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Chechen Republic
Republic
Чеченская Республика
Other transcription(s)
• Chechen	Нохчийн Республика
FlagCoat of arms
Anthem: "Shtalak's Song"
Country	Russia
Federal district	North Caucasian
Economic region	North Caucasus
Capital	Grozny
Government
• Body	Parliament
• Head	Ramzan Kadyrov
Area
• Total	17,300 km (6,700 sq mi)
• Rank	75th
Population
• Total	1,268,989
• Rank	40th
• Density	73/km (190/sq mi)
• Urban	34.9%
• Rural	65.1%
Time zone	UTC+3 (MSK )
ISO 3166 code	RU-CE
License plates	95
OKTMO ID	96000000
Official languages	Russian; Chechen
Website	http://chechnya.gov.ru/

The Chechen Republic (/ˈtʃɛtʃn/; Template:Lang-ru, Chechenskaya Respublika; Template:Lang-ce, Noxçiyn Respublika), commonly referred to as Chechnya (/ˈtʃɛtʃniə/; Template:Lang-ru, Chechnya; Template:Lang-ce, Noxçiyçö), also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria (Template:Lang-en), is a federal subject (a republic) of Russia. It is located in the North Caucasus, situated in the southernmost part of Eastern Europe, and within 100 kilometers of the Caspian Sea. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny. As of the 2010 Census, the republic had a population of 1,268,989 people, predominantly of the Chechen ethnic group with a notable Russian minority.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was split into two: the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic. The latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which sought independence. Following the First Chechen War with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Russian federal control was restored during the Second Chechen War. Since then there has been a systematic reconstruction and rebuilding process, though sporadic fighting continues in the mountains and southern regions of the republic.

History

Origin of Chechnya's population

According to Leonti Mroveli, the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, the word Caucasian is derived from the Vainakh ancestor Kavkas. "The Vainakhs are the ancient natives of the Caucasus. It is noteworthy, that according to the genealogical table drawn up by Leonti Mroveli, the legendary forefather of the Vainakhs was "Kavkas", hence the name Kavkasians, one of the ethnicons met in the ancient Georgian written sources, signifying the ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush. As appears from the above, the Vainakhs, at least by name, are presented as the most "Caucasian" people of all the Caucasians (Caucasus - Kavkas - Kavkasians) in the Georgian historical tradition." Some American linguists claim that: "The Nakh–Dagestanian languages are the closest thing we have to a direct continuation of the cultural and linguistic community that gave rise to Western civilization".

Prehistory

The oldest settlement found in the region dates back to 125,000 BC. In these mountain cave settlements, people lived who used tools, mastered fire, and used animal skin for warmth and other purposes. Traces of human settlement that date back to 40,000 BC were found near Lake Kezanoi. Cave paintings, artifacts and other archaeological evidence indicate that there has been continuous habitation for some 8,000 years.

Early history

10,000-8000 BCE

Migration of Nakh people to the slopes of the Caucasus from the Fertile Crescent. Invention of agriculture, irrigation, and the domestication of animals.

6000-4000 BCE

Neolithic era. Pottery is known to the region. Old settlements near Ali-Yurt and Magas, discovered in the modern times, revealed tools made out of stone: stone axes, polished stones, stone knives, stones with holes drilled in them, clay dishes etc. Settlements made out of clay bricks discovered in the plains. In the mountains there were discovered settlements made out of stone surrounded by walls some of them dated back 8000 BC.

4000-3000 BCE

Invention of the wheel (3000 BC), horseback riding, metal works (copper, gold, silver, iron) dishes, armor, daggers, knives, arrow tips. The artifacts were found near Nasare-Cort, Muzhichi, Ja-E-Bortz (also known as Surkha-khi), Abbey-Gove (also known as Nazran or Nasare)

400 BC - 800 AD

appearance of kingdom of Albania (name known solely from Romans) on the east and center of the North Caucasus. The largest tribes of Caucasian Albania were Gergars/Gargarians, and Gelians (see map of J.H.Colton). They were the largest Nakh tribes in the Caucasian Albania prior to Persian and Mongol invasions

900-1200 AD

the kingdom in the center of the Caucasus splits into Alania and Noble Alania (known from Russian as Царственные Аланы). German scientist Peter Simon Pallas believed that Ingush people (Kist) were the direct descendants from Alania.

