Unrest in the Caucasus

As violence in the North Caucasus surges, Kremlin policies and its loyal, but brutal, local leaders have played a critical role in causing the situation.

published by
Al Jazeera's Inside Story
 on August 18, 2009

Source: Al Jazeera's Inside Story

Masha Lipman explains that violence in Ingushetia: “has become a vicious circle of heavy handed operations of the government and police officials antagonizing the people, people take revenge, and punitive measures follow in the vicious circle of violence. So police brutality and incompetence of the local government are the chief reasons for violence in Ingushetia.”

But Ingushetia is not an isolated incident. The whole region of North Caucasus has been afflicted by violence in recent months: "Russia has heavily relied on loyal leaders to take care of problems. And the methods used by those leaders were heavy handed, were brutal; thus breeding resistance.”

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