Andrei Smirnov
Andrei Smirnov is an independent journalist covering the North Caucasus. He is based in Russia.
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Articles by Andrei Smirnov
North Caucasus Rebels Seek to Expand into Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Azerbaijan
Last fall, the top leader of the rebels in the North Caucasus Dokka Umarov declared the establishment of the Caucasus Emirate, an underground state that unites all rebel groups in...
Russian and Azeri Security Forces Fight Rebels on Both Sides of the Border
The recent Russian-Georgian armed conflict revealed the role of Azerbaijan as a key player in projects to supply Europe with oil and natural gas via alternative routes to the pipelines...
McCain’s Call to Recognize Chechen Independence Has Inspired Chechens
On August 26, John McCain, the presumptive U.S. presidential candidate for the Republican Party, suggested that “after Russia illegally recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Western countries ought...
Rebels Call on Caucasus Not to Support Russia in its War with Georgia
The Russian-Georgian conflict over control of the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has become an international crisis. The United States, the European Union, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and...
Rebels Move Closer to Seizing Control of Ingushetia
Last week, Russia’s Foreign Ministry expressed the Russian government’s concern about the situation in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia. The Ministry said on August 3 that the threat of...
Kremlin Policy in Ingushetia is Paralyzed
The Kremlin’s strategy toward the North Caucasus is based on the old imperial principle of carrot and stick. The stick is the Russian armed forces, special police units and Federal...
Kadyrov Keeps the Heat on the Yamadaevs
In what appears to be an ongoing campaign by Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration against the Vostok Battalion of the GRU (Russian military intelligence), investigators with the republic's law-enforcement bodies are looking...
Salafists and Sufis Square Off Over Chechnya
From July 5 to July 7, an international Islamic conference entitled “The Place and Role of Sufism in the Islamic World,” which gathered together more than 200 clergymen from Russia...
Ramzan Kadyrov Fails to Demonstrate His Counter-Insurgency Capabilities
It seems that the Kremlin has decided to give its proxy in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, another chance to prove his ability to restore order in the volatile region. In May,...
Moscow Increases Financial Support for the Chechen Government
Against the background of increasing rebel attacks in Chechnya and the political standoff between the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and his rivals, the Yamadaev brothers, the Russian government approved a...
Kadyrov’s Challenges: Rebels, Russian Generals, and the Yamadaev Brothers
“Ramzan Kadyrov, 31, has been Chechnya's leader for a year. During that time, he has managed to silence dissent, pacify the Russian republic and embark on a massive reconstruction campaign....
Kadyrov versus the Yamadaevs Becomes Kadyrov versus the Generals
The conflict between Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and the Yamadaev brothers, who control the Vostok battalion of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), shows few signs of winding...
THE KREMLIN TAKES THE SIDE OF LOCAL LEADER IN KALMYIKIA POWER STRUGGLE
This year saw a growing power struggle in the Russian southern republic of Kalmyikia where President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who has been in office since 1993, is trying to get rid...
Georgia Threatens to Play the Rebel Card in the North Caucasus
Russian-Georgian relations continued to be tense because of the situation around the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia. When additional Russian troops were deployed to Abkhazia under the pretext of increasing...
Kadyrov Presses his Campaign against the Yamadaevs
Following the inauguration of the newly elected Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on May 7, the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov initiated another public campaign against his political rivals, the Yamadaev brothers,...
Chechen Rebels Offer to Help Georgia in Its Standoff with Russia
On April 29, Movladi Udugov, an envoy of the Chechen rebels outside the Caucasus, declared that the North Caucasian insurgency could help Georgia in its standoff with Russia. Relations between...
Chechen Rebels Survive Another Winter and Fight On
Late in January, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov declared that only 60-70 militants remained in Chechnya. Kadyrov had promised to eliminate all rebels before the arrival of spring. “This is their...
Who in Moscow Protects the Yamadaev Brothers?
On April 19, the federal authorities made the first concrete decision on the conflict between the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and the Yamadaev brothers—Sulim Yamadaev, who heads the Russian army’s...
Yamadaev vs. Kadyrov: The Kremlin’s Quandary with Chechnya
On Monday 14, a large-scale gun battle broke out in the Chechen city of Gudermes between forces of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and the Yamadaev brothers —Sulim Yamadaev, who is...
Chechen Rebels’ Split has not Hampered their Activities
Last October, the Chechen/Caucasian rebel leader Dokka Umarov declared the Caucasian Emirate, an Islamic state uniting all peoples of the North Caucasus. In his statement, which was posted on rebel...
