Terrorists, bandits, spooks and thieves: Russian demonisation of the Chechens before and since 9/11

John Russell

Third World Quarterly, 2005, vol. 26, issue 1, 101-116

Abstract: The Russo-Chechen conflict, arguably the bloodiest confrontation in Europe since World War II, only attracts the attention of the Western media when the Chechens stage terrorist ‘spectaculars’ such as the ‘Nord-Ost’ or Beslan school sieges. Putin's uncompromisingly tough line against the Chechens is popular among an ethnic Russian electorate traumatised since its own ‘Black September’ in 1999. Since 9/11 this conflict has been presented almost exclusively as Russia's frontline in the international ‘war on terrorism’. All Chechens who oppose Putin's policies in Chechnya are dismissed as ‘terrorists’ and ‘bandits’. Yet a satisfactory political resolution of the conflict seems far off; thousands of Chechen civilians continue to suffer and die. Russia's attempt at ‘Chechenisation’ of the conflict appears to have achieved its ‘Palestinisation’. How far has the policy of demonising the Chechens, which helped Yeltsin and Putin to launch their respective wars, become a major obstacle to peace in Chechnya?

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1080/0143659042000322937

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