The North Caucasus...

I have just read a really good article in The Economist (9th-15th April edition), it is entitled "From Moscow to Mecca" and it raises a couple of interesting points. In short the article tells us how fundamental islam is taking a strong grip on the region of North Caucasus in Russia. The area is dominated by muslims who are separated into two main groups, Sufis and Salafis. Sufism is a traditional form of islam which recognises the state and includes local customs. Salafism however, rejects the state and insists that islam should "rule all spheres of life". This separation led to the second Chechen war in 1999 where the different ideologies clashed and the police and Russian army sided with the Sufis. What is striking from the Russian prospective is that the state have not done themselves any favours in the fact that they have not been trying to conquer the "Hearts and Minds" of their opponents. The police is often responsible for brutality which goes unpunished and the abolishment of local elections has led to an increase in support for the fundamentalists. 50% of the population of Novosasitli (a region within North Caucasus) now consider themselves Salafis, an increase of 40 percentage points on ten years ago. It seems that Russia is straining to stay intact. From an economists point of view, what this shows is that Russia is too large a country with many different ethnic groups to be ruled centrally. Is Russia showing managerial diseconomies of scale? What is true however is that local elections need to be reintroduced so that the people of North Caucasus can elect their leaders themselves (at present leaders are appointed directly from the Kremlin) which would hopefully stem some of the violence. What can also be seen from this situation is the effect it would have on the Russian economy. The violence, corruption and political instability is holding back economic growth for the region which would help to win over the "Hearts and Minds" of the people. Surely if the economy was prospering the violence and insecurity would subside.