Kadyrov Seeks to Use Leading Human Rights Group against His Rivals
On February 22, Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Russian Chechen leader, met in the republican capital Grozny with leaders of Memorial, the biggest and the most influential human rights organization in Russia...
The Geography of OMON Deployments in the North Caucasus
On March 17, Russian official news agencies reported that a rebel group in the North Caucasian Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria (KBR) had a day earlier tried to destroy an armored car...
The Kremlin Ponders What to Do with Zyazikov
On March 14, the presidium of Russia’s governing political party, United Russia, dismissed Ingush President Murat Zyazikov from the post of the party’s regional leader. Andrei Vorobyev, the chairman of...
Ramzan Kadyrov Targets the Yamadaev Brothers
Some people say that Chechnya’s pro-Russian leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, controls the republic firmly and has no rivals, at least in the Chechen pro-Russian camp. However, secret conflicts inside that camp...
Why Are Ingushetia’s Rebels so Successful?
Out of all the regions of the North Caucasus, Ingushetia is focused on most today. People inside and outside Russia have different versions for why the situation in this republic...
Dagestan’s Expanding Insurgency
On February 4, President Vladimir Putin visited Botlikh, a mountain town in the Caucasian republic of Dagestan where the 33rd Motorized Infantry Brigade Highland is deployed. Botlikh has a special...
The Kremlin Clings to Zyazikov
Despite the fact that it is winter, rebel attacks in the Caucasian republic of Ingushetia have intensified. It would be no exaggeration to say that attacks on policemen and local...
Russian Forces Face Serious Problems Hunting Rebels in Dagestan’s Mountains
Russian security forces continue to comb the mountain areas of Dagestan looking for insurgent groups. Russian security officials believe that the severe cold in the mountains, which is in the...
Russian Forces Carry Out a Large-Scale Security Sweep in the North Caucasus
Winter is traditionally the time when Russian security officials intensify their counter-insurgency activities in the North Caucasus. Cold weather forces many Caucasian insurgents to come down from the mountains to...
Will Kremlin Policy towards the North Caucasus Change after March 2008?
Russia has at last learned the name of Vladimir Putin's successor. On December 10, four pro-Kremlin's parties, including the United Russia party—the winner of the recent parliament elections—put forward First...
Is the Caucasian Emirate a Threat to the Western World?
The declaration of the Caucasian Emirate by the rebels in the North Caucasus has raised a question: how dangerous could this be for the Western world? The Chechen separatists have...
Astemirov Takes Credit for Idea of Caucasian Emirate
Last week, Chechen rebel leader Dokka Umarov finally confirmed his decision to declare a Caucasian Emirate (Chechnya Weekly, November 1 and 8). His statement on the Emirate was posted on...
The War on Terror in the North Caucasus Provokes Public Protests
The armed standoff between the security officials and the insurgency in the North Caucasus is destabilizing the region and provoking new civic protests by the local population. The continuing arrests...
The Kremlin Calls on Shamanov Again
On November 12, the Interfax news agency reported that General Vladimir Shamanov had been appointed head of the Russian Armed Forces' Main Directorate for Combat Training and Service. According to...
The Caucasian Emirate: A Not so New Idea
The split in the camp of the Chechen separatists caused by the recent statement of rebel leader Dokka Umarov continues to deepen. A group of Chechen separatists abroad headed by...
Will the Rebels Declare the “Caucasian Emirate”?
On October 22, Ahmed Zakaev, foreign minister of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, declared that instead of Ichkeria, the rebels in the North Caucasus wanted to create a unified...
Umarov Trying to Increase Financial Support from the Middle East
Last month, before the start of Ramadan, the top leader of the Chechen/Caucasian rebels, Dokku Umarov, issued a video statement that revealed possible uneasy relations between the North Caucasus insurgents...
PUTIN STILL HOPES ECONOMIC BOOM WILL HEAL NORTH CAUCASUS
On October 18 Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual TV call-in show in the Kremlin. Questions came from teachers, students, scientists, farmers, and doctors from across Russia's 11 time...
Russian Generals: No Troops Withdrawal from Chechnya
On October 3, Yakov Nedobitko, the commander of the Russian Joint Military Group in Chechnya, told the newspaper Nezavisimya gazeta that it was too early to talk about disbanding the...
Russification of the Ingush Police Continues
Despite Ingushetia’s relative calm, the Russian authorities have not stopped looking for new ways to fight the insurgency in the republic. The Kremlin understands that this calm is just a...
