Word: russianizing
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When the Soviet Union collapsed, Chechens yet again declared the independence of the Ichkeria Republic, although only the Taliban regime in Afghanistan recognized it. In the first Chechen War of the ’90s, the post-perestroika Russian army was unable to break Chechen will. Forced by demoralized soldiers and angry public opinion, President Boris Yeltsin signed a ceasefire. The second, ongoing Chechen War began under Vladimir Putin’s leadership, with a much stronger military. In a battleground too obscure and too dangerous for Western journalists, the military launched total war against the rebellious Chechens. In order...
Chechnya is a federal territory subject to the Russian Federation. Rich in natural resources, the area is a historical hotspot that once featured power struggles between Cossacks, Ottoman Turks, and bizarrely, Buddhist Kalmyks. Chechens eventually converted to Islam and ever since have vehemently resisted Russian control. Invariably uprising once a generation, they even collaborated with Nazi invaders in the ’40s. Comrade Stalin was so enraged about this betrayal that he called for genocidal mass deportations—and actually scattered millions of Chechens around the Soviet Union—yet the Chechen nation survived the dictator...
Amidst religious tensions, guerrilla warfare, and human rights violations, Anna was the only journalist unafraid of asking questions and writing answers. She brought the Russian military excesses to the Russian public sphere. Almost raped, almost deported, and almost killed several times, she reported summary executions, torture, and starvation. During the famous Moscow theatre kidnapping in 2002 that ended in tragedy, the Chechen terrorists only trusted Anna to mediate with the police authorities...
Uncompromising, Anna was truthful to both sides. She wrote about under-armed and underfed Russian conscripts and about ailing Chechen civilians. She wrote about Chechens terrorizing Russian populations and Russian torture camps for irregular guerrilla fighters. No wonder passionate fan mail vied with vivid death threats in her letterbox...
Anna heavily criticized Muslim extremism, but she also dug up cases of Russian intelligence services falsely incriminating innocent civilians in the war zone. Her dissent sought to convince Russians their freedoms were the worst victim of the Chechen...