It’s not war; It’s collective assassination.

The title of today’s entry are the words of Andarbek Bakayev, a doctor in the Russo-Chechen war. I recently finished Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya by Anne Nivat, this was a great read though it was not exactly the book I was looking for. At the moment I am looking for a more in depth analysis of political, religious, and culture struggle of Chechnya.

Nivat is a French reporter who works in Moscow, and for six months travels in and out of Chechnya talking to people, recording stories, and dictating her observations via satellite phone. This is not a political education on the war happening in Chechnya at the moment, but a collection of stories from a wide spectrum of people on the ground. This book is extremely well written, and I did find it very hard to put down. I constantly wanted to know what local story Nivat would uncover next. One of the most disturbing sequences is Nivat remembering a bombing raid that she was in the center of, and how differently she responded to it as opposed to her Chechen hosts.

It should be noted that Nivat is clearly anti-Russian on this topic and she does very little to hide it. She makes it a point to talk to the actual people this was is affecting. The Russians and the Wahabis are part of a bigger problem, of not asking or listening to the people of Chechnya and fighting with little guidance.

I do recommend this book, but if you are looking for a political education of what is going on in Chechnya you may look for things written by Georgi Derlugian, he wrote an article a couple of years ago that was quite good. Nivat is an exceptional writer, and you will get to know a lot more about the actual people behind the lines.