Summarize the potential dangers posed the Russian breakaway states

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Three nations – Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan – have internal separatist movements creating areas where neither the government nor the separatists are in control.
• This has resulted in virtual shell states where crime flourishes and corruption rules.
• The breakaway regions are ripe for illegal arms trading, and they present a tempting location to headquarter internal criminal and terrorist groups.
• Ethnic tensions in these regions also add to the problem.
• For example, the Russian Federation launched a brief invasion of Georgia in 2008 to protect Russian nationals in South Ossetia.
• The separatist movement in Chechnya threatens regional stability, and it has resulted in two internal wars in the Russian Federation, one from 1994 to 1996 and the other from 1999 to 2009
• It has also created a campaign of internal terrorism involving the deaths of hundreds of people.
• Fighting has spread throughout the North Caucasus region to Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria.
• Attacks in Moscow and other areas outside the region have accelerated Russia's drift away from democracy.
• Russia has responded by installing local regional political bosses, but they have introduced a culture of political corruption and repression.