iVC
Donor
It is well known that almost all the time of his tenure as nominal head of independent Chechnya Aslan Maskhadov was a pure hostage to either circumstances or his violent warlords.
While initially he looked like a secular, civilized and intelligent politician, it quickly became clear that he was unable to control the war of factions inside the republic or pursue an independent inner policy.
Hopes for some respite and restoration of the basic economics and production collapsed, warlords became fiercely engaged in either racketeering or abductions, Wahhabits and radical Islamists did not care about the secular president - and as a result, the story brings us to an adventurist attempt to invade Dagestan and the imminent punitive response of Putin's Russia.
Maskhadov several times tried to remove his ministers and generals from the command chain, even started some criminal cases, tried to contact Moscow, but even at better days his power did not extend longer than the presidential palace courtyard. After the start of the second Chechen campaign, he turned out to be a frank puppet of the radical warlords and was forced to serve as a talking head: to voice pre-prepared phrases about the 'war with Russia'.
When Russian terrorist attacks broke out in 2000-2005, Maskhadov tried to disown them, even started a criminal case against Shamil Basayev, but eventually accepted that he did not control anything and becamy mainly dealt with awards and purely paper transfers of militants to decorative posts in 'administration'.
It is natural that he was controlled and guarded by his own men, and as a result, the 'president', who was getting old, was shot and killed by his own guard, in order not to get caught by the reconnaissance group of the GRU.
The Putin regime found itself an ally - the former chief mufti of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, who had the authority of a cleric and was also convincing enough to gather around him all the oppositionists who was afraid of chaos and bloodbath and were ready to cooperate with Moscow in order to bring the elementary order and control to the republic.
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But what if Aslan Maskhadov actually tried (and succeeded) in breaking his 'honorary house arrest' and raised a 'voice of reason' flag along with Kadyrov? He was still a popularly elected president after all, who previously managed to win elections from such butchers as Basayev and Raduyev, he was a former colonel of the Soviet Army, he had a university education ... Could he pretend to be some sort of mediator, maybe Prime Minister in loyal Chechnya after President Kadyrov... Finally avoid the death of an encircled beast? Could the post-war Chechnya been slightly different from OTL?
While initially he looked like a secular, civilized and intelligent politician, it quickly became clear that he was unable to control the war of factions inside the republic or pursue an independent inner policy.
Hopes for some respite and restoration of the basic economics and production collapsed, warlords became fiercely engaged in either racketeering or abductions, Wahhabits and radical Islamists did not care about the secular president - and as a result, the story brings us to an adventurist attempt to invade Dagestan and the imminent punitive response of Putin's Russia.
Maskhadov several times tried to remove his ministers and generals from the command chain, even started some criminal cases, tried to contact Moscow, but even at better days his power did not extend longer than the presidential palace courtyard. After the start of the second Chechen campaign, he turned out to be a frank puppet of the radical warlords and was forced to serve as a talking head: to voice pre-prepared phrases about the 'war with Russia'.
When Russian terrorist attacks broke out in 2000-2005, Maskhadov tried to disown them, even started a criminal case against Shamil Basayev, but eventually accepted that he did not control anything and becamy mainly dealt with awards and purely paper transfers of militants to decorative posts in 'administration'.
It is natural that he was controlled and guarded by his own men, and as a result, the 'president', who was getting old, was shot and killed by his own guard, in order not to get caught by the reconnaissance group of the GRU.
The Putin regime found itself an ally - the former chief mufti of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, who had the authority of a cleric and was also convincing enough to gather around him all the oppositionists who was afraid of chaos and bloodbath and were ready to cooperate with Moscow in order to bring the elementary order and control to the republic.
---
But what if Aslan Maskhadov actually tried (and succeeded) in breaking his 'honorary house arrest' and raised a 'voice of reason' flag along with Kadyrov? He was still a popularly elected president after all, who previously managed to win elections from such butchers as Basayev and Raduyev, he was a former colonel of the Soviet Army, he had a university education ... Could he pretend to be some sort of mediator, maybe Prime Minister in loyal Chechnya after President Kadyrov... Finally avoid the death of an encircled beast? Could the post-war Chechnya been slightly different from OTL?