Islam and Chechnya
April 19, 2013  20:24
With the Kremlin's approval, Islam is flourishing in Chechnya'"a means to maintain at least a veneer of tranquility while keeping even more radical forces at bay.About a decade ago Russia's leadership acknowledged that bullying wasn't working in this remote and most violent corner of the nation. 

Two ferocious military campaigns in the 1990s to put down an Islamic separatist insurgency left up to 370,000 dead and many survivors furious at Russian domination. So in 2000, Moscow threw its weight behind a former rebel leader, Akhmad Kadyrov, and left him largely alone to run affairs in the restive North Caucasus republic. 

Untold millions of Russian rubles poured in to bankroll his regime and rebuild the shattered infrastructure, with the thinking that men with work are less likely to rise up. 

Yet while cafs and boutiques have appeared in the Chechen capital of Grozny, the jobs have not. Chechnya still has one of the highest unemployment rates in Russia, which fuels radical fundamentalist discontent.

« Back to LIVE

TOP STORIES