The Kremlin Intensifies Reprisals against Muslims in the North Caucasus
Repression against practicing Muslims has significantly intensified in the North Caucasus this year. Disappearances or kidnappings of devout young Muslims have become more frequent in such Caucasian regions as Dagestan,...
KOZAK LEAVES MIXED RECORD AS PUTIN’S ENVOY IN THE RUSSIAN SOUTH
On September 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin reorganized his cabinet. Among the new appointments was Dmitry Kozak, who was named regional development minister. This ministry is tasked with working out...
Kremlin Adopts New Counter-Insurgency Methods in Ingushetia
The continuing rebel attacks in Ingushetia are forcing the Russian authorities to look for new ways to pacify the region. Russian officials repeatedly vowed over the past summer that the...
RUSSIAN SECURITY SERVICES KILL DAGESTANI REBEL LEADER
Early on the morning of September 17, specialized detachments from the Russian police and the Federal Security Service (FSB) surrounded a small house in the village of Novy Sulak, located...
Understanding the Motivations behind the Dagestani Rebels
The more unstable the North Caucasus becomes, the more discussions take place in Russia about why it is happening and why people are taking up arms and fighting. Observers particularly...
Chechnya’s Rebel Brigadier Generals
The recent relative calm in Chechnya has allowed for local security officials to start speaking once again about the defeat of the insurgency. On September 16, Ruslan Alkhanov, the pro-Russian...
Who Is Killing the Non-Muslims in Ingushetia?
There has been a recent upsurge in the murders of non-Muslim residents in Ingushetia. On September 11, a Gypsy family was killed in the village of Sleptsovskaya (Ordzhonikidzevskaya). Four days...
PUTIN APPOINTS NEW PRIME MINISTER: HAS SUCCESSION RACE BEGUN?
Yesterday, September 12, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov resigned. His departure was hardly a surprise. Rumors of his impending resignation had been circulating all summer. However, most observers had anticipated...
Fear of Large-Scale Rebel Attack Grips Grozny
On August 27, Ruslan Alkhanov, the pro-Russian Interior Minister of Chechnya, made a sensational statement. Alkhanov attempted to dispel the idea that the Chechen rebels are preparing to launch a...
Zyazikov’s Declining Political Support
The sharp growth of rebel attacks in Ingushetia this summer has provoked a wave of criticism against Murat Zyazikov, the Ingush president. Many people in Russia have once again started...
REBELS CONCENTRATE FORCES IN MOUNTAIN AREAS OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS
This summer the rebels in the North Caucasus have intensified their activities. The militants are very active now in some areas and still quiet in others, but it is clear...
KREMLIN HOLDS NURGALIEV PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR NORTH CAUCASUS SECURITY
As rebel attacks on police increase across the North Caucasus, Moscow is stepping up its activities to prevent large-scale raids in Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkaria. Anti-terrorist drills are conducted...
Gazprom and Transneft Create Paramilitary Group to Thwart Pipeline Attacks
On July 5, the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, voted in favor of letting Gazprom and Transneft, the two state-owned companies that control natural gas and...
Magas: Shamil Basaev’s Ingush Successor
On July 21, the rebel Kavkaz-Center website posted a new decree of Dokka Umarov, the leader of the Chechen and North Caucasian rebels and the president of the Chechen Republic...
Agishty: The Hottest Spot in Chechnya
In covering the guerilla war in Chechnya, few journalists have tried to analyze the tactics of the rebels. Generally, the journalists who observe the situation in Chechnya simply indicate that...
KREMLIN INTENSIFIES MILITARY BUILD UP IN NORTH CAUCASUS
On July 30 the Kavkaz Center website posted a new statement from Doku Umarov, leader of the Chechen rebels and the North Caucasus insurgency. Umarov declared, “We [the insurgents] are...
Growing Distrust of Kadyrov in Russian Political Circles
On July 9, Ramzan Kadyrov marked his 100th day in office as Chechnya’s pro-Russian president with his first state-of-the nation address. The address was full of triumphal rhetoric and fantastic...
Moscow’s Guessing Game over Rebel Strategy
Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Ivan Sydoruk has declared that “the operational situation in the North Caucasus will become increasingly hot.” According to Nezavisimaya gazeta, Sydoruk said on July 7 that...
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE ATTACK IN NORTH OSSETIA
On the night of July 6, Caucasian rebels carried out a hit-and-run raid on the Russian military garrison in Ingushetia. First reports of the incident came from the Ingushetiya.ru website....
