How do you feel about the ongoing insurgency in Chechnya and the Caucus regions?

[Comrade Nasser]

How do you feel about the violence in Chechnya and Dagestan and anti-Russian government sentiment there?

Do you feel Chechnya and Dagestan should be entirely independent of Russia?

I honestly don't know how to feel about this. One one side we have Chechen islamist scum (pardon my French) against the super corrupt and racist Russian government who for the record have launched two aggressive and unnecessary wars to keep Chechnya and her resources for themselves.

I just wish Russia would give the Central Asian countries independence so the fighting stops.

[ind_com]

The national liberation issues of these regions are justified. However, the radical fundamentalist movements are occupying the political space created by the demand, and are leading it to nowhere. There adherence to reactionary Islam, and attacks on civilians, must not be supported. The leadership of these movements must be taken up by the working classes and directed against both local reactionaries and the imperialists who are occupying these regions.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

It is also important to note that the original nationalist movement was led by bourgeois revolutionaries that were systematically wipedout by the islamists

[Emmeka]

It is also important to note that the original nationalist movement was led by bourgeois revolutionaries that were systematically wipedout by the islamists

This comrade makes a very valid point. The initial revolution in Chechenia which created a state sovereign from Russia was not lead by Islamists, but by secular nationalists.

We also have to take a look at the history of the Chechen people. The illesh, the oral folklore of the Chechen people, tells of the national saga in which they overthrew their foreign and domestic oppressors in a violent revolution that took place during the 15th century. They reorganized their society into a decentralized electoral clan system. The Circassion historian Amjad Jaimoukha called the Chechens of this period "The French of the Caucasus", and that, "To this day, Chechen values are based around democracy, freedom, idealogical pluralism and deference to individuality".

Historically Islam was never strongly rooted there, and has been mixed and diluted by the traditional pagan culture which still lives on (for example, you can buy alcohol on the streets of Groznyy, and you could during the era of Chechen independence as well). So the islamists are seen as sort of a foreign element.

The terrorist acts we hear off are those being committed by the foreign Arab Mujahideen and al-Qaeda, with domestic islamists through the Caucasus Front being considered something of a fringe group with very few actual numbers.

Unfortunately it was the islamists who came to the aid of Chechenia during the Russian invasion, and as such now that the secular nationalists have been essentially rounded up by the Russians it's only the islamists who remain.

The whole situation is unfortunate, really.

[khad]

Historically Islam was never strongly rooted there, and has been mixed and diluted by the traditional pagan culture which still lives on (for example, you can buy alcohol on the streets of Groznyy, and you could during the era of Chechen independence as well). So the islamists are seen as sort of a foreign element.

Sufism is paganism? Now you're speaking like a Salafist.


Unfortunately it was the islamists who came to the aid of Chechenia during the Russian invasion, and as such now that the secular nationalists have been essentially rounded up by the Russians it's only the islamists who remain.
Most of the secular nationalists defected to the Russian state.

Whatever their feelings, sure beats being beheaded for being apostates.