Chechen separatism, a threat to Putin

The defenders of the independence of Chechnya reappear, repressed by Putin 20 years ago. Local leader Kadyrov could seize the opportunity and join the movement if the Kremlin continues to ignore him. A Chechen independence battalion fights against the Russians in the Ukraine.

Moscow () – In the center of Grozny, capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, in the North Caucasus, banners and videos appeared on Kadyrov Avenue dedicated to the “founder of the homeland” Akhmat, father of current President Ramzan. The inscriptions and faces on a dark red background extol the representatives of the “intelligentsija Vajnakhskskaja”, supporters of the independence of Ichkeria, the Chechen-Ingush state for which the long post-communist civil war was fought.

The Vainakhs were those tribes settled in the Caucasus regions that gave rise to the current Chechen people, the Ingush ethnic group and others in the region, according to a definition that emerged among ethnographers at the beginning of the 20th century. With this term it was intended to indicate the carriers of the ancient languages ​​derived from the “Nakhskaya”, a reinterpretation of the somewhat obscure roots of the peoples of this ancient and multiform area on the border between Europe and Asia.

The display of propaganda posters shows images of a 1970s writer, Abuzar Ajdamirov – author of the Ichkerian anthem – and civil war hero Jusup Temirkhanov, convicted of the murder of Russian commander Jurij Budanov, who had kidnapped and murdered to an 18-year-old Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva. The surgeon Khasan Baiev, very active during the conflict, and the singer of Chechen independence, the writer Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov, also appear.

The first to spread the images on Facebook was the famous businessman Juni Uspanov, known to some as “Kadýrov’s cook”, the restaurant owner who was honored with the title of “civilian hero” in 2011. His premises, spread all over the Caucasus, they are famous not only for their delicious dishes, but also for the exhibitions that make them real museums of the history of the Caucasian peoples, and even the interiors are always decorated in the local style.

The evocation of the independentistas of Ichkeria is provocative in the context of the war in Ukraine. The Chechen president is one of the main supporters and cheerleaders of the conflict and although he agrees with the other famous warmonger, “Putin’s cook”, Evgenij Prigožin, he also competes with him. The latter seems willing to present himself as Putin’s opponent in the 2024 presidential elections. Kadyrov, for his part, has already hinted that if Russia does not give him the political space he deserves, he could change course and return to separatism.

As for the figures evoked in the images exhibited in Grozny, Avtorjanov was the great dissident of the Soviet era during World War II. To support the cause of the independence of Ichkeria, he decided to support the Nazi regime in Germany, with similar motives to those of the Ukrainian independence hero Stepan Bandera. The “denazification of Ukraine”, the motive that pushed Putin to invade the country, referred precisely to these tendencies, which now seem to be reproduced on the Caucasian side.

The surgeon Baiev saved the life of one of the leaders of the Chechen war against the Russians, Major Šamil Basaev, by amputating his leg directly on the spot. He was later persecuted by both Chechen fighters and Putin’s federal forces, and still lives and works in Grozny.

Until now, supporters of the renaissance of Ichkeria have lined up against Kadyrov: they accuse him of supporting Putin’s warlike imperialism, and even launched a jihad against the Chechen president in the summer of 2022. Anzor Maskhadov – son of Aslan, the former president of Ichkeria – leads the battalion of Chechens fighting on the side of Ukraine. Its goal is to achieve the “unemployment and independence” of Chechnya, suppressed by Putin in the early 2000s, the Kremlin leader’s first major political-military operation.

The Verkhovnaja Rada, Kiev’s parliament, approved in October a declaration recognizing Chechnya as “territory temporarily occupied by Russia”, a country it accuses of “genocide of the Chechen people”. The outcome of the war could bring profound changes to a region used to frequent earthquakes, which could be felt in Moscow and kyiv – and perhaps even in Washington and Beijing.