regards,
Grant. ------ In the case of Chechnya, in 1994 the Kremlin was worried Chechen independence would inspire other separatist movements, in part because of the experience of Soviet collapse and because Moscow thought at the time that all Caucasians are the same and didn't really notice a difference between Chechens, Avars, Laks and so forth. There's little chance of that happening today, now that everone is trying desperately to get closer to Russia and it is nearly universally recognized that independence was a disaster for practically everyone who tried it. You would have to be a lunatic to want your country to become something like Armenia, let alone Chechnya. Over half the population in hypernationalistic UKRAINE wants reunification with Russia.
I think Moscow was genuinely surprised when Dagestanis not only supported the Russian army in 1999, but actually volunteered to fight. In fact, they tell Moscow, "It is not right that Russians die on our land. Give us weapons, and we will exact vengeance on the Chechens for you." So many Dagestanis have declared blood feuds on Chechen clans it's unbelievable. I don't like to think about the level of brutality a Chechen-Dagestani war would bring. The police had to put down a pogrom of ethnic Chechens in Dagestan recently.
While I'm on the subject, what is with this "breakaway republic" rhetoric in the West with respect to Chechnya? It's a strange kind of breakaway republic whose residents have been fleeing to the country from which they are supposedly trying to break away since 1992. All the educated Chechens and the elite got the hell out of dodge when Dudayev established the right of all Chechens to bear arms in 1992 and the descent into anarchy began with a riot of ethnic cleansing and banditry. Seventy-five percent of the population has left. There are something like 200,000 Chechens in Moscow alone. Who is trying to break away from what?