Russian aggression in Chechnya:
Expanding the Russian empire

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

With the ultra-nationalist objective of expanding the Russian empire, thousands of troops of the reactionary government of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin attacked Chechnya once again in October 1999 to annihilate the armed Chechen forces, capture the independent Chechen republic and subjugate it to Russia.

Thousands of Chechens have died in the relentless bombings from October to December 1999 and up to 118,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes. Most of the victims are Chechen civilians because of Russia's attacks on population centers and its targeting of civilians. Earlier, an equally fierce assault on Chechnya in 1994 left 40,000 to 70,000 dead and led to the forced displacement of up to 300,000 people. Again, the vast majority of the victims were Chechen civilians who died in the indiscriminate, massive Russian bombing raids.

Chechnya is a small country lying southwest of Russia that used to be within the Soviet Union as part of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. It is found in the region of Caucasia in southeastern Europe. Chechnya also lies along the northern slopes of the Caucasus, a mountain range that separates Asia and Europe. Aside from Russia in the north, Chechnya is bounded by the Stavropol Territory on the northwest, the Republic of Daghestan on the northeast and east, Georgia on the south and the Republic of Ingushetia on the west.

Most of the inhabitants of Chechnya belong to the Nokhchii ethnic group who are native to Caucasia. They have their own language and culture and the majority are Muslims like many of the people living in its neighboring republics and in the nearby region of Central Asia. When the revisionist Gorbachov regime collapsed in 1991, Chechnya separated from Ingushetia and joined the other former republics of the Soviet Union that declared independence. Meanwhile, the Yeltsin regime (that took over from the Gorbachov regime) formed the Russian Federation composed of Russia and 20 republics of the defunct Soviet Union. The Yeltsin regime refused to recognize the independence of Chechnya and considered it part of the Russian Federation. In 1994, hundreds of thousands of Russian troops invaded Chechnya.

Chechnya has long had strategic significance for Russia. With Russia just to the north of it, the country has served as a gateway for whoever wished to penetrate Russia from the south. Since the 16th century, Persia, the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia have fought for control of Chechnya's territory. This gave rise to armed movements against foreign invaders in the 18th and 19th centuries that were both crushed by Russia. Russia formally annexed Chechnya in 1859.

Chechnya attained further significance at the turn of the 20th century with the discovery of rich oil deposits in its territory. To date, oil production and refining remain the backbone of Chechnya's economy. Russia and the Western imperialists are now struggling for supremacy over Caucasia for its oil wealth and strategic location.

The Chechen people's intense desire to liberate themselves from Russian domination, oppression and exploitation is now being stoked by imperialists who want to gain control of Chechnya's oil deposits and the oil pipelines that pass through the Caucasian region. Thus, the imperialists have been using reactionary politicians in both countries as well as Chechen warlords to feed the fires of chauvinism and Islamic fundamentalism in the region. Chechen warlords banner the slogan of banishing Russia from Caucasia and forming a unified Islamic state that would join together Chechnya, Daghestan, Ingushetia and other countries in the region.

To achieve this objective, warlords Shamil Basayev and Khatab led 2,000 troops in August that attacked and bombed different cities in the Russian Federation, including its capital, Moscow. Russia retaliated through massive bombings of Chechen villages and Grozny (Chechnya's capital) itself, thus causing the death of many civilians. By October, up to 140,000 Russian troops attacked northern Chechnya and occupied a third of Chechen territory.

The case of Chechnya is not much different from that of Kosovo. In both instances, imperiaists have been fomenting ultra-nationalism and chauvinism, fanning the flames of ethnic and religious tensions to incite wars and justify imperialist imtervention and the stationing of troops from the US and its allies in the region.

Basayev and Khatab's troops are also funded, armed and trained by the imperialists. The former receive huge amounts of aid that the imperialists funnel through reactionary pro-US Arab oilexporting regimes. One report indicates that Jordan donated $20 million to Chechen warlords for their invasion of Daghestan.

Without such aid, Chechnya which, for all its people's strong fighting spirit, would have easily fallen as it is much smaller and weaker than Russia. Despite Russia's occupation of Grozny, Chechen guerrillas are carrying on the war to free their country.

The imperialists will also persist in exploiting the situation in Chechnya. It is to their strategic interest if the Chechens' struggle to maintain their independence continues and succeeds. It would be even more favorable to them should a unified anti-Russian Islamic republic be established in the region as an added buffer against Russia. Meanwhile, forming an adjunct to this

imperialist-sponsored conflict are widespread and flagrant violations of human rights and international laws of war that have victimized hundreds of thousands of civilians and reaped the strongest condemnation the world over.

This proves that monopoly capital does not hesitate to sacrifice the lives, welfare and property of the world's peoples on the altar of superprofit. We must expose and strongly oppose Russian aggression against Chechnya.

We must also condemn the imperialists for inciting ethnic and religious conflicts to divide the peoples of the world and divert them from the anti-imperialist and socialist struggle so that they could easily be conquered and ruled.

January 2000
English Edition

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