No. 131: Russia and the North Caucasus

Author(s): Sufian Zhemukhov, Jean-François Ratelle
Editor(s): Stephen Aris, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder, Aglaya Snetkov
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 131
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University
Publication Year: 2013

This edition is focussed on the Russian North Caucasus, and contemporary understandings of the on-going insurgency in the region. In the first article, Sufian Zhemukhov outlines that contemporary analysis of the North Caucasus often ignores the complex array of factors shaping the security, political and societal environment, which, if considered, reveal a more varied picture than the one usually presented of a region split between radical Islamists and everyone else. In the second article, Jean-François Ratelle questions the popular portrayal of the insurgency in the North Caucasus as being part of the global Salafi jihad fighting against the West, arguing that it remains mainly an internal Russian problem and that emphasis should not be put on the link between the Caucasus Emirate and al-Qaeda, rather it should focus on events such as the upcoming Sochi Olympics.

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