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Foreign Policy’s Passport examines the recent violence in Chechnya.

Russia has maintained order in Chechnya largely by arming [Chechnyan President Ramzan] Kadyrov and his fellow ex-rebels, an approach not unlike the U.S.’s “Anbar awakening” strategy in Iraq. According to Reuters, Russian military analysts now worry that they may have created a force they can’t control if Kadyrov’s loyalties shift. Kadyrov is a staunch Putinist (he even delivered a dubious 99.5 percent voter turnout for the ruling party in parliamentary elections), but could he turn against his bosses in Moscow with Medvedev in power? Bernstein doesn’t see this as likely. In fact, Kadyrov is probably quite satisfied with Putin’s choic.