that Yeltsin used to declare Russias independence from the Soviet Union gave Chechnya (and many other Russian regions) the legal basis to do the same. It was this that created a constitutional crisis that almost destroyed Russia in the mid-1990s, and created the conditions that resulted in a de-facto independent Chechen republic from 1996-1999.
But while everyone is now familiar with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it might surprise many to learn that Putin was virtually unknown before the Chechen War of 1999, when he was handpicked to be Yeltsins successor and subsequently conducted a brilliant, yet brutal campaign to take Chechnya back. Most significantly, he changed the very nature of the conflict: before Putin, the Russians referred to the Chechen separatists as criminals, brigands and bandits; after Putin, the conflict was rebranded as an existential battle against international terrorists a theme that was solidified after the attacks of 9/11.
The truth about the Chechen threat ? Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs
As we all struggle to make sense of the Boston bombings, and the revelation that the two suspects are ethnic Chechens, there has been a rush to reacquaint ourselves with the troubled North Caucasus region in the hope that we might be able to answer questions like why did this happen, or are we under attack again? And as the airwaves and the blogospheres are swarmed with facts and opinions, its worth taking a step back to put this deluge of information in some context.
Its not as though we havent heard of Chechnya before, its just that its one of those places that is only occasionally in the news before fading again as our attention is pulled elsewhere. Yet it isnt actually all that long ago that we were hearing about the two wars of independence that Chechnya fought against Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. And although we may remember President Bill Clinton drawing comparisons between Boris Yeltsins efforts to quell the Chechen independence movement with the U.S. Civil War, many may not be aware that the same law that Yeltsin used to declare Russias independence from the Soviet Union gave Chechnya (and many other Russian regions) the legal basis to do the same. It was this that created a constitutional crisis that almost destroyed Russia in the mid-1990s, and created the conditions that resulted in a de-facto independent Chechen republic from 1996-1999.
But while everyone is now familiar with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it might surprise many to learn that Putin was virtually unknown before the Chechen War of 1999, when he was handpicked to be Yeltsins successor and subsequently conducted a brilliant, yet brutal campaign to take Chechnya back. Most significantly, he changed the very nature of the conflict: before Putin, the Russians referred to the Chechen separatists as criminals, brigands and bandits; after Putin, the conflict was rebranded as an existential battle against international terrorists a theme that was solidified after the attacks of 9/11.
The truth about the Chechen threat ? Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs
