“Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, chaos prevails in Dagestan, primarily because of the activities of radical Islamists.” The region is impossible to govern, says Spiegel. A Russian general meant to fight extremism in the Caucuses says that “the Islamists cannot be controlled with the normal means that a state based on the rule of law has at its disposal. The general thinks that it is naïve for Western Europeans to hope that radical Islam can be forced into retreat by improving social conditions. ‘If these people seize power, we will have fascism cloaked in religion,’ the general predicts.”