In the context of nationalism and sovereignty studies emerging since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this thesis provides an economic, rather than political, perspective of Tatarstan’s success in negotiating sovereignty claims with Russia, arguing that what lay behind Tatarstan’s demands for extensive political and economic rights was not mass nationalist mobilization, but the desire for control over natural resources by the Tatarstani elite dominated by former Soviet functionaries of indigenous nationality. In addition, this paper examines the importance of continuity among the local political elites, contrasting Tatarstan’s approach with that of Chechnya’s uncompromising separatist drive and the resulting years of civil conflict. Finally, the most recent page in the history of Russian-Tatarstani relations, the gradual reduction of the republic’s autonomy in connection with President Putin’s centralizing reforms, confirms my principal argument that control over resources is more important to the Tatarstani elites than political power as such.

This thesis approaches the reasons behind the success of insurgencies in conflicts against greater nations. Why is it that a small group with limited resources can triumph against a great military power. This study seeks to analyze the conflicts in Afghanistan 1979-1989 and Chechnya 1994-1996 with the use of an adapted version of the SWORD-model in order to conclude whether the model can elucidate the separate outcomes. The original model is based on seven dimensions which all explains different aspects on how a state ought to combat insurgents in order to succeed, and has predominantly been used to analyze conflicts involving the US, not Russia or the USSR. A case study is then realized on the two conflicts in order to strengthen or weaken the analytic prowess of the adapted SWORD-model. The analysis concludes that the insurgents had the advantage in four and three respectively, out of the four adapted dimensions in Afghanistan and Chechnya, which indicates that the insurgents should have succeed in both conflicts which they did. Based on this, it can be argued that the analytic power of the adapted SWORD-model has been strengthened by explaining two additional partly unique conflicts involving alternative states.

This master thesis deals with a study of forced migration from the Chechen republic during Chechen wars in 1996-2002. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the study of migration strategies of refugees from Chechnya. This qualitative study attempts to grasp the complexity of forced migration process and to depict it from the perspective of refugees. It explores motives and strategies of mobility of the Chechen refugees now living in Russia and Austria and of those refugees, who have returned to Chechnya after the war was over. The impact of this armed conflict on population mobility was examined with a qualitative research of sixteen refugees, who had left Chechnya because of the war. The results of the research show the link between refugee's age and likelihood of return, differences in decision-making of Chechen and Russian refugees, and the strong influence of the social networks on the decision-making and after arrival at destination. Key words Chechnya, forced migration, reasons for migration, destinations, returns, qualitative approach

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The aim of this thesis is to analyze the major themes of female suicide bombers in Chechen widows and Tamil Tigers. For my thesis I chose empirical- analytical methodology and methodology of comparative case studies. In both cases, the first studies dealing with the historical circumstances under which the group is established, the status and role of women in society there, leading motivation to attack their targets and then mention the most important examples of attacks perpetrated by members of the terrorist group. Research suggests that in neither case is not only one motive, but rather a multi-causal phenomenon. Black widows are predominantly motivated by religious and secular motives, specifically the personal motivation because of the death of a loved one, they want revenge. In Tamil Tigers is the main motive separatist when trying to get the rights for the Tamil minority and achieve an independent state of Eelam. Despite the geographical distance and differences in religion can be proportioned to find the same in both groups. Both groups can be seen as a gender dimension - women's efforts to deal with men.

L’ascension de Vladimir Poutine à la présidence de la Russie fut un point tournant dans l’histoire de la Russie et de ses relations avec l’occident. Lorsqu’il est comparé aux politiques plus pro-occidentales de son prédécesseur, Boris Eltsine, le nouveau nationalisme russe de Poutine changea la relation de la Russie avec l’Occident. Ce texte utilise des articles publiés dans quatre journaux influents de l’Occident—le Washington Post, le New York Times, le Guardian et l’Independent—pour montrer comment l’Occident percevait la Russie entre 1999 et 2008. Poutine fut longuement critiqué pour avoir transformé la « démocratie », instauré par l’Occident dans les années postsoviétiques, en autocratie qui reflétait plus le contexte politico-social traditionnel russe. La Russie refusa de se soumettre aux intérêts de l’Occident. Les médias populaires occidentaux, reflétant les intérêts de leurs gouvernements respectifs, ont rondement critiqué la nouvelle direction de la Russie. L’obligation perçue par les médias occidentaux de promouvoir la « démocratie » autour du globe les a menés à condamner Poutine et la Russie, ce qui créa un sentiment de « russophobie ». / The ascension of Vladimir Putin to the Russian presidency was a turning point in the history of Russia. Using articles from four influential western newspapers—the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian and the Independent—this text will show the West perceived Russia during Putin’s between 1999 and 2008. Putin was heavily criticized as he was moving the country away from the “democracy” installed by the West after the Cold War, to a path more in line with traditional Russian principles. Russia refused to be subservient to Western interests. The western mainstream media reflected their government’s interests and critiqued Russia’s new path. The western media’s perceived obligation to promote “freedom” and “democracy” around the world has led it to condemn Russia and Putin and to create a sense of “russophobia” in the West.

Reference 1 Abstract The aim of this Master Thesis is to present annotated translation of the chapter Nord-Ost. Noveyshaya istoriya unichtozheniya (Istoriya pervaya. Pyatyi; Istoriya vtoraya. No. 2551 - neizvestnyi; Istoriya tretya. Siradzhi, Yacha i vsye-vsye-vsye). The first part of the commentary focuses on analysis of the author's life and work, current political and social situation in the Russian Federation and the position of Russian opposition journalists and organisations. The next part presents comparative analysis of the original and also translation solutions, which were created with emphasis on the functional equivalence. In this part the translation method is presented. The closing part discusses translation solutions of the difficult parts of the text.

This paper explores the current understanding of the right of peoples to self-determination and its impact on international relations. A number of new states have gained international recognition outside the scope of decolonisation, several of which have not fulfilled the usual criteria for statehood, based on existing state practice. In addition, the parent states of Bangladesh, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Kosovo have not consented to the secession of these territories. The main purpose of this paper is to determine whether based on the stipulations of international documents and mainly on existing state practice, it is possible to verify the existence of a customary law enabling peoples to unilaterally secede. Such a right would pose a threat to the future application of the principle of territorial integrity as one of the basic principles of international relations. In order to answer this question I compare case studies of successful and unsuccessful nations striving for their own state outside the realm of decolonisation. Based on this comparison I analyse the current understanding of the right to self-determination and its impact on international relations. I conclude by stating that it is not possible to unambiguously confirm the existence of such a right. However, in practice the principle of territorial integrity is being breached nonetheless, due to persisting uncertainties regarding the possible application of secession by peoples whose internal right to self-determination was not respected. Together with the fact that the current concept of self-determination ignores collective rights of national groups, this poses a threat to international stability.

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