GEORGIA AND AZERBAIJAN…

Russian actions in the northern Caucasus are linked to diplomatic pressure on Georgia and Azerbaijan in pursuit of long-term Russian policy goals. These include securing Georgia’s consent to putting Russian troops on the Georgian side of the border with Chechnya; making Russian military bases in Georgia permanent; securing a portion of Georgia’s arms quota under the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty for Russian use in Chechnya and Dagestan; extracting consent from Georgia and Azerbaijan for deployment of Russian forces on their borders in excess of CFE limits; pushing Azerbaijan into approving an oil pipeline from Baku to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk; and promoting a “Greater Caucasus Security Space,” a new collective-security scheme that would encompass the north and south Caucasus and abort the nascent ties of Georgia and Azerbaijan to NATO.

This aggressive effort to restore Russian influence has alienated some who might be expected to sympathize with Russia’s problems to the north. One such figure is Sheik ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, the head of the Spiritual Board of the Muslims of the Caucasus, the supreme religious authority for the region and an organization little changed since Soviet times. Pashazade personifies the official clerical establishment. He accepts secular government and is an opponent of the “Wahabbis” and other Islamic fundamentalists commonly identified as Russia’s enemy in the northern Caucasus. But last week he accused Russia of “using the antiterrorist struggle as a cover for destroying the Chechen people” and regaining control over Georgia and Azerbaijan. He is the first important Muslim authority to take such a stand.