A unified Circassian republic “is no threat” to the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, a leading Circassian organization says, but Moscow’s maintenance or even exacerbation of Soviet-imposed divisions could well presents the country with serious problems, according to a leading Russian analyst of the North Caucasus.

For most of the last two decades, the Circassians, who were divided by Stalin into four different ethnic groups – the Adygeys, the Kabards, the Cherkess, and the Shapsugs, one which has its own political unit (Republic of Adygeya), two of which are combined with another group (Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, Karachaevo-Circassia Republic), and one without such a territory(Shapsugs) – have called for the formation of a single republic within Russia.