Russiaâs Chechnya Conflict: Developments in 2002-2003 (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
April 16, 2003 |
| Report Number |
RL31620 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Jim Nichol, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
After the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, the United States and Russia
adopted a cooperative stance against global terrorism that many observers viewed as including
enhanced U.S. recognition that Russia's conflict in its breakaway Chechnya region (with a
population estimated at less than one-half to one million) was, in part, a struggle against terrorism.
This cooperation became strained in recent months -- for reasons that included more U.S. criticism
of intensified Russian fighting in Chechnya deemed to violate human rights -- but appeared to be
re-affirmed following Chechen terrorist attacks in Russia in late 2002.
Russia's then-Premier (and current President) Vladimir Putin ordered military, police, and
security forces to enter the breakaway Chechnya region in September 1999, and these forces
occupied most of the region by early 2000. Putin's rise to power and continuing popularity have
been tied at least partly to his perceived ability to prosecute this conflict successfully. He has
repeatedly declared that victory and peace are at hand, but such declarations have proven inaccurate
time and again. Although Russia's forces nominally control large areas, its ground and air forces
continue to carry out major operations, rebel violence causes dozens of Russian troop casualties per
month, myriad human rights violations against Chechen civilians are regularly reported,
reconstruction has barely begun, and most of the population now lives in makeshift housing.
While U.S. core national security interests in arms control, strategic missile defense,
proliferation, counter-terrorism, and NATO enlargement have dominated U.S.-Russian relations,
U.S. concerns over Chechnya have been a factor and are linked to U.S. core interests. These
concerns were reflected in CIA Director George Tenet's warning in February 2000 that Chechnya
threatened to become a world center of international terrorism, and since the events of 9/11, such
concerns have boosted U.S.-Russian cooperation on counter-terrorism and other issues. The United
States has been supportive of some claims by Russia that it is combating international terrorism in
Chechnya. However, the United States has rejected Russia's claims that it has the right to
preemptive attacks against putative Chechen terrorists based in neighboring Georgia, and has
provided military assistance to Georgia to help it deal with terrorism and lawlessness along its
borders with Russia. Of less than vital interest but still significant, the United States has concerns
about Russia's disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force in Chechnya, its rejection of a
political settlement of the conflict, and the humanitarian needs of displaced persons. These concerns
also have an anti-terrorism dimension, with the Administration arguing that a defeated, embittered,
and poor Chechnya could be an incubator of future Islamic extremism. Thus, U.S. policy has been
critical of Russia's human rights abuses against innocent civilians in Chechnya and has called for
peace talks, while at the same time, the Administration has called upon Chechens to cut all contacts
with international terrorists. This report will be periodically updated. Related products include CRS Report RL30389(pdf) , Renewed Chechnya Conflict ; CRS Report RS21319 , Georgia's
Pankisi Gorge ;
and CRS Issue Brief IB92109, Russia , updated regularly.
