Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 116

24. Daniel Pipes, “Muslim Russia?” The Washington Times, 20
October 2013, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/20/
pipes-muslim-russia/ (accessed 5 November 2014); Mainville;
D’Agostino.
25. Berman, 27-39.
26. Berman, 31-32.
27. Paul Goble, “Moscow’s Orthodox Churches Deserted While
Streets are Filled with Muslims,” The Interpreter, 30 July 2014, http://
www.interpretermag.com/moscows-orthodox-churches-desertedwhile-streets-are-filled-with-muslims/ (accessed 5 November 2014).
Buoyed by the Islamic revival, the Union of Muftis in Russia has
pressured Moscow authorities to reverse themselves and allow for the
construction of at least one mosque in each of the ten administrative
divisions of the city. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has resisted this plea
for fear of the reaction from Muscovites. Despite this rebuff, many
Muslims in Moscow are reportedly now joking among themselves
about the fate of Orthodox churches in Constantinople (which is now
Istanbul) after the Muslims took over the city and made it the capital
of the caliphate.
28. Paul Goble, “Medvedev, Putin Send Contrasting Messages
to Russia’s Muslims,” Window on Eurasia, 1 October 2008, http://
windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2008/10/window-on-eurasia-medvedev-putin-send.html (accessed 5 November 2014).
29. Michael Blume, “The Reproductive Benefits of Religious Affiliation,” in The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior, eds.
Eckart Voland and Wulf Schiefenhövel (New York: Springer, 2009),
117-126; Charlie L. Reeve, “Expanding the G-Nexus: Further Evidence
Regarding the Relations Among National IQ, Religiosity and National
Health Outcomes,” Intelligence, 37(5) (September-October 2009):
495-505.
30. Nicholas Eberstadt, “The Enigma of Russian Mortality,” Current
History, 109 (729) (October 2010): 289.
31. Berman, 13-26.
32. Eberstadt, 291.
33. Berman, 39.
34. D’Agostino.
35. Bat Ye’or, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis (Madison, NJ: Farleigh
Dickinson Press, 2005). Eurabia is a neologism created by the Israeli
writer Gisele Littman under her pen name Bat Ye’or. She warns that if
the demographic balance in Europe shifts to a Muslim majority then
the continent will move away from its alliances with the United States
and Israel.
36. Parker, 4. The Moscow-based human rights organization,
Memorial, estimated that 15,000 Russian soldiers have died in the
conflicts; see also, International Humanitarian Law Pro Bono Project,
“Chechnya: Fight for Independence from Russia,” http://www.gistprobono.org/id223.html (accessed 5 November 2014). The Russian government has been notoriously unforthcoming on releasing casualty
figures for the Chechen wars; for casualties in the Soviet-Afghan War,
see “Did the USSR Win the War in Afghanistan?” Pravda, 28 December 2011, http://english.pravda.ru/history/28-12-2011/120105-ussr_
afghanistan-0/ (accessed 15 August 2014).
37. “Chechen Official Puts Death Toll for 2 Wars at up to
160,000,” New York Times, 16 August 2005, http://www.nytimes.
com/2005/08/15/world/europe/15iht-chech.html?_r=0 (accessed
5 November 2014). An unofficial report released by the Chechen
government in 2005 estimated the combined death toll of both wars
reached 160,000.
38. Berman, 43.
39. Yosseff Bodansky, Chechen Jihad: Al Qaeda’s Training Ground
and the Next Wave of Terror (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 2.
114

40. Berman, 44.
41. Barak Mendelsohn, Combating Jihadism: American Hegemony and Interstate Cooperation in the War on Terrorism (Chicago
and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009), 191.
42. Bodansky, 175. U.S. policy toward separatists appears
to be intended to weaken Russia’s hold over the region so that
western firms could move forward with their plans to construct the
Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which runs through the Caucasus
region. The pipeline would make Europe less dependent on Russian energy products and also provide a huge windfall for western
oil companies. The U.S., Russian, and Chinese governments have
indeed given serious consideration to Afghanistan as a prospective site for constructing pipelines. The journalist Ahmed Rashid
has christened this endeavor as the “Great Game II.” As he reported, the Clinton administration sought to assist a U.S. firm, Unocal,
in its effort to build an oil pipeline to pump gas from Turkmenistan
through Afghanistan to Pakistan. The Pakistani intelligence agency,
ISI, urged the United States to support the Taliban insofar as it
would make Unocal’s project less cumbersome. However, U.S.
domestic politics soon interfered as the plight of Afghan women
became a cause celebré among feminists and prominent liberals
in Hollywood. Vice President Al Gore was eager to retain the
support of these constituent groups in his upcoming presidential
election. Furthermore, the continuing moderation of the government in Iran made that country a more attractive partner in the region. As a result, U.S. policy began to toughen against the Taliban.
See also, Ahmed Rashid, Taliban (New Haven, CT: Yale Nota Bene,
2001), 156-177.
43. Wayne Madsen, “The Ties That Bind Washington to
Chechen Terrorists,” Strategic Culture Foundation, 26 April 2013,
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2013/04/26/the-tiesthat-bind-washington-to-chechen-terrorists.html (accessed 10
January 2014). In February 2014, McFaul announced that he was
stepping down from his post. During his tenure as ambassador,
he frequently clashed with the Kremlin; see also, “US Ambassador to Russia to leave after two years,” Yahoo News, 4 February
2014, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/
outspoken-us-ambassador-to-russia-to-leave-after-two-years/
article5655402.ece (accessed 12 June 2014); Michael McFaul and
Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, “The Myth of the Authoritarian Model: How
Putin’s Crackdown Holds Russia Back,” Foreign Affairs ( January/
February 2008). In 2008, with Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, McFaul wrote
an article in the influential journal Foreign Affairs in which he cast
great doubt on the viability of Putin’s Russia. They attributed the
economic growth that coincided with Putin’s tenure to high oil
prices and criticized Putin’s rollback of democracy in Russia, including his increasing control of the media; for McFaul’s account of his
tenure at the embassy, see David Remnick, “Watching the Eclipse,”
The New Yorker, 11 August 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/11/watching-eclipse (accessed 5 November 2014).
44. Edward Lucas, The New Cold War: Putin’s Russia and the
Threat to the West (New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2008), 202.
45. Ibid.
46. Pipes.
47. Paul J. Sanders, “Putin’s Muslim family values,” Al Monitor,
29 May 2014, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/
russia-putin-values-based-diplomacy-muslim-world.html# (accessed 5 November 2014).
48. Lucas, 203.
49. Julian Schofield, Strategic Nuclear Sharing (New York:
Palgrave/Macmillan, 2014), 118-119.
January-February 2015  MILITARY REVIEW