Insurgency Success Factors and Rebel Legitimacy
After declaring the war over in 2000, Russia effectively shut down all Chechen and external
media presence in Chechnya. Journalists, internet access, and Chechen media sources were
heavily restricted. Those who continued to report, faced harsh punishments. Ann Politkovskaya
was a Russian journalist renowned for her stories of Russian state corruption and violence,
particularly in the North Caucasus. In October 2006, Politkovskaya was found murdered in the
stairwell of her apartment building, in retaliation for anti-Russian reports³18
At the same time, Russia launched an anti-Chechen propaganda campaign, that targeted
national and international perceptions of the Chechen insurgency. The campaign was highly
effective in the Chechen insurgency as a movement for Islamic terrorism, instead of the quest for
an independent nation-state³19. The propaganda campaign, fueled in large part by media images
from the Second Chechen War, followed by the 9/11 attacks was highly effective in eradicating
perceptions of the insurgency as a legitimate independence movement. The campaign was also
supplemented by an increase in terrorist attacks by the hands of Chechen separatists that were
widely reported on by international journalists 320. Stories of terrorism presented virtually the
only news reports on Chechnya, further contributing to international perceptions of Chechens as
terrorists and delegitimating the insurgency.
The insurgency had begun to mobilize its own campaign, harnessing social media and
internet sources to provide information and propaganda outside of Chechnya. After Putin
declared victory in the Second Chechen War, Chechen insurgents launched the website
Kavkaz.org., anticipating Russian censorship 321. To this day, Russia has failed to shut down the
site, allowing the Chechen insurgency a continued outlet for propaganda, recruitment, and
messaging to Chechnya and beyond ³22. The site has been designated as a terrorist website and
shut down in several countries, including the U.S. However, since 2000 the website has been
65View entire presentation