1239 AD

Destruction of the Alania capital of Maghas (both names known solely from Muslim Arabs) and Alan confederacy of the Northern Caucasian highlanders, nations, and tribes by Batu Khan (a Mongol leader and a grandson of Genghis Khan) "Magas was destroyed in the beginning of 1239 by the hordes of Batu Khan. Historically Magas was located at approximately the same place on which the new capital of Ingushetia is now built" - D.V.Zayats

1300-1400 AD

War between the Alans, Tamerlan, Tokhtamysh, and the Battle of the Terek River. The Alan tribes build fortresses, castles, and defense walls locking the mountains from the invaders. Part of the lowland tribes occupied by Mongols. The insurgency against Mongols begins. In 1991 the Jordanian historian Abdul-Ghani Khassan presented the photocopy from old Arabic scripts claiming that Alania was in Chechnya and Ingushetia, and the document from Alanian historian Azdin Vazzar (1395-1460) who claimed to be from Nokhcho (Chechen) tribe of Alania.

1500 AD

Russian conquest of the Caucasus. 1558 Temryuk of Kabarda sends his emissaries to Moscow requesting help against Vainakh tribes from Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the terrible marries Temryuk's daughter Maria Temryukovna the Circassian (Kabardin) tsaritsa. Alliance formed to gain the ground in the central Caucasus for the expanding Tsardom of Russia against stubborn Vainakh defenders. Chechnya was a nation in the Northern Caucasus that fought against foreign rule continually since the 15th century. The Chechens converted over the next few centuries to Sunni Islam, as Islam was associated with resistance to Russian encroachment.

Caucasian Wars

In 1785, Russia and the western Christians of Kartl-Kakheti decided to rebel against the Ottomans and the Muslim Georgians Chveneburi, Turkified Georgians the Meskhetians, who were traditionally pro-Ottoman. The Christians signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, according to which Kartl-Kakheti received protection from Russia. In order to secure communications with Kartli and other minority Christian regions of the Transcaucasia, the Russian Empire began brutal conquest in the Northern Caucasus mountains killing completely several Nakh tribes notably the Malkh and the Gargareans one of the most numerous Nakh tribes. That is why the popularity of Islam was gaining strength and viewed as the religion of liberation from despotic tsardom who viewed Nakh tribes as "bandits". The rebellion was leaded by Mansur Ushurma, a Chechen Naqshbandi (Sufi) sheikh—with wavering military support from other North Caucasian tribes. Mansur hoped to establish a Transcaucasus Islamic state under shari'a law, but was unable to fully achieve this because in the course of the war he was betrayed by the Ottoman's, handed to Russians, and executed in 1794.

However, the resistance of the Nakh tribes never ended and was a fertile ground for a new Muslim-Avar commander Imam Shamil, who fought against the Russians from 1834 until 1859. In 1859 Shamil was captured by Russians at aul Gunib but the commander left in charge by Shamil at Gunib, the one-armed one-legged, one-eyed Chechen Boysangur Benoiski broke through the siege and continued to fight Russia in full scale warfare for another 2 years until he was captured and killed by Russians. Russian Tsar hoped that by sparing the life of Shamil the resistance in the North Caucasus stops. Unfortunately for Russia it didn't happen. Russia had to change the strategy. It began to use colonization tactic by destroying Nakh settlements and building Cossack defense lines in the lowlands and strawing the mountaineers. The strategy did not work either. Cossack suffered defeat after defeat and were constantly attacked by mountaineers' raids who were robbing them of food and weaponry.

The tsarists' regime uses a different approach at the end of 1860s they offered Chechens and Ingush to leave the Caucasus for the Ottoman Empire (see Muhajir (Caucasus)). It is estimated that about 80% of Chechens and Ingush left the Caucasus during the deportation. It weakened the resistance which went from open warfare to insurgent warfare. One of the notable Chechen resistance fighter at the end of 19th century was a Chechen abrek Zelimkhan Gushmazukaev and his comrade-in-arms Ingush abrek Sulom-Beck Sagopshinski. Together they built up small units which constantly harassed Russian military convoys, government mints, and government post-service mainly in Ingushetia and Chechnya. Ingush aul Kek was completely burned when the Ingush refused to hand over Zelimkhan. Zelimkhan was killed in the beginning of the 20th century. The war between Nakh tribes and Russia continued into the times of Russian Revolution in their struggle against Anton Denikin, and later against the Reds.

Soviet rule

Chechen rebellion would characteristically flare up whenever the Russian state faced a period of internal uncertainty. Rebellions occurred during the Russo-Turkish War, the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War (see Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus), and Collectivization. Under Soviet rule, Chechnya was combined with Ingushetia to form the autonomous republic of Chechen-Ingushetia in the late 1930s.

Some Chechens again rose up against Soviet rule during the 1940s, resulting in the deportation of the entire ethnic Chechen and Ingush populations to the Kazakh SSR (later Kazakhstan) and Siberia in 1944 near the end of World War II where over 60% of Chechen and Ingush populations perished. The deportation was supposedly justified by the materials prepared by notorious NKVD officer Bogdan Kobulov accusing Chechens in a mass conspiracy preparing rebellion and providing assistance to the German forces. Many of the materials were later proved to be fabricated. Even distinguished Red Army officers who fought bravely against Germans (e.g. the commander of 255th Separate Chechen-Ingush regiment Movlid Visaitov, the first to contact American forces at Elbe river) were deported. There is a theory that the real reason why Chechens and Ingush were deported is the desire of Russia to continue the conquest in Turkey. Chechens and Ingush could become a serious threats for the plans In 2004 European Parliament recognized deportation of Chechens and Ingush as an act of genocide.

The territory of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was divided between Stavropol Krai (where Grozny Okrug was formed), the Dagestan ASSR, the North Ossetian ASSR, and the Georgian SSR.

The Chechens and Ingush were allowed to return to their land after 1956 during de-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev when Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was restored but both boundaries and ethnic composition of the territory significantly changed. There were many (predominantly Russian) migrants from other parts of the Soviet Union, who often settled in the abandoned family homes of Chechens and Ingushes. The republic lost its Prigorodny District transferred to North Ossetian ASSR but gain predominately Russian Naursky District and Shelkovskoy District that considered the homeland for Terek Cossacks.

The Russification policies towards Chechens continued after 1956, with Russian language proficiency required in many aspects of life and for advancement in the Soviet system.

Since 1990

Part of a series on the
History of Chechnya
Prehistory
Kura–Araxes culture Maykop culture Kayakent culture Kharachoi culture Koban culture
Ancient
Durdzuks Cimmerians Alans
Medieval
Alania Simsim
Early modern
Ichkeria Caucasian Imamate Russian Empire
Modern
Mountain Republic 1917–1921 North Caucasian Emirate 1919–1920 Chechen National Okrug 1920–1922 Chechen Autonomous Oblast 1922–1934 Checheno-Ingush Aut. Oblast 1934–1936 Checheno-Ingush ASSR 1936–1944 Grozny Oblast 1944–1957 Checheno-Ingush ASSR 1957–1991 Chechen Republic of Ichkeria 1991–2000 Chechen Republic 2000–present
v t e

On November 26, 1990 the Supreme Council of Chechen-Ingush ASSR adopted the "Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Chechen-Ingush Republic". This declaration was part of the reorganization of the Soviet Union. This new treaty would have been signed August 22, 1991 which would have transformed 15 republic states into more than 80. The August Coup (August 19–21, 1991) led to the abandonment of this reorganization. With the impending dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, an independence movement, initially known as the Chechen National Congress, was formed and led by ex-Soviet Air Force general and new Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev that rallied for the recognition of Chechnya as a separate nation. This movement was ultimately opposed by Boris Yeltsin's Russian Federation, which first argued that Chechnya had not been an independent entity within the Soviet Union—as the Baltic, Central Asian, and other Caucasian States had—but was part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and hence did not have a right under the Soviet constitution to secede; second, that other republics of Russia, such as Tatarstan, would consider seceding from the Russian Federation if Chechnya were granted that right; and third, that Chechnya was a major hub in the oil infrastructure of the Federation and hence its secession would hurt the country's economy and energy access.

In the ensuing decade, the territory was locked in an ongoing struggle between various factions, usually fighting unconventionally and forgoing the position held by the several successive Russian governments through the current administration. Various demographic factors including religious ones have continued to keep the area in a near constant state of war.

First Chechen War

The First Chechen War took place over a two-year period that lasted from 1994 to 1996, when Russian forces attempted to regain control over Chechnya, which had declared independence in November 1991. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority in men, weaponry and air support, the Russian forces were unable to establish effective permanent control over the mountainous area due to numerous successful Chechen guerrilla raids. For three months Russia lost more tanks (over 1997 tanks) in Grozny than during the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in 1995 shocked the Russian public and led to international condemnation of the Chechen rebels. The widespread demoralization of the Russian forces in the area and a successful offensive to re-take Grozny by Chechen resistance forces led by Aslan Maskhadov prompted Russian President Boris Yeltsin to declare a ceasefire in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later that saw a withdrawal of Russian forces.

Inter-war period

After the war, parliamentary and presidential elections took place in January 1997 in Chechnya and brought to power new President Aslan Maskhadov, chief of staff and prime minister in the Chechen coalition government, for a five-year term. Maskhadov sought to maintain Chechen sovereignty while pressing Moscow to help rebuild the republic, whose formal economy and infrastructure were virtually destroyed. Russia continued to send money for the rehabilitation of the republic; it also provided pensions and funds for schools and hospitals. Most of these funds were taken by Chechen authorities and divided between favoured warlords. Nearly half a million people (40% of Chechnya's prewar population) had been internally displaced and lived in refugee camps or overcrowded villages. There was an economic downturn. Two Russian brigades were permanently stationed in Chechnya.

In lieu of the devastated economic structure, kidnapping emerged as the principal source of income countrywide, procuring over $200 million during the three-year independence of the chaotic fledgling state, although victims were rarely killed. In 1998, 176 people were kidnapped, 90 of whom were released, according to official accounts. President Maskhadov started a major campaign against hostage-takers, and on October 25, 1998, Shadid Bargishev, Chechnya's top anti-kidnapping official, was killed in a remote-controlled car bombing. Bargishev's colleagues then insisted they would not be intimidated by the attack and would go ahead with their offensive. Political violence and religious extremism, blamed on "Wahhabism", was rife. In 1998, Grozny authorities declared a state of emergency. Tensions led to open clashes between the Chechen National Guard and Islamist militants, such as the July 1998 confrontation in Gudermes.

Second Chechen War

The War of Dagestan began on 7 August 1999, during which the Islamic International Brigade (IIPB) began an unsuccessful incursion into the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan in favor of the Shura of Dagestan which sought independence from Russia. In September, a series of apartment bombs that killed around 300 people in several Russian cities, including Moscow, were blamed on the Chechen separatists. Some journalists contested the official explanation, instead blaming the Russian Secret Service for blowing up the buildings to initiate a new military campaign against Chechnya. In response to the bombings, a prolonged air campaign of retaliatory strikes against the Ichkerian regime and a ground offensive that began in October 1999 marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War. Much better organized and planned than the first Chechen War, the Russian military took control over most regions. The Russian forces used brutal force, killing 60 Chechen civilians during a mop-up operation in Aldy, Chechnya on February 5, 2000. After the re-capture of Grozny in February 2000, the Ichkerian regime fell apart.

Chechen rebels continued to fight Russian troops and conduct terrorist attacks, In October 2002, 40–50 Chechen rebels seized a Moscow theater and took about 900 civilians hostage. The crisis ended with a large death toll mostly due to an unknown aerosol pumped throughout the building by Russian special forces to incapacitate the people inside. In September 2004, separatist rebels occupied a school in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia, demanding recognition of the independence of Chechnya and a Russian withdrawal. 1,100 people (including 777 children) were taken hostage. The attack lasted three days, resulting in the deaths of over 331 people, including 186 children.

In response to the increasing terrorism, Russia tightened its grip on Chechnya as well as expanded its anti-terrorist operations throughout the region. Russia installed a pro-Moscow Chechen regime. In 2003, a referendum was held on a constitution that reintegrated Chechnya within Russia, but provided limited autonomy. According to the Chechen government, the referendum passed with 95.5% of the votes and almost 80% turnout. The Economist was skeptical of the results, arguing that "few outside the Kremlin regard the referendum as fair". In 2005 and 2006, prominent separatist leaders Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev were killed. In April 2009, Russia ended its counter-terrorism operation and pulled out the bulk of its army. Three months later, the leader of the separatist government, Akhmed Zakayev, called for a halt to armed resistance against the Chechen police force starting on August 1, 2009.

