If not, Chechnya could slip back into chaos, spreading instability around the North Caucasus.
Alican, a businessman, was not so interested in wild talk of leading the Caucasus.
One of the many faultlines that runs through the Caucasus is a geopolitical one.
The attacker came from the North Caucasus where Russia is battling an Islamist insurgency.
Wahabbism was introduced to the Caucasus in the 1990s by preachers and teachers from Saudi Arabia.
Indeed, there is mystifyingly little on Chechnya and the broader woes of the north Caucasus.
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Many refugees from the Caucasus conflict received passports or refugee status in surrounding countries.
The Borjumi-Kharagauli has some of the best preserved woodlands in the Caucasus Mountains.
He resents the Saudis for supporting Muslims in Chechnya and in the North Caucasus.
Observers say hijackings are a relatively frequent occurrence in the Caucasus region and Russia.
It was the biggest terror act outside Russia's troubled North Caucasus region since 2004.
Reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia could tilt the balance of power in the Caucasus.
Mr Yepishin is not the first person to fall into modern-day slavery in the Caucasus.
Azerbaijan is part of the Caucasus, yet its people are Muslim, like those in Central Asia.
The ex-Soviet Caucasus countries, at a crossroads of Europe and Asia, are really a patch apart.
But the United States does not want to get directly involved in the Caucasus.
She also helped set up Memorial, an influential human-rights outfit focusing on the Caucasus.
Russian authorities, especially in Moscow, regularly throw out traders from Georgia and elsewhere in the Caucasus.
The Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia lies in the northwest of Russia's troubled North Caucasus region.
The highest peak in the Caucasus, Mount Elbrus, lies on the border with Kabardino-Balkaria.
And in the Caucasus region the mood, both official and popular, is even less pro-Russian.
People in the north Caucasus feel they are treated like aliens rather than Russian citizens.
In the Caucasus, Azerbaijan has succeeded where Tatarstan failed, in dropping the cyrillic alphabet.
Like acrobats in a human pyramid, the Caucasus countries are inevitably affected by their neighbours' behaviour.
Third, the prospect of the fighting spreading to other parts of the combustible Caucasus is growing.
Russia said Mr Fogle was caught while trying to recruit an FSB counter-terrorism agent in the Caucasus.
"Terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus have an international connection, " believes Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak.
Indeed, Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia could easily reignite separatist sentiment in the north Caucasus.
Mr Medvedev's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia may also have unpredictable consequences for Russia's north Caucasus.
The presidential plenipotentiary representatives in all regions, with the exception of the Northern Caucasus, should be abolished.
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