Abstract
The conflict in Chechnya constitutes one of the most burning issues of the post Cold War Russian federation politics. Actually, the two wars, that took place under Yeltsine's and Putin's presidencies, from 1994 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2001, and even to nowadays, have been the most important domestic political question in Russia.
The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is one of the twenty Russian Federation republics and is located in the North Caucasus. This republic has always been the most separatist one, refusing to officially enter the Federation. The history of its conflicts with the Russian states goes back to the eighteen century and the Chechen people is well known for its violent nationalist character and its hatred toward Russia, many things separating it from the Russian people, such as the fact that it is a Muslim people.
The question is here to understand the causes of the conflict and to know how and why the situation has never improved. It is here important to underline that the two Chechen wars are parts of the same process. Actually, the second Chechen war is the consequence of the failure of the Russian military against the Chechen guerrilla and of the deterioration of the situation in the region. Consequently, we can argue that the main causes of the first conflict are almost the same than the one of the second one and we are going to insist on it.
In a first part, we will see that the history of the relations of Russia and Chechnya is one of the main causes of the existence of the Chechen nationalism, which has led to the secession and has deeply conditioned the escalation to the conflict.
