All of us embassy cables: A wedding banquet, the Caucasus method

Thursday, , C O N F We D Age Letter T We A good L Point 01 Regarding 05 MOSCOW 009533 SIPDIS SIPDIS EO 129 Tags PGOV, ECON, PINR, RS Subject: A great CAUCASUS Marriage Classified Because of the: Deputy Chief of Objective Daniel An effective. Russell. Need step one.4 ( b, d)

step one. (C) Wedding parties are elaborate into the Dagestan, the biggest flexibility on Northern Caucasus. New lavish display and you can heavy-drinking hidden the latest deadly significant North Caucasus government away from house, ethnicity, clan, and alliance. The newest guest record spanned the new Caucasus energy structure — invitees featuring Chechen commander Ramzan Kadyrov — and you will underlined how personal the fresh region’s politics are going to be. Prevent Summation.

In the receptions the new groom leads a beneficial delegation into the bride’s lobby and you will escorts their own back to his or her own lobby, of which part she officially will get a member of the fresh new groom’s family members, forsaking their unique dated family unit members and you may clan

2. (C) Dagestani wedding receptions are severe company: an online forum getting showing esteem, fealty and you may alliance one of families; the fresh wedding couple are little more than showpieces. Wedding events take place in distinct pieces over three days. With the first-day new groom’s family unit members as well as the bride’s family relations on the other hand keep separate receptions. 24 hours later, the fresh new groom’s moms and dads hold another lobby, this time for the bride’s relatives and buddies, that will “inspect” the household he has offered their dily holds a lobby to possess new groom’s parents and you will family.

step three. (C) For the August twenty-two, Gadzhi Makhachev hitched from their 19 12 months-dated son Dalgat so you’re able to Aida Sharipova. The marriage in the Makhachkala, and therefore i attended, was good microcosm of one’s social and you will governmental affairs of North Caucasus, starting with Gadzhi’s individual bio. Gadzhi started out as an Avar clan chief. Enver Kisriyev, a respected student regarding Dagestani people, told you you to definitely because the Soviet strength receded regarding Dagestan throughout the late mid-eighties, this new advanced community decrease back to its pre-Russian build. The basic structural product is the monoethnic “jamaat,” inside usage best interpreted because “canton” or “commune.” The cultural communities are an excellent Russian construct: facing hundreds of jamaats, the 19th century Russian conquerors lumped cantons speaking related languages along with her and named him or her “Avar,” “Dargin,” an such like. to attenuate what amount of “nationalities” when you look at the Dagestan to help you 38. Ever since then, jamaats contained in this each ethnic category were contending together to guide the new cultural class. This race is particularly ong brand new Avars, the largest nationality within the Dagestan.

cuatro. (C) Since the Russian power faded, each canton fielded a soldiers to protect its individuals in the new hills and capital Makhachkala. Gadzhi turned the best choice out of their domestic canton out-of Burtunay, from inside the Kazbek Rayon. The guy afterwards asserted pan-Avar ambitions, founding the fresh new Imam Shamil Popular Top — entitled pursuing the high Avar commander regarding mountaineer resistance to this new Russians — to advertise the latest passions of the Avars as well as Burtunay’s part during the cultural group. Among their exploits is a task regarding military shelter out of Dagestan contrary to the 1999 invasion off Chechnya by Shamil Basayev and you will al-Khattab, with his political coverage of Avar towns under pressure within the Chechnya, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

With the August 22 i went to a marriage for the Makhachkala, Dagestan’s money: Duma associate and Dagestan Oil Company chief Gadzhi Makhachev’s young man partnered an effective classmate

5. (C) Gadzhi have cashed in the social capital he made from nationalism, translating they toward monetary and political financing — given that head away from Dagestan’s condition petroleum company and also as the solitary-mandate member to own Makhachkala during the Russia’s County Duma. Their transactions in the petroleum providers — along with personal cooperation which have U.S. firms — have remaining your well-off sufficient to afford luxurious home in the Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, Moscow, Paris and you may San diego; and you will an enormous distinctive line of deluxe cars, such as the Goes Royce Silver Phantom in which perchГ© le donne Olandese vogliono uomini americani Dalgat fetched Aida out of their own parents’ lobby. (Gadzhi offered united states a lift from the Rolls immediately following into the Moscow, however the legroom are slightly constricted of the visibility regarding an excellent Kalashnikov carbine during the all of our base. Gadzhi features lasted numerous murder initiatives, just like the enjoys every nevertheless-life style frontrunners off Dagestan. From inside the Dagestan he constantly trip during the a keen armored BMW with that, either several follow cars full of uniformed armed shields.)