Chechnya In Transition--And Not in a Good Way

In brief (as per this Ceeb report)--high heels are on the way out; sharia is on the way in:

Young women teeter around town in outrageously high heels, their last form of defiance against strict new dress codes for women. Headscarves are now mandatory for women at school and in the public workplace, as are long sleeves and long skirts.  

Kadyrov's Chechnya is an increasingly religious one, although he insists it's a far cry from the fundamentalist future envisaged by the Salafi guerillas fighting in the hills. 

The Chechen insurgency has become increasingly Islamist in nature, no longer just about nationalism or an independent Chechnya. Some militants want to establish an Islamic state across the North Caucasus. 

After the years of Soviet rule, many Chechens welcome the chance to practise their faith in the open and to see it celebrated with soaring new mosques and the introduction of Koranic study at school. 

Others say the enforced nature of Kadyrov's new rules is just one more sign of a new totalitarian state in the making...