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Radical Islam and the Chechen War Spillover: a Political Ethnographic Reassessment of the Upsurge of Violence in the North Caucasus Since 2009

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Radical Islam and the Chechen War Spillover: a Political Ethnographic Reassessment of the Upsurge of Violence in the North Caucasus Since 2009 Radical Islam and the Chechen War Spillover: A Political Ethnographic Reassessment of the Upsurge of Violence in the North Caucasus since 2009. Jean-François Ratelle Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the PhD degree in name of Political Science School of Political Studies Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa © Jean-François Ratelle, Ottawa, Canada, 2013 Abstract: This dissertation seeks to analyse the upsurge of insurgent violence in the North Caucasus following the end of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya in 2009. By looking at the development of radical Islam and the impact of the Chechen spillover in the region, this research suggests that these factors should be analysed and contextualized in each republic. By comparing the cases of Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, and Dagestan, this dissertation seeks to demonstrate the importance of vendetta, criminal activity, religious repression and corruption as local factors that contribute to the increase of violence. By focusing on the case of Dagestan, the author proposes a political ethnographic approach to study the mechanisms and details of religious repression and corruption in everyday life. This analysis permits us to map out the different pathways towards the participation in insurgent groups in Dagestan. By doing so, it demonstrates that one can identify three different generations of insurgent fighters in Dagestan. This dissertation demonstrates that the role of Salafist ideology is often marginal in the early stages of the process of violent radicalisation, and slowly gains importance as the involvement in violence increases. The emphasis should be placed on vengeance and religious repression as crucial triggering factors as they provoke a cognitive opening for young people in Dagestan to engage in violence. ii Table of Contents Abstract: ................................................................................................................................... ii List of Graphs ............................................................................................................................ v List of Table .............................................................................................................................. v List of Acronyms: .................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ vii Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Limits of the Greed and Grievance Debate ............................................................ 10 1.2 Micro-dynamics of Violence in Civil War: ................................................................... 14 Three Trends in the Research Program of the Micro-dynamics of Violence .................. 16 Multi-method in the Study of Violence ........................................................................... 17 Local Narratives versus Generalisation of the Civil War ................................................ 21 Chapter 2: A Review of the Literature on Violence in the North Caucasus ........................... 25 2.1 A Chechen War Spillover or the Chechenization of the North Caucasus? ................... 26 2.2 Al-Qaeda and the North Caucasus Insurgency: The Role of Radical Islam ................. 27 2.3 A Multi-Causal Analysis of the Upsurge of Violence in the Neighbouring Republics around Chechnya ................................................................................................................. 36 2.4 The Economic Situation in the North Caucasus ............................................................ 39 2.5 Islam in the North Caucasus .......................................................................................... 42 2.6 Political Islam: The Role of Religion in State-Building and Groups ............................ 48 Chapter 3: Genealogy of the two Chechen Wars and the Insurgency in the Region. ............. 52 3.1 The First Chechen War and its Aftermath: “From Nationalism to Jihad”? .................. 52 3.2 The Military Phase of the Second Chechen War: A Dialogue of the Extreme ............. 70 The Russian Strategy: Chechenization of the Conflict .................................................... 71 The New Strategy of the Chechen Insurgents: Guerilla Warfare and a Terrorist Wave across Russia (2002-2004) ............................................................................................... 77 3.3 Toward the Establishment of the Caucasus Emirate ..................................................... 81 Maskhadov’s Death and the Establishement of the Caucasus Fronts .............................. 85 The Caucasus Emirate: A Common Ideology but Heterogeneous Interests .................... 98 Chapter 4: An Analysis at the Republic Level ...................................................................... 103 4.1 Dagestan ...................................................................................................................... 104 The Religious Situation in Dagestan ............................................................................. 113 4.2 Ingushetia .................................................................................................................... 127 4.3 Kabardino-Balkaria ..................................................................................................... 135 Chapter 5: An Analysis of the Upsurge of Violence in the North Caucasus through the Concept of Collective Responsibility, Criminality, Capital and Violent ‘Dialogue’ ........... 144 5.1 Violence as Capital ...................................................................................................... 148 Military Capital into Economic Capital ......................................................................... 149 Military Capital into Political Capital ............................................................................ 154 Social Capital in Economic Capital ............................................................................... 156 5.2 Blood Feud, Vendetta, and Collective Responsibility in the North Caucasus ............ 157 5.3 Violence as an Illegal Criminal Venture ..................................................................... 165 5.4 Violence as Political and Religious Dialogue ............................................................. 167 iii Chapter 6: Field Research in Conflict Zones ........................................................................ 176 6.1 Political Ethnography as a Methodology .................................................................... 177 Contextualisation, Reflexivity and Truth-Value ............................................................ 181 Epistemological Debates ................................................................................................ 183 Pitfalls, Limits and Dangers in Conflict Zones .............................................................. 191 6.2 A Journey through the North Caucasus ....................................................................... 195 Access to the Field ......................................................................................................... 200 Risks and Security in Conducting Field Research in a Conflict Zone ........................... 207 The Distant Voyeur Feeling: Post-Traumatic Fieldwork Experience............................ 208 Interviews: Memory, Trauma, and Truth ....................................................................... 210 How Social and Political Processes Can Reshape Memories in War-zones ................. 217 Interviews in the North Caucasus: What can we Learn from Deceitfulness and Omissions? ..................................................................................................................... 218 Revisiting our Research Biases through Ethnographic Fieldwork ................................ 230 Chapter 7: Ban-Opticon and Ethno-religious Profiling in Russia and in the North Caucasus ............................................................................................................................................... 247 7.1 Profiling as Violence ................................................................................................... 249 7.2 The Caucasian or the Wahhabist as a Danger to Russian Society .............................. 253 7.3 Checkpoints and Profiling as a Racketeering Activity ................................................ 257 7.4 Profiling For Security at Checkpoints and Public Transportation ............................... 260 7.5 Ordinary Life Managed as Perpetual Checkpoints ...................................................... 264 Chapter 8: Interviews in Dagestan and Pathways toward the Insurgency ............................ 274 8.1 Structural Factors: Ideology, Brainwashing, Religion, and Tradition ......................... 277 8.2 Social Mobility ............................................................................................................ 281 8.3 The Closure of the Political System ............................................................................ 285 8.4 Corruption, Lawlessness and Injustice .......................................................................
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