From a 2003 interview with one Amir Ramzen, an Al-Qaeda commander in Chechnya:

Q: Those in Russia who say that you want to create a caliphate in the Caucasus from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea are right?

A: Yes, it is so.

What is there to negotiate about?

Russia’s very survival is at stake.

There will be a bitter war in the Caucasus.

Possibly in Georgia as well.