Sunday, September 28, 2008

Russia: Warnings Of Another Chechen War


From The Kuwait Times:

Chechen warlord Sulim Yamadayev vowed revenge Sept. 26 for the death of his brother, Ruslan Yamadayev, who was gunned down in Moscow two days earlier. At a small funeral for Ruslan in the town of Gudermes east of the Chechen capital of Grozny, Sulim accused Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov of killing his brother, and said the Yamadayev clan would seek vengeance after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends Sept 30.

The Sept 24 assassination of Ruslan Yamadayev was rooted in the longtime rivalry between two of Chechnya's major factions. In the chaos of the Soviet breakup in 1991, former Chechen President Dzhokar Dudayev seized on the opportunity to declare Chechnya independent while the Russian state remained in disarray. At that time, Dudayev had complete authority over all the Chechen clans, including the Yamadayevs, the Kaydrovs and the Islamist faction led by Shamil Basayev, in the fight against the Russians.

Read more ....

My Comment: Unrest in the Caucasus will be the normal situation for a very long time. The bitterness and cultural animosities that were bottled up during the Soviet Union era are now being permitted to boil over. Another Chechen conflict is all but certain.

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