Caucasian crossroads

Pankisi Gorge, Georgia, June 2010. Located close to the Russian border, in South Caucasia, the Kist Muslim community is only just recovering from the chaos which devasted its social structure in the 1990s. From Georgian independence to the most recent war in the northern Caucasus between Russia and Chechnya, the Kists - like their close Chechen relatives -, were ignored by the government in Tbilissi for a long time, before being gravely exposed to the international stakes in play in the Caucasus. Now the troubles have died down, this peaceful community strongly, and without reserve, expresses its commitment to Chechnya, particularly in the Pankisi Gorge.