Last Monday a truck loaded with explosives rammed the gate of a police station in Ingushetia, a tiny republic in North Caucasus. The suicide attack killed more than 20 police officers and injured a hundred civilians. Violence in Ingushetia and the region at large is rising, the result of incompetent local governance as well as the Kremlin's neglect.
North Caucasus presents a huge challenge to the Russian government. The territory stretches from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea in European Russia and includes several republics, or ethnic administrative regions, all of which are weak or dysfunctional economies dependent on allocations from Moscow. It is home to poverty, extreme unemployment, rampant crime and corruption. The population is predominantly Muslim; locals cling to traditional practices and culture; and Russian laws are barely observed. Among its scores of ethnic groups, interethnic relations are often tense or hostile.
In recent years, the Kremlin has relied on handpicked leaders. Moscow funds them and turns a blind eye to the blatant embezzlement and corruption in the region as well as those leaders' heavy-handed governance. For their part, the politicians pledge loyalty to Moscow and deliver an overwhelming pro-Moscow vote during elections.
By rejecting responsibility for law and order in North Caucasus, the Kremlin has probably sought to avoid fomenting anti-Russian sentiments. Moscow is concerned about security in Russia at large, but its security priority for North Caucasus has been simply to contain violence so it would not spill outside the region. With no steady check on illegal behavior, it was only a matter of time before violence spun out of control. Consider developments in three places:
In Chechnya, where Russia had engaged in two atrocious wars against anti-Russian insurgents, the Kremlin has empowered Ramzan Kadyrov. Russian servicemen no longer fight in Chechnya, and until recently Kadyrov kept his territory reasonably peaceful. The Chechen terrorist attacks that began in the mid-1990s fell off after about 10 years. Kadyrov's highly valued service and his loyalty to Moscow earned him impunity; he's a brutal ruler, and his tenure has been marked with an abominable human rights record. In the past month alone, two human rights activists were killed. Kadyrov's rivals and enemies have been methodically eliminated; two assassinations -- in 2006 and 2008 -- took place in broad daylight in central Moscow. Today, Kadyrov is granted free rein; arguably, he enjoys more autonomy than his insurgent predecessors -- all killed in battles with Russia -- ever hoped to achieve. Lately, however, even Kadyrov's inhuman methods have failed to keep Chechnya under control. A number of deadly attacks on police and administrative officials have been reported this summer. Last week, at least four policemen were killed in the Chechen capital of Grozny by suicide bombers on bicycles.
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