Chechenization

A Georgian collapse creates the necessary conditions for a dramatic shift in the regional balance of power that under a worst case scenario would probably be characterized by 1) a PKK destabilization of southeastern Turkey (see Mehmet Ali Birand, Posta Newspaper, Sept. 17 wherein Russian authorities warned Turkey not to assist Chechen rebels or risk the resumption of PKK attacks), which would then, 2) facilitate the development of an air and land corridor connecting the Russian forward deployment in the South Caucasus with northern Iraq, thereby 3) extending Russian influence further into the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. Such a future could disrupt or entirely cut off the East-West energy transit corridor concepts that have been promoted by the United States and which stretch from the central Asian states through the Caucasus via Turkey into Europe. 

Paradoxical as it may seem, one can use chemical weapons to spare lives, rather than extinguish them. The world watched in fascination when the Russians, in November 2002, chose to deploy a relatively non-lethal chemical weapon in a Moscow theater. Inside were a few dozen Chechen rebels, armed with grenades and automatic weapons, holding hostage almost a thousand innocent Russian civilians. The terrorists were prepared to destroy everyone in the building if the Russians did not meet their demands. Fanatical and desperate, they were not afraid to die along with their victims. 

The prospects of future terrorism remain highly probable as well. In fact, there may well be reason to believe that specific targeting of American children by al-Qaeda is a gruesome possibility. One recalls the attack on a school in Beslan, Russia, in 2004 by Chechen rebels, suspected to have been backed by al-Qaeda. That horrific event killed more than 150 children, seriously... 

In October 2002, the Russian military released a mystery gas to incapacitate Chechen rebels in a theater in Moscow. Hundreds of hostages suffering from sleeping gas poisoning were taken to local hospitals. According to physicians in Moscow, many patients exhibited the classic triad of symptoms... 

Dougherty, J. Moscow Ricin Recipe Eound on Chechen Eighter. CNN.com, January 13, 2003. http //www.cnn.eom/2003/WORLD/europe/01/13/russia.ricin/index.html, last accessed 4/15/06... 

Ivanov S (2003) France, UK Security Follow Trail of New Terrorist Structures with Chechen cell. ITAR-TASS News Agency (Moscow), January 13. 

A serious terrorist use of chemical weapons caused deaths and injuries in Tokyo on 20 March 1995. In response to the taking of hostages by armed Chechens in Moscow on 23 October 2002, Russian special forces, on 26 October 2002, applied an incapacitating agent in the course of their raid. ... 

Chechnya, too, had concluded a treaty with the Russian Federation. Although the entity was offered constitutional self-determination in the agreements of 1996-1997, to be actualised by the end of 2001, it was forcibly re-incorporated into the Russian Federation. Article 1 of the new Chechen Constitution adopted through a controversial referendum in Chechnya claims that ... 

The Chechen Republic (Nokhchiin Republic) is a democratic, social law-governed state with a Republican form of government. The sovereignty of the Chechen Republic is expressed in the possession of the full authority (legislative, executive and judicial) outside of the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and outside the authority over objects of shared jurisdiction between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic, and is to be an inalienable part of the Chechen Republic. 

The perhaps surprising affirmation of tiie inalienable sovereignty being vested in the Republic may be a result of the overall structure of the Russian Federation and the previous Soviet constitutional history. However, the Chechen Constitution confirms very clearly that the territory of the Chechen Republic is one and indivisible and forms an inalienable part of the territory of the Russian Federation . " ... 

Constitution of the Chechen Republic, 27 March 2003. Unofficial translation available at http //www.intstudies.cam.ac.uk/centre/cps/documents chechnya const2003.html, accessed 3 November 2008. 

Russia Chechen 12 May 1997 Peace Treaty and Principles of Interrelation between Russian Federation and Chechen Republic Ichkeria... 

James William Vance, Sef-determination through Warfare A Review and Analysis of the Russian-Chechen War as a Method of Establishing Indigenous Autonomy. MS Thesis on file at University of Golorado at Denver (1998). 

On October 23, 2002, forty Chechen terrorists took about 700 people hostage in a Moscow theater. The terrorists demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya. The terrorists had bombs strapped to their bodies and threatened to detonate them if the Russians attaoked the theater. After two and a half days of negotiations, foroes from Russia s elite Spetsnaz commando unit of the Federal Security Service (FSB) pumped an incapacitating agent into the theater through a hole... 

Chechen State University (364907, Chechen Republic, Grozny, Sheripovst., 32 Tel +7(8712)21-20-04), Grozny, Russia... 

Chechen State Pedagogical Institue, 33 Kievskaya str., Groznyi 364037, Chechnya, Russia, Russian Federation E-mail hasbulatova list.ru... 

Correspondence to Zinaida S. Khasbulatova, Chechen State University, Grozny, 33 Kievskaya street, h Zina ( email, m... 

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