Tag: #Chechnya

Russia, the Broken

August 18, 2026

Societies are most noticeably disrupted when the regime collapses in a violent coup, a revolution, or is defeated in war. Great empires fall prey to calamity when they run out of the energy that once fueled the dynamism of their origin and sewed the fabric of their society. The insidious process that seems often to lead to these outcomes may be recognized when authoritarian rulers, with their own self-interests in mind, undertake efforts to monopolize power by denying citizens their rights. They do so by undermining independent media, exerting control over the legislative powers meant to directly serve the people, populating the judiciary with justices aligned more with the goals of the executive than the Constitution and by growing a powerful upper class of wealth that facilitates the necessary control of society. After some time has passed, patriotic songs lose their ardor against the backdrop of repression, corruption, disinformation, a massively disproportionate wealth gap, and a decaying social infrastructure. Financial ruin, economic despair, and a failing war effort will accelerate the decline, leaving society in search of hope for a better future that now appears beyond reach. … More Russia, the Broken

Ethnic Animus Within the Russian Federation Toward the Kremlin

June 17, 2026

“Remember my words: Russia will disappear when the Ukrainian sun rises” – Djokhar Dudayev, Revolutionary leader and President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (1991-1996)

Djokhar Dudayev was killed in April 1996 by a Russian missile strike that targeted his whereabouts. Four months later, the First Chechen War (1994–1996) ended with the signing of the Khasavyurt Accords, after Chechen fighters had forced Russian troops out of their capital, Grozny. Chechnya was the first republic to clash with the Kremlin after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. The Chechens refused to remain part of a state that had long oppressed them. Under both Tsarist and Soviet rule, mass deportations and repression had eroded their homeland and ethnic identity in the hopes of subduing revival of any nationalist sentiment. In 1999, a brutal military campaign launched by then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin crushed Chechen hopes for sovereignty in the Second Chechen War (1999-2009). Grozny was levelled by indiscriminate aerial bombing, ballistic missile strikes, and a continuous artillery siege of the capital, killing some 8,000 civilians. The campaign strengthened Putin’s position in Moscow, helping secure his rise by popular ascent to an effectively uncontested presidency. … More Ethnic Animus Within the Russian Federation Toward the Kremlin

Negotiating with a War Criminal – A History of Deceit

January 1, 2025

In 1938, Chancellor Adolph Hitler of Germany positioned troops along Czechoslovakia’s border with the apparent intention of invading its Sudetenland region on the false pretense that its predominant resident German population was under threat. In hopes of averting another world war after a number of provocative actions had already been undertaken in recent years by Germany, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler, Italy’s Benito Mussolini and France’s Édouard Daladier, with Czechoslovakia’s President Edvard Beneš notably absent. … More Negotiating with a War Criminal – A History of Deceit

Nation – A Telling of Ukraine

October 30, 2022

One may regard the professed Russian hegemony over Ukraine as a misguided sense of history or simply a result of mindless acceptance of present-day Russian political rhetoric. The historical truth, however, is pretty simple and runs counter to Putin’s claim that Ukraine as a nation does not have a history separate from that of Russia and remains dependent upon it for its survival. … More Nation – A Telling of Ukraine