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207 
 
oriented social movements was the primary method of tackling national separatism 
in the North Caucasus.
521
 
These reports and the Confederation’s increasingly anti-Russian stance 
were the turning points for the creation of a succession of regional organizations 
which would be favourably disposed towards Moscow and would provide a 
counter-weight to the Confederation and other national front movements. In this 
Moscow began to use mainly high ranking politicians and bureaucrats from the 
region, like Sergey Shakhray
522
 and Ramazan Abdulatipov.
523
 Regional official 
leaders were motivated to establish alternative regional pro-Russian organizations 
aimed primarily at weakening the Confederation 
 
Abdulatipov set up the first of these pro-Russian organizations, even before 
the publication of these reports. In autumn 1991, he convened a congress of the 
Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus, which was intended to be a direct challenge 
to the Confederation. This Association was based in Moscow with a heavy 
representation of Moscow scholars and peoples from Dagestan. In 1992, this 
Assembly began to publish a magazine in Russian in Moscow, Ekho Kavkaza 
(Echo of the Caucasus) which gave concrete form to the idea of regional 
integration. Nevertheless, the Association failed to become a credible 
counterweight to the Confederation and, instead of drawing support away from the 
                                                                                                                                        
commission. “Russia sets up commission to seek solutions to North Caucasian conflicts,” SWB 
SU/1471, C1/2, 28 August 1992. 
521
 Fiona Hill quoted these reports, Russia’s Tinderbox, 37-38. 
522
 He, a Terek Cossack, was the Chairman of the Russian State Committee for Nationalities Policy 
of the Russia and the Russian deputy premier with responsibility for ethnic affairs. 
523
 He, an Avar, was from Dagestan and the Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities of the Supreme 
Soviet of the Russian Federation. 

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Confederation it was one of the factors that galvanised it into action in 1991 and 
1992.
524
 
The second major organization was established in January 1993 during a 
regional round table meeting, organised by the Ministry for Nationalities and 
Regional Policy, and the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Nationality 
Policy, in Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk, with the participation of the republics, of 
various national or ethnic movements and groups in the region. Shakhray and 
Abdullatipov took the lead during these meetings. 
The meeting was the first initiative in the North Caucasus that attempted to 
establish mechanisms for cooperation with the 93 representatives from 37 North 
Caucasian parties, movements and even the regional branches of the Russian 
political parties. This meeting ended with the adoption of a ‘Declaration on the 
Principles of Inter-ethnic Relations in the North Caucasus’. The declaration 
stressed that relations between the ethnic groups and nationalities in the region 
were based on equal rights for all peoples and on respect for the territorial integrity 
of the North Caucasian republics, krais and oblasts within the Russian Federation. 
On the second day of the meeting in Kislovodsk, the leaders of legislative 
and executive power in the region decided to create a North Caucasus Coordinating 
Council made up of representatives of the executive and legislative power. This 
body was to help unite the efforts of the republics and krais to maintain ethnic 
accord in the region, prevent and settle inter-ethnic conflicts and other crisis 
                                                 
524
 Fiona Hill, Russia’s Tinderbox, 39. 

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209 
 
situations in the North Caucasus and also to strengthen the integrity of the Russian 
Federation.
525
 
 
In line with Security Council’s Committee reports, the second major 
organisation focused on the region. The North Caucasian Democratic Congress, 
was established in Stavropol Krai with the participation of several anti-Dudayev 
groups from Chechnya. This organization was heavily controlled by Sergey 
Shakhray
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 and marking a break with the radicalism of Chechnya, a leader of the 
Chechen opposition and former minister of the Soviet Union’s oil industry, 
Salambek Khadzhiev was elected head of the Political Council of the Congress. 
This Congress, as stated by Shakhray, was established to the preserve a 
unified Russian state, Russia’s chief priority in the Caucasus, that was. Thus it was 
intended to replace the Confederation and presented itself as the Confederation’s 
democratic alternative. Therefore, in contrast to the Confederation, the Congress 
professed common democratic priorities and registered with the Russian Federation 
Ministry of Justice.
527
 
 
Another North Caucasian organisation, the Association of Democratic 
Forces of the North Caucasus, was established in the beginning of April under the 
auspices of Abdullatipov, and registered by the Russian Ministry of Justice. 
                                                 
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 “Meeting in Kislovodsk decides to set up North Caucasus Coordinating Council,” SWB SU/1589, 
B/4, 18 January 1993. “North Caucasus Coordination Council set up,” SWB SU/1592, B/8, 21 
January 1993. 
526
 “North Caucasus Democratic Congress to attempt to solve regional problems,” SWB SU/1608, 
B/2, 9 February 1993. 
527
 “North Caucasus Democratic Congress on Program, Referendum,” FBIS-USR-93-025, 46, 5 
March 1993. 

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