"Russia disintegrating along ethnic lines into pieces ? What are geopolitical consequences of that ? "
What were the geopolitical concequences of disintegration of British or French colonial empires? Very bad I would say. Does it mean that the Brits should have killed Gandhi and stay in India for all eternity?
"The problem was not that Russia was (and arguably somewhat still is) an empire of different people. The problem was what kind of Empire Russia Was--oppressive, brutally authocratic heavily centralized, etc"
I fully agree with that, but does it really matter for the Chechen women and children who lost their men, slaughtered by Putin's mercenaries? I honestly wish good for the Russian people, that they one day become truly free and democratic nation, but when I think about Chechnya, I'm losing hope.
You want Russia mutiethnic and democratic? OK, that would be fine. But what if Chechens don't want be a part of any Russia at all?
"what happens if North Caucasus falls into hands of the likes of Shamil Basayev"
It will fall into their hands only if Russia continues its criminal policy against Chechens. If Russians would have been willing to talk to Dudayev and establish civilized relations with independent Chechnya, it wouldn't have come to the situation we have now.
"What were the geopolitical concequences of disintegration of British or French colonial empires? Very bad I would say. Does it mean that the Brits should have killed Gandhi and stay in India for all eternity? "
Basayev is definitely not Gandhi. He is Islamist imperialist and terrorist. North Caucasus Che Guevara, so to speak. Maskadov and Dudaev weren't Ghandi either. They both headed armed separatist insurgency.
I condemn brutal treatment by Russian Federal forces of the local Chechen population. You can't fight terror and separatism with another terror--state terror, but one thing is to condemn the conduct of Russian Federal and local pro-Federal forces conduct toward Chechens (who are Russian citizens by the way) and another is the support of Chechen Armed Separatism (that used terror too and has undoubtely Islamist character and Jihadist support). I would advocate taking Chechnya under temporary protective custody by the democratic law-abiding third party (definitely not UNITED NATIONS) till Russia has civilized system of governance and law-enforcement. Some arrangement is possible where Chechnya may have a broad Internationally guaranteed autonomy.
"But what if Chechens don't want be a part of any Russia at all? "
Should president Lincoln let 11 Southern States to secede from the Union in 1861 instead of starting war to Preserve the Union ? Should United Kingdom be dissolved so England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland become separate entities ? Should Basques be allowed to secede from Spain and France ?
These and myriad of other questions are going to be automatically raised about ethnic, religious and other forms of separatism if we approve separatism anywhere.