Hanna Notte writes on what the Second Chechen War tells us about Russia’s ‘War on Terror’ today

Hanna Notte, DPhil student in International Relations, has had an article published (25 November) by the Russian International Affairs Council on parallels between the rhetoric used by the Kremlin in the Second Chechen War and the rhetoric now used for Russian involvement in Syria.

Hanna writes, "In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks claimed by IS in Beirut and Paris, Russia reiterated the counter-terrorist rhetoric it has been using to justify its intervention in Syria. That rhetoric echoes claims Russia made during the Second Chechen War, when it conflated Chechen fighters with international Islamist terrorists. At the time, Russia hoped its ‘war on terror’ would eventually yield strategic gains in the Russian-US relationship – to no avail. Its current counterterrorist claims on Syria are, again, unlikely to produce such gains in the long-term."

The full article can be read here: http://russiancouncil.ru/en/inner/?id_4=6894#top-content

Hanna Notte is Doctoral Candidate in International Relations, University of Oxford, Alfa Fellow at the Moscow Carnegie Center and Institute of Oriental Studies (Russian Academy of Sciences).