Chechnya and its People Essay

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 1979, the goal was to help Afghan communist forces set up a communist government. The Soviet Union felt Afghanistan had key resources and a foothold in the Middle East to spread communist ideas. The result would be a war that the Soviet Union wishes it never got involved in and likened to their “Vietnam War”, meaning winning a number of battles but not the war like what happened to the U.S. in Vietnam. The background of the war, outcome of the war, and impact on the United States are key to understanding the Soviet-Afghan War.

There have been ongoing and unresolved issues among the Russians and Chechens for many years. According to DeWaal (2002), “Russians believe that Islam has maintained a stronghold in Chechnya communities for many years”(p.1). The fighting has coerced Chechens

Non-US/Multinational Policy Goals, include NATO expansion in size and influence). Relations with Russia. Create an independent Kurdish nation.

Ukraine is granted a market economy status by the EU and USA. The sharp economic decline in the 90s resulted in deteriorating living standards for most citizens and widespread poverty. However, during the 21st century, there has been some positive economic growth in Ukraine, as well as Eastern Europe as a whole. Ukraine’s currency, the Hryvnia, was introduced in September 1996 and has remained relatively stable. The unstable political situation in Ukraine hardly influences its economic development. GDP has been growing steadily since 2005 at an average growth rate of 7% and industrial production has been expanding by 12%. The Ukrainian economy was hit by the harsh effects of the global financial crisis but managed to attain a 4.2%

From Western audiences, Chechnya—whether as an autonomous oblast, a sovereign state, or a war zone—has never received much consideration. Just one of dozens of ethnic groups within Russia who have declared since the end of the Soviet Union their right to self-rule and self-determination, the Chechens’ struggle for independence was drowned out in the cacophony of calls for independence during the 1990s. However, in a world so greatly affected by the events of September 11, 2001 and given the role of Chechen separatist groups in bombings of Russian apartment buildings in 1999 (which killed more than 300) and the hostage-taking of a Russian theater in 2002 (which resulted in the deaths of 130 Russians and 30 rebels), the rhetoric of

The Gulags of the Soviet Union have been compared to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, but in reality they were worse. The Gulags were isolated prison camps peppered across Siberia. Death, torture, and disease raged within their walls, while endless work went on outside. Gulag personnel were cruel and unfeeling, using terrible punishment methods and playing senseless games that cost prisoners their lives. Political enemies of the Bolshevik party made up a significant portion of the prisoner population, with most sent to the infamous camp system Kolyma. Liberation was painfully slow, but by 1960, all of the Gulags were gone.

This area has been subject to genocide since the Second World War. Chechnya is a small region in the Northern Caucasus mountain range in southwest Russia. (“Chechnya”).

Russia is a huge landmass and covers a vast amount of the earth’s surface area. Being so large, Russia contains a huge variety of different geographical features. There are several mountains, rivers, bodies of water, climate zones, and population centers in Russia. Most of the development in Russia is located in its core area, east of the Ural Mountains. There are several countries around Russia that used to be parts of a larger union called The Union of Soviet Socialists Republics, however, in 1991, the USSR broke apart into several other independent states. The new states that were formed are: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and

Russia, officially known as the Russian Federation, has a total area of 17,098,242 sq km (“The World Factbook”) and is the largest country in the world. It is about 1.8 times the size of the United States (“The World Factbook”). Most of Russia is either large stretches of plains or areas with a lot of forests and mountains, with the exception of the Siberian Tundra. It is difficult to perfectly describe Russia’s climate because of it’s large size. However, in general, the country only has two seasons, summer and winter. In the summer they have very warm, continental weather and they have very harsh winters with a lot of snow. Russia is plentiful in natural resources. They are particularly

In early 2014, Russia made the decision to conduct an illegal military intervention into Ukraine. It all began when there was a dispute over whether Ukraine should accept financial help from Russia or Europe, which then ascended into the ousting of the Ukrainian president and then invasion of Ukraine. More specifically, Russia began to taking over the Ukraine territory of the Crimean Peninsula through illegal use of force (Global Security, 2016). During that time, the Russian government voted to place Crimean’s into the Russian Federation, which had been rapidly accepted by the President of Russia himself, Vladimir Putin. Most of the Crimean population is ethnic Russians, although there are also the pro-Ukraine Tatar minorities that make

When we hear the term Russian culture many Americans tend to have negative thoughts like the cold war, their government ruling with an iron hand, and the Red Scare. These thoughts do not do the justice to the Russian people or to their long history as a people dating back to INSERT DATE. One of the major themes throughout Russian history and this course is the idea that the Russian people value intangible things more than the tangible. The Russian people have a long rich heritage, they are deep in there Christian faith, and they pride themselves on hospitality and value there community, families, and fellow Russian people. They have learned how to sacrifice from the constant invasions and being forced farther and

It was quite a shock when Ukraine was voted, along with Poland, a host country for Euro 2012 in 2007: could the championship really be held in this eastern European country, a former Soviet state, lacking a good infrastructure and an efficient administration? Nevertheless, the country started the preparations of the biggest sporting event it has yet organised. Only the future can tell us whether the transformation has been successful, but the assignment was not completely random, as Ukraine has been described as a “frontrunner” in Europeanisation, when compared to the oth-er countries in the Eastern Partnership. It is obvious that the proximity of the country to the EU plays an important role in this. The highly mobile population is

The present day Russian Federation involves a democratic system, given the presence of elections, an independent judiciary, and the supremacy of law. Yet, in democracy, the crux of it involves an inevitable paradox: law limits state power, but the state must have the power to enforce the law. However, finding the balance of the ability to enforce laws, and therefore maintaining order, while not infringing on civil liberties, requires a mutual understanding, a social contract, between the rulers and the ruled. This requirement has not found its place in the Russian political arena, especially since “creating a rule-of-law-based sate out of dictatorship is not easy” (Bressler 2009). In addition, the Russian psyche views authority as a source of force and violence (Yakovlev 1996), an etymological result of a continuity beginning from imperial Russia. Although the Russian Federation, the Union Soviet Socialist Republics, the Russian Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia differ significantly, a strong state remains prevalent in the core of Russian history and politics. In short, the nature of political rule in Russia involves a never ending tug of war between the seemingly undying authoritative soulless entity known as the state and the equally undying Russian people’s hunger for liberty.

There are still concerns about the conflict in Chechnya. NATO condemns, in particular, Russian threats against unarmed civilians, such as those in Grozny. They also condemn terrorism in all its forms but believe that Russia's pursuit of a purely military solution to the conflict is undermining its objectives. NATO urges Russia to exercise the fullest restraint, to refrain from the use of force against civilians and protect their human rights, to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid to those in need, and to co-operate fully with international relief agencies and to ensure security for their

Russia, known by most as the Russian Federation, is a federal state in Eurasia. Russia is the largest country in the world at 17,075,200 square kilometres by surface area, covering more than one eighth of Earth 's inhabited land, and the ninth most populous, with over 146.6 million people as of end of March 2016. The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the East, with almost eight-tenths of the population living within the European region of Russia. Russia 's capital, Moscow is one of the largest cities in Europe and the world. Its ohter major urban cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara.