The region of Dagestan, where Russian forces claim to have defeated rebels from the fundamentalist Wahabi sect of Islam, has an ethnic structure so complicated that it makes the Balkans look simple. Any unrest in the region is seen as extremely dangerous in the Russian Federation in which there are more than 20 million Muslims.
The recent conflict took place when Wahabi fundamentalist rebels, believed to number about 2,000, moved out of Chechnya and took several villages across the border in Dagestan. Russian sources have claimed that the rebels included Chechens and a number of citizens of Saudi Arabia.
The Wahabi sect is strong in Saudi Arabia where 250 years ago the founder of that country's dynasty, Mohammed Ibn Saud, came to power in a pact with the sect's founder, Mohammed bin Abdul Wahab. In recent years Wahabi adherents have moved into other countries, notably to Palestine where their militants have led strong opposition to Yasser Arafat.
The sect's emergence in Russia has, in some cases, been strongly checked. In Tatarstan, for example, Wahabi adherents have been expelled by the autonomous government of President Minitimer Shaimiyev, but they gained a foothold in Chechnya where the government of President Aslan Maskhadov is under severe pressure from rebel groups.
Mr Maskhadov yesterday denied Chechen involvement in the incursion. At a press conference in Grozny he was reported as saying: "One war is enough for us. We now want to create and construct rather than doom our people to destruction."
On the other hand the Shura (Islamic council) of Dagestan, which claims authority over the territory but is recognised neither by Russia nor the majority of Dagestanis, declared the region to be independent.
"We, the Muslims of Dagestan, are officially declaring the restoration of the independent Islamic state of Dagestan. In hope of the assistance and mercy of Allah, we are declaring that a jihad (holy war) is the duty of every Muslim in Dagestan who must rise to the defence of the Islamic state and fight until all the infidels are ousted from the Muslim territory."
The territory in question is perhaps the most ethnically diverse on Earth. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Russia and the Soviet Union puts it this way: "Dagestani peoples are linked by their history of ferocious resistance to Russian encroachment and their Muslim (often Shia) piety. Each valley of the north-east Caucasus has its own language often restricted to a few hundred families."
In addition to the indigenous Dagestani peoples the region has a considerable Azeri population while about 10 per cent of its inhabitants are ethnic Russians, some descended from the Cossack settlers of Tsarist days and others who arrived in the Soviet period.
Dagestan has a territory slightly more than half the size of Ireland but is believed to encompass up to 40 different nationalities. The potential for ethnic and religious-based strife is, therefore, enormous.
The area was annexed by Russia from Persia in 1723 under Tsar Peter the Great but was not completely conquered until the mid-19th century. Resistance in the region to Russian rule was fiercest among the Chechens who under their legendary leader, Imam Shamil, held out much longer against rule from St Petersburg than any of the nationalities in the northern Caucasus.
While remaining one of the poorest regions of the Russian Federation, Dagestan's geographical location is strategically important, as the main oil pipeline from the Caspian to the Black Sea runs through its territory.
The area suffered badly during the Chechen war of the 1990s, with rebel incursions frequently damaging its road and rail links as well as other infrastructural facilities.