 For her own part, Russia was eager to get rid of "unquiet" peoples and settle the area with Cossacks and other Christians.General Nikolai Yevdokimov advocated expelling the natives of the Western Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire.He wrote that "resettlement of intractable mountaineers" to Turkey would be the easiest way to bring the prolonged Caucasian War to an end, while giving freedom to those who "prefer death to allegiance to the Russian government".