Since the collapse of Soviet Union and the subsequent spiral of violence which has erupted in Chechnya, the North Caucasus has been regarded as one of the most unstable regions in the Eurasian area. The traditional demands coming from the region for national sovereignty, independence and secession are progressively being superseded by the emergence of a transnational pan-Caucasian Islamist resistance.
One year after the Russian-Georgian Ossetian war, the aim of this article is to provide a crosssectional analysis of the Northern Caucasus in the context of the “verticalization” of power launched by Putin and in the face of the regression Russia has undergone since the fragile democratic experiences of the ’90s.