The Caucasus region in southern Russia is home to a large variety of non-Russian ethnic groups, many of which want little to do with the government of Russia. With the communist soviet union disintegration of 1991, three of the southernmost republics declared independence: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The other areas directly north of the new nations continued as part of the new russian republic but, many of these ethnic groups began stirring for more independence from Russia.
The loudest of the groups was the Chechens, whom had a long and violent history of hostility towards Moscow rule. During world war 2 the Chechen population was deported to central Asia by the Communist Soviet government, fearing that the Chechens might aid in invading the Germans. The Chechens were able to return to their homeland decades later but, their dislike of the Russian-dominated soviet government lingered. In 1991 the Chechens declared themselves a sovereign nation. In 1994 russian forces attacked Chechnya, causing a bloody 2 year war. Ending in August 1996, with both sides claiming victory: The Chechens gaining independence and Russia the retention of Chechnya as a part of Russia. Essentially both sides agreed to disagree and ended major violence except small border clashes by a band of several Chechen rebel leaders and groups that continued to harass nearby Russians in the area. The Dagestan, another largely Muslim region of southern Russia was reported to have helped fight with the Chechens in their war. More radical Chechen leaders wished to push out Russia and unite the Caucasus region but, unlike Chechen, Dagestan has more than 30 separate ethnic groups. When Shamil Basayev, a famous rebel leader, commanded Guerilla forces that invaded Dagestan in the first Chechen war in 1999, Russia used the conflict between Dagestan and Chechnya as an excuse to end the Chechens semi-independence, along with the string of terrorist attacks throughout Russia killing around 300 people. This lead to the second chechen war, continuing through the 2000’s with bombings, guerilla tactics and about 71,701 deaths all together. There are allegation claims that suggest that Chechens hold ties to al-Qaida, The islamic terror network founded by osama bin laden. Russian losses have continued to grow as they pursue the chechen forces into mountainous regions to the south. The war doesn't appear to have an end in sight. |