Russia's Restless Frontier

The conflict in Chechnya, going through its low- and high-intensity phases, has been doggedly accompanying Russia's development. In the last decade, the Chechen war was widely covered, both in Russia and in the West. While most books look at the causes of the war, explain its zigzag course, and condemn the brutalities and crimes associated with it, this book is different. Its focus lies beyond the Caucasus battlefield.In Russia's Restless Frontier, Dmitri Trenin and Aleksei Malashenko examine the implications of the war with Chechnya for Russia's post-Soviet evolution. Considering Chechnya's impact on Russia's military, domestic politics, foreign policy, and ethnic relations, the authors contend that the Chechen factor must be addressed before Russia can continue its development.

Dmitri V. Trenin is deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment, and chair of the Moscow Center's Foreign and Security Policy Program. He has been with the Center since its inception in 1993. He is author of The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization (2002), published by the Carnegie Endowment. Aleksei Malashenko is codirector of the Carnegie Moscow Center's Ethnicity and Nation-Building Project. He is also a professor at the Moscow Institute for International Relations and former head of Islamic Studies at the Oriental Institute of the Russian Academy of Science. Anatol Lieven is senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment.