Russia 'ends Chechnya Operation'

Lauren DiCiaccio
April 17, 2009
9:30am

Russia has ended its Chechnya Operation. The Chechnya Operation was a largely counter-terrorist military operation targeting separatist groups in Chechnya, a region that is in the southern part of the Russian Federation. Since the dissolve of the Soviet Union, there have been two Chechen wars - in 1991, when Chechnya declared independence (followed by a crushing Russian response in 1994) and in 1999, when Russian troops were sent back to the region. Russia received criticism from the international public after both actions, although the 2nd Chechen War was overshadowed by the terrorist acts against the United States on September 11. Russian officials say that the terrorists in the Chechnya region have been disarmed and otherwise disabled, so the Russian government would like to go back to a sense of normalcy in the region by withdrawing troops. The current Chechen president says that April 16 will be a new public holiday to mark the end of the Russian occupation and the promotion of peace, stability and growth in Chechnya.

I chose to write about this event because while the motives for both Chechen wars were political, they were also centered around ethnic conflict. I have researched the topic before, and found several interesting elements to the ongoing unrest. The Chechens, mostly Muslim peoples of the Caucasian mountains territory, are of a different ethnicity than most citizens of the Russian Federation, and the two territories have had clashes for centuries based on ethnic differences. Many critics of Russia say that it is trying to cleanse the culture of the Chechens, rather than committing genocide itself, and this has been done through deportation to deserts and military occupation. The First and Second Chechen Wars were tremendously skewed in terms of military force. However, while the First Chechen War was highly criticized as an unequal response to an independence movement, the Second Chechen War and subsequent actions were more accepted by the international population because of the Sept 11 attacks - when the focus on stopping terrorism became a popular notion. In essence the Sept 11 attacks changed the way the world talked about the Russian/Chechen conflict, and made it into one in which the Chechens were terrorists who rightfully needed military intervention by Russia as a means of national security, which is a far cry from tossing around the notion of genocide after the First Chechen War.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8001495.stm