ANGER AGAINST LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND FSB TERROR RISING IN INGUSHETIA
The regular reports from the North Caucasus about armed, masked men who rush into houses early in the morning to kidnap young men are old news. Kidnappings, illegal detentions, and...
Foreign Islamic Scholars Fail to Embrace Kremlin’s View of Chechen War
Chechnya’s pro-Russian leader Ramzan Kadyrov expressed complete satisfaction with the visit of the foreign diplomats from Islamic countries to Chechnya (Chechnya Weekly, June 28). On July 27, he declared that...
Chechnya Deployment “Deprofessionalizes” Russian Policemen
“Russian policemen lose their qualifications and professional skills during their duty tours in Chechnya,” said Tatyana Lokshina, head of the Demos human rights center, during a press conference held in...
The Kremlin Seeks to Legitimize Its Chechen Policy in the Muslim World
On June 26, an impressive delegation of foreign diplomats visited Chechnya. There were representatives of 31 countries in the delegation, including 20 foreign ambassadors to Russia. What was notable about...
Kremlin Propaganda Belied by Increasing Rebel Attacks
Over the past several years, the arrival of summer in Chechnya has seen Ramzan Kadyrov’s triumphant declarations about life in the region as the perfect give-away to the alarming reports...
SECURITY OFFICIALS KIDNAP ALLEGED “WAHHABIS” IN DAGESTAN
Two recent conferences provide markedly different views on the situation in Dagestan. While the local government blames Islamic fundamentalism, human rights activists decry human rights violations. While Makhachkala’s leaders preach...
Ramzan Kadyrov Reacts to Rebel Threats
On June 15, Ramzan Kadyrov declared that he opposes further amnesties of militants in Chechnya. The Chechen president said that he would not support the idea of a new amnesty...
One Year After: Assessing the Life of Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev
On June 17, 2006, Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, the successor to Aslan Maskhadov, the president of independent Chechnya, was killed in Argun, his native town. Following Maskhadov’s death, Sadulaev was the top...
POLICE BARRACKS ATTACKED IN INGUSHETIA
At midnight on Tuesday, June 19, a group of militants attacked a police special-task force facility in Karabulak, Ingushetia. The garrison actually had members of two special-task police units inside:...
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES TRY TO PREVENT REBEL ATTACKS IN DAGESTAN
Security concerns in the North Caucasus traditionally peak in the summer. Warm weather and green leaves on trees help the Caucasian rebels intensify their attacks on Russian army units and...
Does Kadyrov Have Designs on Ingushetia?
The possibility of unifying two regions of the North Caucasus, Ingushetia and Chechnya, has appeared in Russian political discourse several times in the past. Last May, rumors about the possibility...
Chechen Rebels Replenish their Ranks
On June 8, The Chechen Committee of the National Salvation (CCNS), a Chechen human rights organization, reported that, according to their information, people in Chechnya are anticipating a serious increase...
KREMLIN HELPS KARACHAEVO-CHERKESSIA PRESIDENT PURGE HIS POLITICAL RIVAL
On May 22 the Russian Supreme Chamber of Judges rejected Islam Burlakov’s nomination for an additional term as head of the Supreme Court of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. All 19 judges voted against...
No Terrorist Acts in Russia Since Beslan: Whom to Thank?
On May 22, Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), gave an interview to the Izvestia newspaper. In the interview, Patrushev claimed that Russia's fight against terrorism...
POLICE OFFICERS MEET IN NALCHIK TO DISCUSS INSURGENCY OPTIONS
On May 8, a seminar on fighting crime was held in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, a North Caucasian republic. The seminar, “Modern Russian Society: Burning Issues of Fighting Crime,”...
In the Footsteps of Dokka Umarov: Kadyrov’s Trip to Kabardino-Balkaria
On May 13, the pro-Russian leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, made his first official visit since February 15, when the Kremlin appointed him as Chechnya’s acting president. Kadyrov visited another...
ADYGEI LEADER PURSUES DE FACTO INCORPORATION INTO KRASNODAR KRAI
Adygeya, a small ethnic republic in the western North Caucasus, attracted attention in late 2004, when some regional and federal officials suggested merging it with Krasnodar Krai, an ethnic Russian-dominated...
Military Intensifies Security Sweeps as Summer Fighting Season Approaches
Last March Nikolai Patrushev, the Chief of the Federal Security Service (FSB) visited the Chechen capital of Grozny, where he declared that al-Qaeda is still active in the North Caucasus....
