The attitude of European Institutions towards the Chechen question

The aim of the present work is to investigate what have been the reactions of the European institutions to the dramatic situation in Chechnya starting from 1994.
The first chapter deals with the suffered history of the Chechen people. It provides the reader with the historical background necessary to understand the origins of the Chechen-Russian conflict, which lasted for centuries. Particular attention is given to the last fourteen years, period of the two Chechen wars, the first one occurred under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin and the second one under the recently replaced presidency of Vladimir Putin.
The second chapter is investigating what has been the attitude of European institutions, such as EU Commission, Council and Parliament, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights since the beginning of the first Chechen war. Despite the many official statements condemning the Russian management of the conflict in Chechnya made both by EU institutions and European Council, very few strong political initiatives have been taken in these years. The main reason is the necessity of maintaining good relationship with Russia, as it is an important economic partner for all the European countries. The European Court of Human Rights seems to be the most active institution in openly condemning the attitude of the Russian Federation in Chechnya. However, the effort made until now by the European Community did not have much influence on the Russian politics that, on the contrary, continues perpetrating human rights and fundamental freedoms violations.
The third and last chapter highlights the difficult work of other important actors in the Chechen question: the NGOs. Working in the Caucasian region is not only dangerous for the Chechen guerrillas but also prevented by Russian law and FSB inquiries in order to keep under control the NGOs activities. In fact, they represent for the Russian government a dangerous bridge linking the small Caucasian region and Western Europe. These organizations are often the only way to provide European institutions and society with the information they couldn't normally have, above all after the imposition of the censorship in 1999. These NGOs represent for Chechnya the only voice to be heard outside the Russian borders.
The author has divided the sources between primary and secondary. The primary sources include essentially official documents by European Institutions. The secondary sources concern newspapers and websites' articles or NGOs’ declarations. These articles have been of fundamental importance to understand the real situation in Chechnya, in a period characterized by a strong imposed censorship in Russia. The sources analyzed are in English, Italian and French, being the languages known by the author. No sources in Russian have been taken into consideration.