Northern Asia

• see also:
  • geography, travel and leisure main index
  • Asia
  • South-west Asia - the Middle East
  • Central Asia
  • The Far East
  • History of the world
  • History of Ukraine

Russia Federation:

• capital: Moscow
• area:  17m sq.km
• pop:  146m (2000)
• govt: republic (USSR disbanded in 1991)
• currency: ruble
• language: Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Armenian, Georgian, many others
• religion: Russian Orthodox Christian 25%, non-religious 60%
• geography:
• conflict in Chechnya:
  • 1830's: Tsar Nicholas I invades Caucasus meeting stiff resistance
  • 1858: Russia wrests control of Caucasus from Ottoman Empire. Chechnya beaten after Iman Shamil's rebels fail to establish Islamic state.
  • 1944: thousands of Chechens deported to Siberia & Kazakhstan by Stalin on pretext of collaboration with Nazis.
  • 1991: Soviet Union collapses, President of Chechnya, Dzhokhar Dudayev, declares independence from Moscow.
  • Dec 1994: Russian troops invade Chechnya, war ensues, 100,000 people, many of whom were civilians are estimated to have been killed.
  • June 1995: Chechen fighters seize hospital in Russia, more than 100 hostages killed in botched rescue. Russians forced to let hostage takers go.
  • Jan 1996: Chechen commandos seize hundreds of hostages in village in neighbouring Dagestan, before escaping Russian seige.
  • May 1997: Pres. Yeltsin signs formal peace treaty, leaving unresolved question of independence. Chechnya sinks into anarchy & under influence of militant Arab Wahhabi fighters.
  • Sept 1999: Chechen fighters stage incursion into Dagestan, residential blocks blown up in Moscow & Volgadonsk killing 300. Chechen insurgents blamed. War breaks out again.
  • Feb 2000: Russian troops capture Grozny. Acting Pres. Putin imposes direct rule from Moscow.
  • Oct 2002: Chechen rebels take 800 hostages in Moscow theatre. Russian forces use knockout gas but kill 100 hostages and most of the rebels with the gas.
  • May 2004: Moscow-backed Chechnyan President Akmad Kadyrov assassinated.
  • Aug 2004: Two Russian passenger jets blown up, killing 89.
  • Aug 2004: Female suicide bomber kills 10 people & herself outside subway in Moscow.
  • Sept 2004: Chechen militants take over 300 children hostage in school, most die when bomb accidentally goes off, hundreds injured in subsequent gunfire with Russian troops.

Former states of the Soviet Union:

• Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
• Eastern European states - Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia
• Caucasus states - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
• central Asian states - Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
• northern Asian state - Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan:

• capital: Astana
• area:  2.7m sq.km
• pop:  16.7m (2000)
• govt: republic (admitted into USSR in 1936; USSR disbanded in 1991)
• currency: Kazakhstani tenge
• language: Kazakh, Russian
• religion: Sunni muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox Christian 44%, Protestant 2%
• geography:
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