War in Ukraine Has Changed Circassian Movement, and Moscow Is Worried
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 20 Issue: 101
By: Paul Goble
June 22, 2023
After a brief easing following the Sochi Olympics in 2014, which elevated attention on the Circassian issue to the global level, tensions between Moscow and the Circassians ebbed during the first part of the past decade only to rise again at its end (see EDM, October 5, 2021; May 19, 2022). But any chance that these tensions would ease again were dashed at the end of that decade, with Kyiv, as its fraught relationship with Moscow escalated, expressing increasingly active support for the Circassians and other non-Russian groups (Window on Eurasia, December 9, 2018; April 17, May 30, 2019). And these tensions have exploded again as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expanded invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv’s increasing support for non-Russians within the Russian Federation as allies against Moscow’s mobilization. Read more
