Russia, United States: The Chechen War as a Geopolitical Battle

Moscow and Washington — the former trying to stop its own demise and the latter interested in seeing Russia weakened — both have huge stakes in the Chechen war, the outcome of which strongly will help to define Russia's fate. Rightly or wrongly, Moscow thinks Washington is working against Russia in Chechnya. Moscow's response to this will be to try to win the war before it is too late to prevent both its own collapse and the U.S. geopolitical conquest of the vital Caspian region where Chechnya is located.