CRI

By proclaiming the Caucasus Emirate, Umarov effectively abrogated the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, reducing Chechnya's status to that of a province, or Vilayat, in the new Emirate.

For Zakayev, a secular democrat, the declaration of the Caucasus Emirate challenged the legitimacy of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Also, by making common cause with the Afghan Taliban (who engage British forces on a near-daily basis in Helmand Province, Afghanistan), Umarov greatly embarrassed his colleague Zakayev, who had been living in the United Kingdom under political asylum since 2003.

(57) Vakhit Akaev, "Religious-political Conflict in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria", Central Asia and The Caucasus, http://www.ca-c.org/dataeng/05.akaev.shtml.

(118) "The Address to the Nation by Dokka Umarov, President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria", June 27, 2006, http://chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2006/06/27/01.shtml (last accessed June 27, 2006).

The Government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria cannot control every Chechen that seeks vengeance for his tortured, murdered and raped relatives.

The operations described above are typical of many carried out since March in which officers of the Interior Ministry, Russian intelligence services, and `national traitors' (Chechens in the service of the Russian Federation or the puppet government of Akhmad Kadyrov) were executed after hearing the verdict of the Chechen shari'a courts (`Decision on neutralization of criminal activity in the territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria,' February 2000).

In support of that position the Chechen government claims that recognition was already granted in the 1997 Treaty on Peace and the Principles of Interrelations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria because treaties are normally negotiated between independent states under customary international law.

Throw the renegade Chechen Republic of Ichkeria into the equation (it recently offered to supply mujahedeen-style muscle, if necessary, to Georgia and Azerbaijan in exchange for political favors such as recognition as an independent state), and one begins to understand the political fragility of the region.

The biggest drawback to the northern route, however, is that 160 kilometers of the existing pipeline runs straight through the self-styled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. In addition to demanding its share of the transit fees, Grozny is stipulating that millions of dollars in war reparations from Russia, stemming from the recent conflict, be rolled into the package.