Russia: Warnings of another Chechen war

[bemildred]

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.

The Russians sent troops into Chechnya to put down the rebellion in a bloody battle that raged from 1994 to 1996 and resumed in 1999. The fighting left the Chechen capital in rubble and the Chechen front in disarray. In a plan laid out by the half-Chechen Vladislav Surkov - the right-hand man of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - the Kremlin seized upon an opportunity to divide and conquer Chechnya. Surkov's plan exploited a split that emerged between Islamists such as Basayev - who wanted to fight for
a greater Islamic state that would encompass Chechnya and neighboring Dagestan and Ingushetia - and the Yamadayev and Kadyrov clans - who essentially were Chechen nationalists uninterested in any Islamist agenda.

Through a combination of brute force and bribery, Surkov succeeded in bringing the Kadyrov and Yamadayev clans to the Kremlin's side, placing the bulk of fighting in the Second Chechen War on the Chechens themselves rather than on Russian soldiers. Kaydrov and Yamadayev followed through in their commitment to the Kremlin to put down Basayev's forces. At the end of the Second Chechen War, both were duly compensated: The Kaydrovs were given control over the political leadership of the republic, while the Yamadayev clan was put in charge of the security forces - specifically, the Vostok and Zapad elite special operations battalions.

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MzE2MzE4ODEz

[madrchsod]

1. the chechen's and the russians have been fighting since the early 1800`s

i doubt they stop anytime soon...http://www.infoplease.com/spot/chechnyatime1.html

[bemildred]

2. Not likely. The problem appears to be spreading too. nt