This text explores the turmoil of the North Caucasus. Crisscrossed by billion-dollar oil pipelines and facing Iran and Turkey, this predominantly Moslem region is perhaps the most strategic in the Russian Federation. It is also the most unstable. Ferocious resistance meant that Russia took almost three centuries to conquer it and the declaration of independence by Chechnya, with the vicious war that ensued in 1994, laid bare enduring tensions between the indigenous peoples in Moscow. Beyond Chechnya, many other ethnic groups, like the Dagestanis, Adyegei and Balkars struggle to preserve their identities although none has so far taken up arms. The stakes are high: for the North Caucasians, ethnic pride and even survival as distinct people; for the Russians, control over the huge oil resources of the Caspian Sea and territorial integrity of the state.
This book explores the defeat of the Russian army in Chechnya in 1994-96, just three years before Moscow entered another savage war to subdue the turbulent republic. This mountainous region is the most unstable and strategic part of the Russian Federation, an ethnic and geopolitical tinderbox crisscrossed by billion-dollar oil pipelines serving the vast oil riches of the Caspian Sea. The author looks at how the ethnic pride of the North Caucasians is at risk and the effect this could have on the Russians.
Название: Allah's Mountains: Politics and War in the Russian Caucasus
Автор: Sebastian Smith
Издательство:I. B. Tauris Publishing
Год: 2001
Язык: английский
Страниц:305
Формат: pdf,rar+3%
Размер: 10.8 MB
