CSIS’s Sarah Mendelson in Foreign Policy on brewing trouble in the North Caucasus

With Western attention to foreign policy fixated on Afghanistan and Pakistan (Iraq has already faded from the radar for most casual observers), the recent deaths of Zarema Sadulayeva and Alik Dzhabrailov have barely been mentioned. The husband and wife were kidnapped in Grozny and found in the trunk of their car.  Outside the community of Russia/Eurasia specialists, why should anyone care? 

In a feature article for FP, Mendelson argues that the casual disinterest of the international community in the string of nasty murders taking place in the Caucasus does not accurately take into account the threat instability in the region poses to U.S. and European security.  First, Russia’s behavior tends to worsen in response to lawlessness, provoking reckless decision making at the cost of human rights.  Second, dismal socio-economic and political conditions provide optimal conditions for recruiting young men into terrorist networks, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan.  These are two reasons why the U.S. and Europe should be concerned.

""But will American and European policymakers and diplomats make clear to Medvedev that impunity will not be tolerated? Will they together acknowledge that the North Caucasus region is not solely a Russian problem, but one that poses difficult security and stability problems requiring international solutions? How should the Russian government deal with the paramilitaries that it helped create? Russia is not the only country that has found itself in this dangerous dead end -- what are the lessons from other cases? How best to end impunity without starting yet another war in the region?

Mendelson asks these difficult questions, which as of yet, our leadership appears unable (or unwilling) to answer.