PAPER: Chechen Conflict and Islamism in North Caucasus on the Background of Putin’s Federal Reforms (ediscourse.wordpress.com)

Chechen Conflict and Islamism in North Caucasus on the Background of Putin’s Federal Reforms

The paper aims to overview and analyse the main characteristics of post-soviet Kremlin’s regional policy in the North Caucasus. I do not intend to provide detailed description of recent developments in Chechen Republic; I shall rather concentrate on the political Islam in North Caucasian societies, scrutinizing its main determinants, specifically, how it is influenced by Putin’s regional policy, initiatives and federal reforms. Preliminary analysis suggest that religious practices and institutions that are usually perceived of as grassroot traditional norms, re-emerged in post-Soviet Caucasus, were in fact institutionalized during Soviet times; they presently play central role in power struggle and ethnic competition, which is unlikely to change in short perspective considering the present format of centre-regional relations. Ultimate objective is analyze how Moscovite approach to fight Jihadism and respond to perceived security threats in the region is translated, perceived and supposedly manipulated by local religious and secular elites vis-à-vis Islamist “outsiders”.

full article >>>

Reference list:
1. Avksentyev, A. (1984) Islam na Severnom Kavkaze, Stavropol Book Edition, Stavropol.
2. Babich, I.L. Islam i pravo v kabardino-balkarii, online publication at Islam in Kabardino-Balkaria, accessed in September 2006.
3. Benningsen, A., Wimbush, S. E. (1985) Sufism in Chechnya, from Mystics and Commissars: Sufism in the Soviet Union, Hurst and Company, London.
4. Bobrovnikov, V. (2003) Shariatskie sudy na severnom kavkaze, Otsechestvennie Zapiski, 5 (14), accessed on 17 January, 2007.
5. Felshtinksy Y., Litvinenko A., Geoffrey A. (2007) Blowing up Russia: Terror from within, Gibson Square Books, London.
6. Gadjiev K.S. (2001) Geopolitika kavkaza, Moscow.
7. Gunn, J. T. (2003) the Complexity of Religion and the Definition of “Religion” in International Law, Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol. 16, 189-215.
8. Halbach, U. (2001) Islam in the North Caucasus, Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions 115, July-September, 93-110.
9. Khanakhu R. A., Liausheva S. A., Tsvetkov, O.M. (2002) Islam u adigov severo-zapadnogo kavkaza na rubezhe tisiacheletii, in Mir kulturi adigov (problemy evolutsii i tselostnosti), ed. by Khanakhu R.A., Maikop.
10. Lynch, D. (2005) the Enemy is at the Gate’: Russia after Beslan, International Affairs vol. 81, no. 1, 141-161.
11. Malashenko A.V. (2001) Islamskie orientiri severnogo kavkaza, Moscow Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Gendalt, Moscow, accessed on 07 February, 2007.
12. Mukhametshin R. M. (2002) Islam V Rosii: Istoriko-metodologicheskie predposilki issledovovaniya, in Rossiya i Musulmanskii Mir, Biuleten referativno-analiticheskoiy informatsii, Moscow.
13. Nicholson, M. (2003) Characterising Center-periphery Relations in the Yeltsin era, in Russian Regions and Regionalism, Strenght Through Weakness, ed. by Herd, G. P., Aldis, A., New York: Routledge, 3-38.
14. Petrov, N. (2004) Federalism, in Between dictatorship and democracy: Russian post-communist political reform by McFaul M., Petrov N., Riabov A., Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
15. Politkovskaya, A. (2003) A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
16. Ross, C. (2003) Putin’s Federal Reforms and the consolidation of federalism in Russia: one step forward, to steps back!, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, No. 36, 29-47.
17. Sagramoso, D. (2007) Violence and conflict in the Russian North Caucasus, International Affairs, Vol. 83, No. 4, 681–705.
18. Savateev A.D. Vlast i politika v dagestanie, online publication at The Center of Civilizational and Regional Studies: civreg.ru, accessed in June 2006.
19. Savateev, A.D. (2002) Mesulmanie Chechni: mezhdu adatom, shariatom i islamskim revolucionizmom; in Musulmanie izmeniayusheisia rossii, Moscow, 284-307.
20. Shikhsaidov, A (1999), Islam v Dagiestane, Centralnaya Aziya i Kavkaz, No. 4.
21. Vatchagaev M. (2006) the Increasingly Deadly Struggle for Power between Kadirov and Alkhanov, Chechnya Weekly, Vol. 7, Issue 37, September 28.
22. Volkov, V. (2003) O prirode islamoskogo radikalizma, Otsechestvennie Zapiski, № 5 (14), accessed on 17 January, 2007.
23. Wilhelmsen, J. (2005) Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Islamisation of the Chechen Separatist Movement, Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 57, No. 1, January, 35 – 59.
24. Yemelianova, G. (2003), Russia’s Umma and its Muftis, Religion, State & Society, Vol. 31, No. 2.