All Chechens Fighting on Side of Ukraine Want Independence for Their Republic, Grozny Political Analyst Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Jan. 14 – All Chechens now fighting for Ukraine want independence for their own republic, regardless of their differences over what kind of a republic that will be, according to a Grozny political analyst speaking on condition of anonymity (kavkazr.com/a/chechnya-posle-voyny-rossii-s-ukrainoy-kto-boretsya-za-nezavisimostj/33269533.html).
    “I think,” he continues, “that already now they are forming plans at the ideological, political and informational level as well as studying and analyzing the experience of Ukrainian social and political movements under conditions of war” given the likelihood that they will have to fight other pro-Moscow Chechens in the future.
    According to the political analyst, “it is difficult to say when they will be able to achieve their goals or even if they will in the foreseeable future be able to realize them in their homeland. But their efforts undoubtedly will be useful,” especially if the Putin regime collapses as quickly as did the Asad regime in Syria.
    He and other Chechens say that they flocked to Ukraine’s side not only because they wanted to fight Russia but because Kyiv in October 2022 declared Ichkeria to be “a temporarily occupied” land, a step very close to de facto recognition of a state that the Putin regime suppressed two decades ago (kavkazr.com/a/verhovnaya-rada-priznala-nezavisimostj-ichkerii/32089610.html).