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Kadyrov’s Blood Feud and the Looming Threat of Civil War
The Caucasus on the Brink of Chaos?
As a result of the chronic conflict between the two strongest subjects of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus, that is, Chechnya and Dagestan, the situation has reached a boiling point which has brought both the republics to the verge of civil war.Interethnic clashes and personal accounts among influential clansmen might blow up the situation in the region at any moment. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, was at the epicenter of this conflict, having called for a blood feud against three political figures from Dagestan and Ingushetia: Dagestani billionaire Suleyman Kerimov, Rizvan Kurbanov, and Bekhan Barakhoyev from Ingushetia.This conflict is fueled not only by the participation of subjects in the political struggle for Russia’s largest e-commerce platform, Wildberries, but also by the deeply rooted territorial and ethnic claims smoldering for decades.This is a complex, perilous power struggle in which the political and personal are inextricably enmeshed, tapping modern and historical grievances deeply rooted in the complex relationships and fraught history with Russian authorities. Further volatility has now been added to this already fragile situation by Kadyrov invoking a blood feud-an archaic…
