Each side in the conflict in Chechnya gives it a different name and in a sense both are right.

The Chechen rebels call their struggle a "war of liberation". They say that Chechnya has never voluntarily joined Russia and has only ever been conquered by military force. For them the 1994-6 war fought with Moscow and the latest campaign to crush Chechnya's bid for independence, which began in the autumn of 1999, prove that Russian governments only talk the language of force.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin calls the conflict an "anti-terrorist operation".

Worryingly for the Russian president, there are increasing signs that opposition to Moscow's will in Chechnya is refusing to die down.

'Criminals and kidnappers'

Russian officials say they only sent in troops to the breakaway republic in 1999 after a string of random bomb explosions in Moscow and two southern Russian cities killed more than 200 civilians.

Officials in Moscow argue that after their troops left in 1996, Chechnya became a haven for organised crime and kidnapping. And they say that the latest incident in Istanbul only illustrates that the Chechen rebels are "terrorists".

The man reported to be one of the leaders of the seizure of the Swissotel is Muhammed Tokcan, a Turkish Chechen, who led another high-profile operation in January 1996. He took over a cruise liner in the Black Sea with hundreds of passengers on board, just as Chechen fighters were holding hundreds of hostages in the village of Pervomaiskoye on the Dagestan-Chechnya border. As on this occasion, the aim of that operation seems mainly to have been to seize public attention rather than hold hostages for ransom.

Broad support

The Chechens, who are Muslim, have broad public support in Turkey and the Middle East. There are large Chechen diasporas in both Turkey and Jordan, the descendants of Chechens who fled the Caucasus after the wars of the 19th century.

Of the one million or so Chechens living worldwide, more now live outside Chechnya than inside the republic, as a result of perpetual conflict.

Promise unfulfilled

President Putin came to power with a promise to resolve the Chechen problem by force. His campaign against the rebels in the second half of 1999, first in the eastern region of Dagestan and then in Chechnya itself, brought him widespread public support that helped him to win election for president in March 2000 in succession to Boris Yeltsin.

Recent events have shown that Mr Putin is no nearer sorting out Chechnya than any of his predecessors. In March a group of hijackers seized a Saudi aeroplane and took the passengers hostage. When Saudi security forces stormed the plane, one hijacker and one Russian stewardess were killed. Earlier this month three bomb explosions in southern Russia killed more than 20 people. Chechen separatists denied responsibility, but Russian officials blamed the attacks on Chechen rebels. And recently two officials of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration have been assassinated.

Diversity of rebels

Moscow's problem is that it is facing a Chechen opposition which is increasingly diverse and uncoordinated.

During the first campaign of 1994-6 most fighters were loyal to the first Chechen president, Dzhokhar Dudayev. Now Chechen fighters are split on political and religious lines. Much of the money for the resistance cause is reported to be coming from countries like Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan - and going to the more radical figures.

The Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected president in 1997, is a moderate and against Islamic extremism. But he has decreasing influence, while Russia refuses to hold talks with him.

Mr Maskhadov refuses to renounce his claim for independence, while Moscow says it will only negotiate with him if he accepts that Chechnya is part of Russia.

Limited coverage

Media coverage of the recent conflict is also far more restricted. That means the Russian military is free to act with much greater brutality. There are reports that young Chechen men disappear at checkpoints and are detained and tortured on suspicion of being rebel fighters.

Two years ago many young Chechens were only happy at the thought of rejoining Russia and regaining some kind of stability. Now many of them are again taking up arms against the Russian army.

By Thomas de Waal
BBC Monday, 23 April, 2001
Thomas de Waal is co-author of Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus