Page 50 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

THE WINTER OF ISLAM AND THE SPRING TO COME
48

Sheikh Shamil's
forces hero-
ically resisted
the Russian
armies and
were the pre-
decessors of
the Chechen re-
sistance fight-
ers of today.

In addition to the economic factor, Russia's centuries-old policy of
expansionism is a historical cause for the disorder currently being expe-
rienced in Central Asia and the Caucasus. After the collapse of the
Soviet Union, Moscow experienced a short period of uncertainty, but
then pulled itself together, and took a number of wide-ranging initia-
tives to re-establish its influence over the former republics. The first
sign of what Russia is at present doing in these republics was given in
1993 in a speech by then President Boris Yeltsin. In this speech, he said
that Russia will again win the status of a superpower by regaining all
the positions it has lost. In other words, Russia refuses to accept these
6
countries' declarations of independence, their winning back their free-
dom, and their being able to stand on their own two feet. Instead it sees
them as "positions to be won back." Of course a country has a perfect
right to strive to defend its security, to develop domestic and foreign
strategies aimed at establishing economic stength and stability and to
strive to be an influential power. It is therefore quite natural for Russia
to follow a policy in the light of its own interests. What is wrong and
critized here, however, is to use its rights against another community
and ruthlessly oppress them for its own power.
Some Muslim communities were unable to win their freedom dur-
ing the dissolution of the Soviet Union and remained within the
Russian federation. One of these, Chechnya, was the main target for