Introduction to Geopolitics

Novaya gezeta
. She reported on the conflict, including the plight of refugees, bombed
by Russian forces as they fled:
They fly so low that you can see the gunners’ hands and faces. . . . They seem
to be laughing at us crawling comically down below—heavy old women, young
girls, and children.
(Politkovskaya, 2003, p. 33)
For those who remained in Chechnya, they were targets of both the Russian military
and Chechen groups who targeted civilians who worked for or cooperated with the
Russian-friendly government. Politkovskaya describes the “pits,” where the Chechens
are kept to await questioning—in the middle of winter without any other shelter:
It’s about ten by ten. . . . Despite the frost, there is a distinct odor. That’s how
they do things here—the Chechens have to go to the bathroom right in the pit.
(Politkovskaya, 2003, p. 50)
An old woman, already a grandmother, accused of harboring militants spent
twelve days in the pits. She was taken out, tortured by electric shock, never
questioned, and handed over to her family and neighbors after they gathered
enough money for ransom.
(Politkovskaya, 2003, p. 48)
Residents of Moscow were hostile to Chechen and Ingushetia refugees, especially
after the hostage situation at the Moscow theater in 2002. Human Rights Watch (2004)
cites various abuses of ethnic Chechens in Moscow that include: arbitrary identity checks
and detention, the planting of drugs or weapons, obstruction of registration in Moscow,
harassment of unregistered Chechens in schools, and pressure on landlords to evict
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Chechen tenants. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with victims of various
forms of discrimination. One woman told them that she tried to register in Moscow but
the registration official told her: “Your wanting to register in Moscow is the same as
going to the White House and asking to live there” (Human Rights Watch, 2004).
Even though there is popular hostility to the refugees, Russian citizens were unsup-
portive of the war. In response, Yeltsin’s administration tried to justify the invasion of
Chechnya by publicizing Dudaev’s most sensational statements in order to instill fear
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