Insurgency Success Factors and Rebel Legitimacy
and supporting the removal of Russia from the North Caucasus 185. Al-Qaeda support in
developing independent Chechen separatist propaganda media and harnessing their own
platforms to sell the Chechen separatist cause provided the rebellion with international
recognition and legitimacy amongst international Islamist groups. Training and propaganda
development support helped the rebellion establish its own propaganda campaign. Al-Qaeda
support was particularly effective in supporting the establishment of Chechen separatist social
media presence, which allowed rebels to communicate with a wider, international audience. Al-
Qaeda also promoted Chechen insurgents and their cause on international al-Qaeda platforms,
which contributed to the cause gaining legitimacy amongst Islamist organizations globally 186.
Chechen diasporas were also key external supporters of the rebellion. In particular, the
early Chechen insurgency benefited heavily from propaganda efforts by Jordanian-Chechen
communities living in the Middle East 187. Jordanian-Chechens abroad helped mobilize sympathy
for the Chechen cause in states across the Middle East 188. This mobilization led sympathetic
Middle Eastern states to adopt pro-Chechen platforms in international diplomatic arenas 189.
Several states, including Jordan, Syria, and Iraq also accepted Chechen refugees following the
Chechen wars 190. The Chechen cause was easily mobilized in many states still recovering from
legacies of Western colonialism.
Middle Eastern sympathies for the Chechen cause began to decline in 2003 following the
succession of rebel terrorist attacks in Russia 191. Many states in the Middle East fighting al-
Qaeda units began to identify more with Russia and a shared fight against terrorism than with an
increasingly extremist Chechen insurgency 192. The reduction in the rebel cause's legitimacy
created a shift in diplomatic rhetoric, and domestic propaganda from pro-Chechen separatism, to
anti-Chechen terrorism. This ideological shift contributed to fewer champions actively
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