Insurgency in the North Caucasus continued even after this date.

Geography

Situated in the eastern part of the North Caucasus, partially in Eastern Europe, Chechnya is surrounded on nearly all sides by Russian Federal territory. In the west, it borders North Ossetia and Ingushetia, in the north, Stavropol Krai, in the east, Dagestan, and to the south, Georgia. Its capital is Grozny.

• Area: 15,300 kilometers (9,500 mi)
• Borders:
  • Internal:
    • Republic of Dagestan (NE)
    • Republic of Ingushetia (W)
    • Republic of North Ossetia–Alania (W)
    • Stavropol Krai (NW)
  • Foreign:
    • Georgia (S)

Rivers:

• Terek
• Sunzha
• Argun

Cities and towns with over 20,000 people

• Grozny (capital)
• Shali
• Urus-Martan
• Gudermes
• Argun

Administrative divisions

Demographics

According to the 2010 Census, the population of the republic is 1,268,989, up from 1,103,686 recorded in the 2002 Census. As of the 2010 Census, Chechens at 1,206,551 make up 95.3% of the republic's population. Other groups include Russians (24,382, or 1.9%), Kumyks (12,221, or 1%), Ingush (1,296 or 0.1%) and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population. The Armenian community, which used to number around 15,000 in Grozny alone, has dwindled to a few families. Birth rate was 25.41 in 2004. (25.7 in Achkhoi Martan, 19.8 in Groznyy, 17.5 in Kurchaloi, 28.3 in Urus Martan and 11.1 in Vedeno). According to the Chechen State Statistical Committee, Chechnya's population had grown to 1.205 million in January 2006.

At the end of the Soviet era, ethnic Russians (including Cossacks) comprised about 23% of the population (269,000 in 1989).

According to some Russian sources, from 1991 to 1994 tens of thousands of people of non-Chechen ethnicity (mostly Russians, Ukrainians and Armenians) left the republic amidst reports of violence and discrimination against the non-Chechen population, as well as widespread lawlessness and ethnic cleansing under the government of Dzhokhar Dudayev, which is called by their source "ethnic cleansing". Currently, Poland has the second largest population of the Chechen people in the world.

However, regarding this exodus, there is an alternative view. According to the Russian economists Boris Lvin and Andrei Iliaronov,

The Chechen authorities are regularly accused of crimes against the population, especially the Russian-speaking people. However, before the current war the emigration of the Russian-speaking population from Chechnya was no more intense than that from Kalmykia, Tuva and Sakha-Yakutia. In Grozny itself there remained a 200,000 strong Russian-speaking population which did not hasten to leave it.

The languages used in the Republic are Chechen and Russian. Chechen belongs to the Vaynakh or North-central Caucasian language family, which also includes Ingush and Batsb. Some scholars place it in a wider Iberian-Caucasian super-family.

Chechnya has one of the youngest populations in the generally aging Russian Federation; in the early 1990s, it was among the few regions experiencing natural population growth. Since 2002, Chechnya has experienced a classic post-conflict baby-boom. Chechen demographers in 2008 termed highly implausible the reported overall population growth as infant mortality in Chechnya was said to be 60 percent higher than the Russian average in 2007 and to have risen by 3.9 percent compared with 2006. Many experts have expressed doubts about the increase from 1.1 million in the 1990 to an estimated nearly 1.3 million in 2010 following two devastating wars that displaced hundreds of thousands people and virtually eliminated the large ethnic Russian minority in the republic. According to Russian demographer Dmitry Bogoyavlensky, the 2002 census results were clearly manipulated in the North Caucasus: an estimated 800,000 to 1 million non-existent people were added to the actual population of the region. Another Russian demographer, Anatoly Vishnevsky, pointed out that according to the 2002 census, some age groups, like those born in 1950, appeared to be larger in 2002 than in 1989. With the 2002 census, Moscow wanted to show there were not too many casualties and that the refugees had returned to Chechnya, while the local authorities wanted to receive more funds and thus needed a higher population to justify their demands. Also, in the multiethnic republics of North Caucasus normally unlike in other parts of Russia, government positions are distributed among the ethnicities according to their ratio in the general population. So ethnicities are zealously guarding their numbers in order not to be outnumbered by others and thereby left with less representation in the government and the local economy. Some 40 percent of newborns had some kind of genetic defect.

