Monoethnicity becomes a distinguishing feature of new Chechen battalions

The requirement to recruit only Chechen residents into new battalions may lead to the creation of monoethnic military units, and other republics of Northern Caucasus will want to follow this trend, experts interviewed by the “Caucasian Knot” state.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on June 26, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov announced that four military battalions – “Sever-Akhmat”, “Yug-Akhmat”, “Zapad-Akhmat”, and “Vostok-Akhmat” – would be formed in Chechnya and would include “exclusively Chechen guys.” Two battalions – “Vostok-Akhmat” and “Zapad-Akhmat” – have already been manned, the “Chechnya Segodnya” (Chechnya Today)” reported on June 28.

The battalions formed in Chechnya will likely be monoethnic, suggests Alexei Malashenko, the chief researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations named after E.M. Primakov of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). However, the expert points out that such a decision is at least debatable. “If the trend goes towards the formation of military units by ethnicity of fighters, it will be undignified for Russia. And if there are separate Ingush or Dagestani battalions? What will happen after the end of the special military operation? Will they be disbanded? Unlikely,” Alexei Malashenko believes.

According to the expert, these battalions, despite being subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD), will be perceived as “Ramzan Kadyrov’s army.”

Military expert Alexander Khramchikhin suggests that the battalions will be monoethnic if they are recruited exclusively from residents of Chechnya. “In theory, the creation of battalions is not tied to recruiting people of the same nationality. But in fact, the overwhelming majority of residents of Chechnya are Chechens,” Alexander Khramchikhin noted.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 7, 2022 at 02:12 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.