Ossetia

Western Sanctions on Russia to Have Delayed Impact on North Caucasus

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Kremlin Seeks to Use Cossacks, but Prevent Them From Becoming Too Powerful

By: Valery Dzutsev Read more →

РАССЛЕДОВАНИЯ / ВЫПУСК № 117 ОТ 17 ОКТЯБРЯ 2014

81908«Чтобы граждане России услышали и поняли»

Дело о Бесланском теракте в Страсбурге. Репортаж из зала суда Read more →

Circassian Activists Seek Allies as Ukrainian Refugees Are Resettled in the Region—A Net Assessment of the Situation in the Northwest Caucasus Since the Start of 2014

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Russia May Use North Caucasians for Hybrid Warfare in Central Asian and European Conflicts

By: Valery Dzutsev

On September 30, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the fall 2014 Russian military draft. The government is expected to draft 154,100 men, the same number as in the spring 2014 draft campaign. The Russian laws on the draft will be extended to newly-annexed Crimea in 2015, making residents of the peninsula effectively Russian subjects. The unusual feature of the latest military call up is that the draft is being conducted in Chechnya for the first time. Indeed, 500 young men will become Russian army conscripts this year (ITAR-TASS, September 30).

To a large extent, the Russian army still relies on one-year compulsory service to fill its ranks, although the professional military forces have expanded significantly. About 300,000 men are drafted every year. Russian experts have voiced concern about the exclusion of North Caucasians from the draft, arguing that it could potentially lead to the region’s separation from Russia. At the same time, the Russian military was unhappy about the low discipline among North Caucasian servicemen. Many reports suggested North Caucasians were prone to hazing ethnic Russians in the military units. The presence of North Caucasians in the Russian army also raised security concerns, as militant Islamic ideology spread among the young population of this volatile region. Ethnic Chechens were practically excluded from the Russian military draft after 1992, and the rest of the North Caucasians Read more →

War With Ukraine Pulls Best Russian Military Units From North Caucasus

The Ukrainian crisis has overshadowed the continuing low-level insurgency in Russia’s North Caucasus. Besides shifting public attention, the conflict in Ukraine is evidently shifting Russian forces from the volatile region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. For years, the best combat-ready Russian forces were concentrated in the North Caucasus to fight first the Chechen pro-independence movement and later the insurgency that spread across the entire region. As Russia is increasingly drawn into the conflict with Ukraine, Moscow is forced to relocate its best prepared military units from the North Caucasus to Ukraine. Read more →

The Issue is National Freedom and Dignity

By: Adel Bashqawi

3rd of July, 2014

All indigenous nations and peoples of the world wish and have the right to live freely and Read more →