AUTHORITIES AND OPPOSITION FIGHT TO CONTROL LUCRATIVE POST IN KARACHAEVO-CHERKESSIA
On March 11 residents of Karachaevsk, the second-largest city in the North Caucasus region of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, voted for mayor. Yet two months later, the final result of the election is...
MUKHU ALIEV’S CLAN COMES TO POWER IN MAKHACHKALA
Dagestan elected a new parliament on March 11. As with other regions of Russia, the Kremlin wanted to guarantee a victory for the two pro-Kremlin parties, United Russia and Just...
District Elections in Dagestan Reveal Ethnic Discord
Earlier this year, the North Caucasian republic of Dagestan was rocked by two election campaigns, including elections for the local legislature and elections for district and village chiefs. Both the...
YELTSIN, PUTIN AND THE NORTH CAUCASUS: CONTRASTING APPROACHES TO THE VOLATILE REGION
The death of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin has produced numerous evaluations of his legacy, including his policy towards the North Caucasus. Many people in the North Caucasus consider Yeltsin’s...
NORTH CAUCASUS-TESTED STRATEGIES USED TO COUNTER MARCH OF THE DISCONTENTED
Russian police severely beat many participants in the April 14-15 demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Known as the “March of the Discontented,” the rallies were...
Dokka Umarov and the Correlation of Forces inside the Chechen Insurgency
After the Russian leadership’s triumphal statements that the war in Chechnya is over, Russian generals have once again started to point at the security problems in the region. Nikolai Rogozhkin,...
BESLAN MEMORIAL SPARKS RELIGIOUS TENSION IN NORTH OSSETIA
On April 10 Emma Tagaeva-Betrozova, head of “Voice of Beslan,” asked for Muslim input on plans to build a memorial to commemorate victims of the Beslan tragedy. Her organization unites...
From Military Butcher to Political Loser: A Portrait of General Shamanov
The Oval Office meeting between President George W. Bush and Vladimir Shamanov on March 26 has provoked a serious scandal in the United States. The scandal has once again focused...
KREMLIN USING NATIONALISTIC RHETORIC TO NEUTRALIZE OPPOSITION BEFORE ELECTIONS
On March 24, the authorities in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod brutally broke up an anti-government rally using riot police. The Nizhny Novgorod rally was the third “March of...
KREMLIN TAKES MEASURES TO REGULATE THE INTERNET
On March 12 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to combine two state bodies that control and license media sources in the country. The Federal Service for Telecom Supervision...
The Opening of the Civilian Airport in Chechnya: A Sign of Peace?
On March 8, the first regularly scheduled civilian passenger flight since 1999 arrived at Severny airport near Grozny, Chechnya’s capital. This airport was completely ruined during the intensive hostilities in...
Kadyrov Turns to Zikrism to Legitimize His Rule
On the evening of February 15, 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov, at that time still Chechnya’s prime minister, prayed together with members of his family in his native village of Tsentoroi. According...
PROBLEMS WITH TREATY MAY TURN INTO STANDOFF BETWEEN KREMLIN AND TATAR AUTHORITIES
The fate of the power-sharing treaty between the Russian federal authorities and the Republic of Tatarstan demonstrates how unpredictable political life in Russia has become. On February 21 the Federation...
Pacifying Chechnya with Artillery: The Never Ending Campaign
In November 2001, Akhmad Kadyrov, then head of the pro-Russian administration in Chechnya, declared that “there is no more need to use aviation and artillery in the region” and that...
Takhir Bataev: Chechnya’s Elusive Nogai Warlord
Early in the morning of February 24, Russian Special Forces supported by military troops started to move slowly around the village of Pervy Kizlyarsky, a settlement located in the Kizlyar...
DUMA DEPUTY BLAMES PUTIN FOR BESLAN MASSACRE
On February 6 Yuri Ivanov, a Communist deputy in the Russian State Duma, declared that President Vladimir Putin had personally ordered Russian forces to use grenade launchers to fire on...
ETHNIC, SECURITY TENSIONS BUILDING IN MAKHACHKALA
On February 10, rebels attacked a group of Russian soldiers in the city of Buinaksk. The problem is a long-standing one. For nearly a decade, the republic has been a...
TATAR TREATY SUGGESTS DISSENT INSIDE KREMLIN ON REGIONAL POLICY
On Friday, February 9, the Russian State Duma ratified a power-sharing agreement between the federal authorities and the Republic of Tatarstan, a Muslim-dominated republic in the Volga region. The treaty...
