Paper abstract:

This paper traces the development of different outcomes in the federal relations between Volga Tatars and Chechens, on the one hand, and Moscow, on the other. Providing both the historical background and the very fresh developments for both ethnonational groups, this study traces the process of territorial autonomy formation and its relative success among the Volga Tatars and more tumultuous sequence of events for Chechens. In Tatarstan, the first pacted autonomy was formed in 1994 and its much-abridged version was renegotiated in 2007. This can be seen both as a part of the greater anti-federalist trend but also as an exception to it as Tatarstan stood as the only region to enjoy such pacted autonomy for the next decade in Russia. The reduced powers granted to Tatarstan is in line with the Putin (and the late 1990s Yeltsin) regime’s steady and ongoing chipping away of the federal relations of their content and meaning. But the very fact that an autonomy treaty was granted at the height of Putin’s rule is important, even though understudied in academic literature. In contrast, Chechnya’s drive for unequivocal independence coupled with Moscow’s intransigence and weakness resulted in a de facto state formation throughout the 1990s. Through a combination of nonviolence and violence Chechnya was able to survive into the early 2000s even winning some international recognition. It imploded in the wake of Russia’s 2nd modern Chechen campaign in early 2000s due to a number of internal and external factors examined in this paper.