Vital statistics

Source: Russian Federal State Statistics Service

Note: TFR 2009, 2010, 2011 source.

Ethnic groups

(in the territory of modern Chechnya)

Religion

Islam is the predominant religion in Chechnya. Chechens are overwhelmingly adherents to Shāfi‘ī Madh'hab of Sunni Islam, the country having converted to Islam between the 16th and the 19th centuries. Due to historical importance, many Chechens are Sufis, of either the Qadiri or Naqshbandi orders. Most of the population follows either the Shafi'i or the Hanafi, schools of jurisprudence, fiqh. The Shafi'i school of jurisprudence has a long tradition among the Chechens, and thus it remains the most practiced.

The once-strong Russian minority in Chechnya, mostly Terek Cossacks and estimated as numbering approximately 25,000 in 2012, are predominately Russian Orthodox, although presently only one church exists in Grozny. In August 2011, Archbishop Zosima of Vladikavkaz and Makhachkala performed the first mass baptism ceremony in the history of Chechen republic in the Terek River of Naursky District in which 35 citizens of Naursky and Shelkovsky districts were converted to Orthodoxy.

Politics

Since 1990, the Chechen Republic has had many legal, military, and civil conflicts involving separatist movements and pro-Russian authorities. Today, Chechnya is a relatively stable federal republic, although there is still some separatist movement activity. Its regional constitution entered into effect on April 2, 2003 after an all-Chechen referendum was held on March 23, 2003. Some Chechens were controlled by regional teips, or clans, despite the existence of pro- and anti-Russian political structures.

Regional government

The former separatist religious leader (mufti) Akhmad Kadyrov, looked upon as a traitor by many separatists, was elected president with 83% of the vote in an internationally monitored election on October 5, 2003. Incidents of ballot stuffing and voter intimidation by Russian soldiers and the exclusion of separatist parties from the polls were subsequently reported by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitors. On May 9, 2004, Kadyrov was assassinated in Grozny football stadium by a landmine explosion that was planted beneath a VIP stage and detonated during a parade, and Sergey Abramov was appointed to the position of acting prime minister after the incident. However, since 2005 Ramzan Kadyrov (son of Akhmad Kadyrov) has been caretaker prime minister, and in 2007 was appointed a new president. Many allege he is the wealthiest and most powerful man in the republic, with control over a large private militia referred to as the Kadyrovtsy. The militia, which began as his father's security force, has been accused of killings and kidnappings by human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch.

In 2009, the American organization Freedom House included Chechnya in the "Worst of the Worst" list of most repressive societies in the world, together with Burma, North Korea, China's Tibet and others.

Separatist government

In addition to the Russian regional government, there was a separatist Ichkeria government that was not recognized by any state (although members have been given political asylum in European and Arab countries, as well as the United States).

Ichkeria is/was a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Former president of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia deposed in a military coup of 1991 and a participant of the Georgian Civil War, recognised the independence of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1993. Diplomatic relations with Ichkeria were also established by the partially recognized Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the Taliban government on January 16, 2000. This recognition ceased with the fall of the Taliban in 2001. However, despite Taliban recognition, there were no friendly relations between the Taliban and Ichkeria- Maskhadov rejected their recognition, stating that the Taliban were illegitimate. Ichkeria also received vocal support from the Baltic countries, a group of Ukrainian nationalists and Poland; Estonia once voted to recognize, but the act never was followed through due to pressure applied by both Russia and the EU.

