| Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the countryâs authorities had for a long time failed to give an adequate rebuff to separatist trends and Russia at a certain point began to lose the attributes of a united state. âSeparatist processes continued in Russia for years and the authorities failed to provide an adequate response,â Putin said at a meeting with his electioneering agents. âThose separatist processes received the backing of international extremist organizations and eventually developed into terrorism in the North Caucasus, Chechnya first and foremost. After the conclusion of the Khasavyurt deal Chechnya and the Chechen people were left at the mercy of their fate and it might seem to some that the nightmare of the civil war was over. It was not. Having felt our weaknesses, the authoritiesâ negligence and the low morale of society large gangs of international terrorists in the summer of 1999 went as far as to openly attack Dagestan. As a matter of fact it was an aggression to annex territories from Russia and make these territories subordinate to criminal influences. It will be redundant to explain how dangerous it was for the Caucasus and Russia in general. It will be enough to recall the tragedy of Yugoslaviaâs breakup to make all necessary conclusions. Russia has always been a very complex state structure and it required cautious and professional treatment. By the late 1990s Russia had begun to lose the fundamental properties of an integral state. The authorities have since had to spend much time and effort to clear away the piles of problems and protect the countryâs territorial integrity.â |