Resentment over the lavish federal subsidies paid to Chechnya and other regions in the North Caucasus could become a liability for Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Multi-ethnic states, political geography and Russia's geopolitical complexities.
The article brings back memories of this past year and the Boston Marathon where the two bombers were found out to be from the Chechen region. Due to social networks and word of mouth, many people jumped to assume that the attack was because of "the Russians". Little was known about Chechnya and the people within the area, but it showed that in America at least, there was quite a bit of ignorance and assumption floating around. Even political figures and in news reports there was confusion of the exact boundaries and ethnic backgrounds that the region possessed. It shows the media gives people what they want to hear, and the listeners are seldom to do their own research to understand the truth.
Russia and its surrounding region has constantly been changing since the fall of the Soviet Union. New countries form and more ethnicities arise constantly and with all these new developments form even newer confusion. Many of these areas intertwine various languages, religions, cultures, and at times putting a barrier between them is nearly impossible. As reports unravelled, they showed actual conflict between Chechnya and those of the Russian capital, Moscow. There had been hostage situations and terrorist plots carried out by people suspected to be from the Chechen region and even the Russian president Vladimir Putin had grown angry about being apart of Chechnya. With all these events and learnings, it shows that some countries still have people and areas within its boundaries that have little known about them.
Vladimir Putin was once a symbol of efficiency in Russia, but now that tensions are growing due to the subsidies that are being paid to Chechnya. As the article states, Putin's policies are starting to seem like a dead end and will only get more expensive as time goes on.
We don't usually hear about Chechnya subsidies usually it has to do with growing tensions or terrorism. In Russia there are so many ethnic and political divisions that it make sense the Russians feel allegiance to their ethnic group rather than Russia and there for when the government subsidizes Chechnya they see it as Russia subsidizing a population that really isn't "Russian".