The president of this government was Aslan Maskhadov, the Foreign Minister was Ilyas Akhmadov, who was the spokesman for Maskhadov. Aslan Maskhadov had been elected in an internationally monitored election in 1997 for 4 years, which took place after signing a peace agreement with Russia. In 2001 he issued a decree prolonging his office for one additional year; he was unable to participate in the 2003 presidential election, since separatist parties were barred by the Russian government, and Maskhadov faced accusations of terrorist offences in Russia. Maskhadov left Grozny and moved to the separatist-controlled areas of the south at the onset of the Second Chechen War. Maskhadov was unable to influence a number of warlords who retain effective control over Chechen territory, and his power was diminished as a result. Russian forces killed Maskhadov on March 8, 2005, and the assassination of Maskhadov was widely criticized since it left no legitimate Chechen separatist leader with whom to conduct peace talks. Akhmed Zakayev, Deputy Prime Minister and a Foreign Minister under Maskhadov, was appointed shortly after the 1997 election and is currently living under asylum in England. He and others chose Abdul Khalim Saidullayev, a relatively unknown Islamic judge who was previously the host of an Islamic program on Chechen television, to replace Maskhadov following his death. On June 17, 2006, it was reported that Russian special forces killed Abdul Khalim Saidullayev in a raid in a Chechen town Argun. The successor of Saidullayev became Doku Umarov. On October 31, 2007 Umarov abolished the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and its presidency and in its place proclaimed the Caucasian Emirate with himself as its Emir. This change of status has been rejected by many Chechen politicians and military leaders who continue to support the existence of the republic.

Human rights

In 2006 Human Rights Watch reported that pro-Moscow Chechen forces under the command, in effect, of chapter of republic Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as federal police personnel, used torture to get information about separatist forces. "If you are detained in Chechnya, you face a real and immediate risk of torture. And there is little chance that your torturer will be held accountable", said Holly Cartner, Director Europe and Central Asia division of HRW.

Human rights groups criticized the conduct of the 2005 parliamentary elections as unfairly influenced by the central Russian government and military.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reports that after hundreds of thousands fled their homes following inter-ethnic and separatist conflicts in Chechnya in 1994 and 1999, more than 150,000 people still remain displaced in Russia today.

On September 1, 1997, Criminal Code reportedly being implemented in the Chechen Republic-Ichkeriya, Article 148 punishes "anal sexual intercourse between a man and a woman or a man and a man". For first- and second-time offenders, the punishment is caning. A third conviction leads to the death penalty, which can be carried out in a number of ways including stoning or beheading.

On February 1, 2009, the New York Times released extensive evidence to support allegations of consistent torture and executions under the Kadyrov government. The accusations were sparked by the assassination in Austria of a former Chechen rebel who had gained access to Kadyrov's inner circle, 27-year-old Umar Israilov.

On July 1, 2009, Amnesty International released a detailed report covering the human rights violations committed by the Russian Federation against Chechen citizens. Among the most prominent features was that those abused had no method of redress against assaults, ranging from kidnapping to torture, while those responsible were never held accountable. This led to the conclusion that Chechnya was being ruled without law, being run into further devastating destabilization.

On March 10, 2011, Human Rights Watch reported that since Chechenization, the government has pushed for enforced Islamic dress code and other traditions which violently repress women. The president Ramzan Kadyrov is quoted as saying "I have the right to criticize my wife. She doesn’t. With us , a wife is a housewife. A woman should know her place. A woman should give her love to us ... She would be property. And the man is the owner. Here, if a woman does not behave properly, her husband, father, and brother are responsible. According to our tradition, if a woman fools around, her family members kill her... That’s how it happens, a brother kills his sister or a husband kills his wife... As a president, I cannot allow for them to kill. So, let women not wear shorts...". He has also openly defended honour killings on several occasions. All this is occurring despite being illegal under Russian law and international laws.

Economy

During the war, the Chechen economy fell apart. Gross domestic product, if reliably calculable, would be only a fraction of the prewar level. Problems with the Chechen economy had an effect on the federal Russian economy—a number of financial crimes during the 1990s were committed using Chechen financial organizations. Chechnya has the highest ratio within Russian Federation of financial operations made in U.S. dollar to operations in Russian rubles. There are many counterfeit U.S. dollars printed there. In 1994, the separatists planned to introduce a new currency, but that did not happen due to Russian troops re-taking Chechnya in the Second Chechen War. As an effect of the war, approximately 80% of the economic potential of Chechnya was destroyed. Much of the money spent by the Russian federal government to rebuild Chechnya has been wasted. According to the Russian government, over $2 billion was spent on the reconstruction of the Chechen economy since 2000. However, according to the Russian central economic control agency (Schyotnaya Palata), not more than $350 million was spent as intended. The economic situation in Chechnya has improved considerably since 2000. According to the New York Times, major efforts to rebuild Grozny have been made, and improvements in the political situation have led some officials to consider setting up a tourism industry, though there are claims that construction workers are being irregularly paid and that poor people have been displaced. See the main article Grozny.

