Publication

This brief wonders whether the seeming 2014 decrease in violence in the North Caucasus region was real and if it was tied to the lower profile of the militant Jihadist organization, “Caucasus Emirate.” After looking at the ideological changes in the militants’ camp and Moscow’s policy adjustments in Chechnya, the brief’s author concludes that the stabilization of the region is partly an illusion and that economic or political crises in the Russian Federation could once again trigger a spike in violence.