{
  "id": "RL31620",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL31620",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 101416,
      "date": "2003-04-16",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-08T14:48:07.900544",
      "title": "Russia's Chechnya Conflict: Developments in 2002-2003",
      "summary": "After the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, the United States and Russia\nadopted a cooperative stance against global terrorism that many observers viewed as including\nenhanced U.S. recognition that Russia's conflict in its breakaway Chechnya region (with a\npopulation estimated at less than one-half to one million) was, in part, a struggle against terrorism. \nThis cooperation became strained in recent months -- for reasons that included more U.S. criticism\nof intensified Russian fighting in Chechnya deemed to violate human rights -- but appeared to be\nre-affirmed following Chechen terrorist attacks in Russia in late 2002. \n  Russia's then-Premier (and current President) Vladimir Putin ordered military, police, and\nsecurity forces to enter the breakaway Chechnya region in September 1999, and these forces\noccupied most of the region by early 2000. Putin's rise to power and continuing popularity have\nbeen tied at least partly to his perceived ability to prosecute this conflict successfully. He has\nrepeatedly declared that victory and peace are at hand, but such declarations have proven inaccurate\ntime and again. Although Russia's forces nominally control large areas, its ground and air forces\ncontinue to carry out major operations, rebel violence causes dozens of Russian troop casualties per\nmonth, myriad human rights violations against Chechen civilians are regularly reported,\nreconstruction has barely begun, and most of the population now lives in makeshift housing.\n  While U.S. core national security interests in arms control, strategic missile defense,\nproliferation, counter-terrorism, and NATO enlargement have dominated U.S.-Russian relations,\nU.S. concerns over Chechnya have been a factor and are linked to U.S. core interests. These\nconcerns were reflected in CIA Director George Tenet's warning in February 2000 that Chechnya\nthreatened to become a world center of international terrorism, and since the events of 9/11, such\nconcerns have boosted U.S.-Russian cooperation on counter-terrorism and other issues. The United\nStates has been supportive of some claims by Russia that it is combating international terrorism in\nChechnya. However, the United States has rejected Russia's claims that it has the right to\npreemptive attacks against putative Chechen terrorists based in neighboring Georgia, and has\nprovided military assistance to Georgia to help it deal with terrorism and lawlessness along its\nborders with Russia. Of less than vital interest but still significant, the United States has concerns\nabout Russia's disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force in Chechnya, its rejection of a\npolitical settlement of the conflict, and the humanitarian needs of displaced persons. These concerns\nalso have an anti-terrorism dimension, with the Administration arguing that a defeated, embittered,\nand poor Chechnya could be an incubator of future Islamic extremism. Thus, U.S. policy has been\ncritical of Russia's human rights abuses against innocent civilians in Chechnya and has called for\npeace talks, while at the same time, the Administration has called upon Chechens to cut all contacts\nwith international terrorists. This report will be periodically updated. Related products include  CRS Report RL30389(pdf) ,  Renewed Chechnya Conflict ;  CRS Report RS21319 ,  Georgia's\nPankisi Gorge ;\nand CRS Issue Brief IB92109,  Russia , updated regularly.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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      "topics": []
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  "topics": [
    "Foreign Affairs",
    "Intelligence and National Security"
  ]
}