‘Buying Peace’ in Chechnya: Challenges of Post-Conflict Reconstruction in The Public Sector

Abstract

Whereas there seems to be a consensus on the importance of social services for the success of peacebuilding efforts, the role of corruption in the public sector remains ambiguous. On the one hand, conventional interpretations of the role of corruption in the aftermath of conflict suggest that corruption impedes a successful war-to-peace transition. On the other hand, corruption may be necessary to the survival of ordinary citizens by reinforcing economic efficiency and helping them to gain access to basic social services. This article studies various aspects of post-conflict reconstruction in Chechnya with a particular focus on corruption in in the public sector. It argues that Moscow's strategy of soothing the insurgency in the North Caucasus with generous financial injections has brought some stability at least in the sense of absence of large-scale violence. Despite these seemingly positive results, sweeping corruption in the public sector is likely to undermine the effectiveness of post-conflict reconstruction and development projects in Chechnya in the long run, in this way increasing the likelihood of post-conflict Chechen society sliding back into public discontent and violence.

Keywords::

• Chechnya
• post-conflict reconstruction
• development aid
• corruption
• social services

Notes

¹ Given the high levels of politicisation of the subjects of crime and corruption in Russia, interviewees are not identified anywhere in the text.

² To overcome potential problems concerning issues of libel, the selection of criminal cases in this article was entirely based on de facto rather than de jure presumption of guilt.

³ According to public sources, the Akhmad Kadyrov Foundation — a charity organisation named after the current President's father, killed in a bombing attack in May 2004 — is said to be one of the sources of pension funds for those Chechens who fought in the Chechen Wars. Mass media sources have widely criticised this organisation for low transparency of in- and outgoing funds.

⁴ All currency conversions were performed by the author with the help of an online currency converter (www.xe.com/currencyconverter/) at the exchange rate for 29 March 2013.

⁵ The NCFD, created by the President's decree on 19 January 2010, includes the following administrative units: Republic of Dagestan, Republic of Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Stavropolskiy krai and the Chechen Republic.

⁶ ‘Stop feeding the Caucasus’ (Russian). One of the examples was an anti-Caucasian protest action in Moscow on 22 October, 2011. Extensively advertised by both the government and the press, further protests were supposed to take place across Russia.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yuliya G. Zabyelina

Dr Yuliya G. Zabyelina is a Newton International Fellow at the University of Edinburgh School of Law. She can be contacted at: [email protected]