Chechnya: So Near and Yet So Far

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Mar 7, 1998

Chechnya is a small republic in the Caucasus, bordering Georgia, and inhabited by a people whose rebellious spirit was celebrated in Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago.

In the wake of the failed coup of August 1991, all of the non-Russian republics declared independence from the USSR, as did some regions within Russia. (Russia itself is a multinational country in some respects, having expanded by conquering neighboring tribes and nations.) One of those regions was Chechnya. In October 1991, former Soviet Air Force General Dzhokar Dudayev was elected Chechnya's first president.

Moscow, however, was not as accommodating to the Chechens' claims of independence as it was to claims from other republics. Just the following month, Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared a state of emergency in Chechnya and sent troops to Grozny, the Chechen capital. But they were removed after three days.

Two and a half years later, Russian authorities called upon Chechens to overthrow Dudayev, claiming that he had allowed Chechnya to be used as a haven for terrorists. In November 1994, pro-Russian Chechens attacked Grozny, and Russian troops were sent to the border. On December 11, 1994, Russia invaded Chechnya, beginning a bloody 20-month war that would include the death of Dudayev in a rocket attack, and Chechen hostage-taking raids in the Russian towns of Budennovsk and Dagestan. Neither of those raids has been recognized as a legitimate act of war.

To make a long story short, Russian authorities recognized that they could not defeat the Chechens militarily, and world opinion was turning against Russia. Alexander Lebed, then Security Council chair, negotiated a peace treaty with the Chechen authorities. The treaty, signed on August 31, 1996, calls for (1) withdrawal of Russian troops, (2) talks on economic reconstruction of Chechnya and (3) postponement of a final determination of Chechnya's status until 2001.

Speaking of economics, by the way, a lot is at stake in Chechnya specifically. Russia's oil pipeline from Baku runs through Chechnya, and the Russians aren't too keen on paying an extra set of tolls to get that oil through.

In the meantime, Russian Security Council chair Ivan Rybkin is negotiating with the new Chechen government. Russian proposals have included a promise not to station troops inside Chechnya. Meanwhile, an oil transit agreement, expired last year and not yet renewed, is at risk. Chechnya wants to charge $2 or more per ton of oil, whereas Moscow insists on paying only 43 cents per ton - the standard rate for

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