▲「Economist.com」Oct 16th 2008、「The Caucasus: After the war」
〈http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12415100〉
THE scenery is breathtaking. Sandwiched between two seas and home to Europe’s highest mountains, the Caucasus has always been an alluring and darkly mysterious region. Its reputation rose during its long, slow conquest by imperial Russia in the 19th century. The Caucasus features prominently in the poetry of Pushkin and the fiction of Tolstoy. A classic Russian figure, the “superfluous man” who is powerless and doesn’t fit in, first appeared in the character of Pechorin in Lermontov’s novel, “A Hero of Our Time”, set in the Caucasus. Russian readers were also enthralled by the exploits of the Caucasian resistance hero, Imam Shamil.
Now the Caucasus is at centre-stage again. The restive north Caucasus republics in the Russian federation are always in the news. After two bloody wars with the Russians, Chechnya is more or less at peace under the thumb of its strongman president, Ramzan Kadyrov, but could easily flare up again. Dagestan has become an increasingly lawless place. Worse, Ingushetia is in a state of near-anarchy, with Russian security services using the same brutal methods as armed Ingush rebels.
But it is the three countries of the south Caucasus―Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia―that are the bigger story now, for they are the cockpit in a new clash between Russia and the West. The main reason these tiny countries matter, despite a combined population of only 16m or so, is geographical. Perched next to Turkey, north of Iran and south of Russia, this is a place where empires have long met―and clashed. Russia never reconciled itself to losing control of the Caucasus when the Soviet Union broke up in 1990-91. Moscow has been visibly fretful about rising Western influence.
〈http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12415100〉
THE scenery is breathtaking. Sandwiched between two seas and home to Europe’s highest mountains, the Caucasus has always been an alluring and darkly mysterious region. Its reputation rose during its long, slow conquest by imperial Russia in the 19th century. The Caucasus features prominently in the poetry of Pushkin and the fiction of Tolstoy. A classic Russian figure, the “superfluous man” who is powerless and doesn’t fit in, first appeared in the character of Pechorin in Lermontov’s novel, “A Hero of Our Time”, set in the Caucasus. Russian readers were also enthralled by the exploits of the Caucasian resistance hero, Imam Shamil.
Now the Caucasus is at centre-stage again. The restive north Caucasus republics in the Russian federation are always in the news. After two bloody wars with the Russians, Chechnya is more or less at peace under the thumb of its strongman president, Ramzan Kadyrov, but could easily flare up again. Dagestan has become an increasingly lawless place. Worse, Ingushetia is in a state of near-anarchy, with Russian security services using the same brutal methods as armed Ingush rebels.
But it is the three countries of the south Caucasus―Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia―that are the bigger story now, for they are the cockpit in a new clash between Russia and the West. The main reason these tiny countries matter, despite a combined population of only 16m or so, is geographical. Perched next to Turkey, north of Iran and south of Russia, this is a place where empires have long met―and clashed. Russia never reconciled itself to losing control of the Caucasus when the Soviet Union broke up in 1990-91. Moscow has been visibly fretful about rising Western influence.