Tourism

After the war, and until about 2007 tourism in the country was in decline, but today there is some work for its resuscitation. At present, people from North Ossetia, Ingushetia and Dagestan, often visit Chechnya for trade reasons, and rare groups from central Russia appear in the republic for the purposes of extreme tourism.

Notable people

For a list of notable Chechens, see List of Chechen people.

See also

• Wildlife of Chechnya

References

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Sources

• 23 марта 2003 г. «Конституция Чеченской Республики». (March 23, 2003 Constitution of the Chechen Republic. ).

Further reading

• Khassan Baiev. The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire. ISBN 0-8027-1404-8
• Vyacheslav Mironov. Ya byl na etoy voyne. (I was in this war) Biblion – Russkaya Kniga, 2001. Partial translation available online .
• Vyacheslav Mironov. Assault on Grozny Downtown
• Vyacheslav Mironov. I was in that war.
• Matthew Evangelista, The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way of the Soviet Union?. ISBN 0-8157-2499-3.
• Roy Conrad. Grozny. A few days...
• Olga Oliker, Russia's Chechen Wars 1994–2000: Lessons from Urban Combat. ISBN 0-8330-2998-3. (A strategic and tactical analysis of the Chechen Wars.)
• Charlotta Gall & Thomas de Waal. Chechnya: A Small Victorious War. ISBN 0-330-35075-7
• Paul J., Ph. D. Murphy. The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror. ISBN 1-57488-830-7
• Anatol Lieven. Chechnya : Tombstone of Russian Power ISBN 0-300-07881-1
• John B Dunlop. Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict ISBN 0-521-63619-1
• Paul Khlebnikov. Razgovor s varvarom (Interview with a barbarian). ISBN 5-89935-057-1.
• Marie Bennigsen-Broxup. The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World. ISBN 1-85065-069-1
• Anna Politkovskaya. A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya ISBN 0-226-67432-0
• Chris Bird. "To Catch a Tartar: Notes from the Caucasus"
• Carlotta Gall, Thomas de Waal, Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus
• Yvonne Bornstein and Mark Ribowsky, "Eleven Days of Hell: My True Story Of Kidnapping, Terror, Torture And Historic FBI & KGB Rescue" AuthorHouse, 2004. ISBN 1-4184-9302-3.
• Ali Khan, The Chechen Terror: The Play within the Play
• Hunter Hammer and Heaven, Journeys to Three World's Gone Mad, by Robert Young Pelton (ISBN 1-58574-416-6)
• Arkady Babchenko "One Soldier's War In Chechnya" Portobello, London ISBN 978-1-84627-039-0
• Asne Seirstad. The Angel of Grozny. ISBN 978-1-84408-395-4
• Scott Anderson. The Man Who Tried to Save the World. ISBN 0-385-48666-9
• Chechnya: The Case For Independence by Tony Wood Book review in The Independent, 2007

External links

• Template:Ru icon Official site of the Republic of Chechnya
• Template:Dmoz
• AlertNet Chechnya and the North Caucasus
• "Chechnya's Hidden War". Frontline / World Dispatches. USA: Public Broadcasting Service. 22 March 2010. (video)
• Islamist Extremism in Chechnya: A Threat to U.S. Homeland?: Joint Hearing before the Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats and the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, April 26, 2013

v t e Countries and regions of the Caucasus
Abkhazia  Adjara  Adygea  Armenia  Azerbaijan  Chechnya  Dagestan  Georgia  Ingushetia  Kabardino-Balkaria  Kalmykia  Karachay-Cherkessia  Krasnodar Krai Nakhchivan  North Ossetia – Alania  South Ossetia  Stavropol Krai
Partially-recognized states

• Ill-formatted IPAc-en transclusions
• Chechnya
• Divided regions
• Islam in Russia
• States and territories established in 1991
• Nakh peoples
• Chechen-speaking countries and territories