Stability in Russia’s Chechnya and Other Regions of the North Caucasus

The Congressional Research Service, a department of the Library of Congress, conducts research and analysis for Congress on a broad range of national and international policy issues. Some of the CRS work is carried out specifically for individual members of Congress or their staff and is confidential. However, there is also much CRS compiled material which is considered public but is not formally published on the CRS website.

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In some cases hyperlinks allows you to access all versions of a report, including the latest. Note that many reports are periodically updated.In recent years, major terrorist attacks have abated in Russia’s North Caucasus—a border area between the Black and Caspian Seas that includes the formerly breakaway Chechnya and other ethnic-based regions—although small-scale attacks reportedly continue. Previous major terrorist attacks included the June 2004 raid on security offices in the town of Nazran (in Ingushetia), where nearly 100 security personnel and civilians were killed, and the September 2004 attack at the Beslan grade school (in North Ossetia), where 300 or more civilians were killed. The dearth of such attacks might in part be attributed to government tactics, including over a thousand sweep operations (‘zachistki’) carried out in the North Caucasus. During these operations, security forces surround a village and search all the citizens, ostensibly in a bid to apprehend terrorists. Critics of the operations allege that the security forces frequently engage in pillaging and gratuitous violence and are responsible for kidnapping for ransom and ‘disappearances’ of civilians. Through these sweeps, as well as through direct clashes, most of the masterminds of major terrorist attacks have been killed.

Besides the apparently frequent small-scale attacks against government targets in several regions of the North Caucasus, many ethnic Russian and other non-native civilians have been murdered or have disappeared, which has spurred the migration of most of the non-native population from the North Caucasus. Russian authorities argue that foreign terrorist groups continue to operate in the North Caucasus and to receive outside financial and material assistance. Some observers warn that rising popular discontent might contribute to the re-emergence of major terrorism in the North Caucasus.

The United States generally has supported the Russian government’s efforts to combat terrorism in the North Caucasus. However, successive Administrations and Congress have continued to raise concerns about the wide scope of human rights abuses committed by the Russian government in the North Caucasus. Omnibus Appropriations for FY2009 (P.L. 111-8), signed into law on March 11, 2009, calls for $9.0 million to continue humanitarian, conflict mitigation, human rights, civil society and relief and recovery assistance programs in the North Caucasus. It also repeats language used for several years that directs that 60% of the assistance allocated to Russia will be withheld (excluding medical, human trafficking, and Comprehensive Threat Reduction aid) until the President certifies that Russia is facilitating full access to Chechnya for international non-governmental organizations providing humanitarian relief to displaced persons.

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Federation of American Scientists (FAS): Congressional Research Service [CRS] Reports https://fas.org/sgp/crs/index.html

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