The decrease in insecurity in the North Caucasus during the first eight years of the 21st century was achieved with the help of federal money used to amnesty soldiers and to pacify ethnic leaders' ambitions. But circumstances changed after Dmitry Kozak's announcement that the federal budget for the entire region would decrease significantly. As all the republics in the North Caucasus are dependent on federal aid of no less than 50% (in Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan dependence is superior to 80%), such cut represented a politically potential danger. The main goal of the article is to present a deeper understanding of the potential link between the international and regional economic dynamics and the current acceleration of social disruption in the North Caucasus region. The paper explains how ethno-political and transition studies can benefit from the inclusion of the economic dimension into the analysis, and so it clarifies the importance of a bi-level analysis using two concepts: economic society and economic security. The paper employs the concepts of economic security and economic society to perform a richer and innovative analysis.