In light of the allegation that the Boston bombing suspects may be of Chechen origin, you may find the following articles as helpful background in getting some context on recent events in Chechnya.
The Russian Counterinsurgency Operation in Chechnya Part 2: Success, But at What Cost? 1999 – 2004
The Russian COIN Campaign in North Caucasus
Comments
In the 90's I oversaw a USMC project interviewing Chechen players in support of the Marine Corps' urban operations effort - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09592310208559190?journalCod…
Fair point and I do know that Dagestan and Chechnya have different histories. I haven't seen anything saying they are from Dagestan, but haven't been following closely since the first reports this AM. I've modified the language above and David's council threads include Dagestan info. Unfortunately, I don't think we have any stand-alone articles on Dagestan.
There are a number of SWC threads on matters Chechen, available to non-members via the Search facility.
1) The Threat from Swarm Attacks (catch all), which started with a CTC Sentinel article: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-threat-from-swarm-attacks-case-studie…
2) A long running thread The North Caucasus: Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia
3) A parallel thread Terrorism in Russia (merged thread)
4) Re Afghan reports a thread Imaginary Chechens Attack!