The wars in Chechnya and their effects on neighboring regions’, Eurasian Geography and Economics 48

Abstract: A team of Russia- and U.S.-based geographers presents and discusses the eco-nomic and demographic consequences of the conflicts in Chechnya on that republic, on the neighboring ethnic republics of the North Caucasus, as well as on the adjoining region of Stavropol ’ with a majority of Russian inhabitants. Formal economic indicators, which gener-ally exhibit negative trends since 1991, are contrasted with the large, diverse shadow econ-omy that tends to absorb federal development funding diverted from the formal sector to the benefit of local elites. The authors explore the extent to which economic activity once based in Chechnya is dispersed to contiguous regions, discuss changes in the ethnic composition of the republics (“de-Russification”), and consider whether Chechnya and the adjoining repub-lics will ever regain the close economic, political, and social ties with Russia that prevaile