Kremlin Potemkinizes the Situation in Chechnya
There is no doubt that during the 43rd annual Munich Conference on Security Policy, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, a potential successor to Putin, attempted to...
Putin Overlooks Assassination Campaign Sweeping the North Caucasus
During his most recent annual press conference, which took place in the Kremlin on February 1, Vladimir Putin said very little about one of the most painful issues of his...
PUTIN AWARDS SHAIMIEV A MEDAL INSTEAD OF A TREATY
On January 20, the Russian State Council, which includes regional leaders and President Vladimir Putin, met in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, an autonomous republic in the Volga region. After...
Levada’s Last Poll on Chechnya: Russians Still Skeptical about the Success of Putin’s North Caucasus Policy
Many believe that Russia’s populace supports the Kremlin’s policy toward Chechnya. It is very common to hear from Russian political scientists that Russians no longer care about the situation in...
TANGERINE CRISIS IN SOUTH OSSETIA PROMPTS KREMLIN TO BACK AWAY FROM DEADLOCK WITH GEORGIA
On January 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that he would allow the Russian ambassador to return to Georgia, after recalling him last October. At that time relations between Russia...
Yaseen Rasulov: Dagestan’s Rebel Scholar
There is a widespread opinion that Wahhabism, or Salafism, a branch of Sunni Islam, is not a traditional religion for the North Caucasus. Many scholars, especially in Russia, say that...
KREMLIN LETS ADYGEYA KEEP ITS VIRTUAL AUTONOMY
On December 13, the parliament of Adygeya, a region in the North Caucasus, voted to confirm Aslan Tkhakushinov as president of the republic. According to Russian law, the president of...
The Illusion of Victory: Kremlin Proxies Mount Year-End Propaganda Drive
On August 2 of last year, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree instructing the Russian military command to submit, by December 15, 2006, a plan for a stage-by-stage withdrawal of...
Captured Documents Reveal Sources of Rebel Financing
On December 8, the Russian newspaper Rossiiskaya gazeta published an article about Abu Hafs, a Chechen rebel field commander of Arab origin who was killed in the Dagestani town of...
RUSSIA SEEKS U.S., IRANIAN HELP TO SETTLE NORTH CAUCASUS CONFLICTS
Earlier this month the U.S. and Iranian ambassadors to Russia visited the North Caucasus, a region in southern Russia. U.S. Ambassador William Burns was in the North Caucasus from December...
Kadyrov Disputes Russian Military Figures on Chechen Insurgency
On December 5, Ramzan Kadyrov, the prime minister of Chechnya’s pro-Russian government, triumphantly declared that “the illegal armed formations in Chechnya have almost been destroyed” and that the republic has...
Siloviki Blame Kadyrov for Ongoing Military Failures in Chechnya
The recent murder of Movladi Baisarov, a pro-Russian Chechen field commander, in a shootout in Moscow has trigged a discussion about the uneasy relations between Ramzan Kadyrov, the most influential...
Kabardino-Balkaria Rebels Vow to Renew Attacks
On November 15 and 16, a video statement made by Anzor Astemirov, aka Emir Seyfullah, the leader of the rebels of Kabardino-Balkaria, a region in the North Caucasus, was posted...
KREMLIN SIGNS POWER-SHARING TREATY WITH TATARSTAN
In early November Russian President Vladimir Putin sent the State Duma a draft of a power-sharing treaty between the federal government and Tatarstan, an autonomous republic in the Volga region....
Chechnya’s Rebels Step Up Attacks: An Examination of Their Tactics
The recent ambush of an OMON special police detachment by Chechen rebels in the mountainous Sharoi district and the recent flurry of alarming statements by Russian generals (Chechnya Weekly, November...
Russia’s Deepening Military Crisis in Chechnya
Russian generals continue to stun the public with sensational statements about the situation in Chechnya. A month ago Colonel-General Yevgeny Baryaev, the commander of the Russian military group in Chechnya,...
Dagestan’s Hidden Insurgency
“Four bandit groups continue to operate in Dagestan,” Major-General Sergei Solodovnikov, deputy head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for the Southern Federal District, said at a press conference...
RUSSIAN GENERALS LOSING HOPE FOR MILITARY VICTORY IN CHECHNYA
On October 12, Russian Colonel-General Yevgeny Baryaev told a meeting of law-enforcement agency representatives in Grozny, the Chechen capital, “At the beginning of October the situation deteriorated in Chechnya, especially...
Dagestani Rebels Show Their Faces
Sharia Jamaat, the Dagestani rebel group, has shown the faces of its leaders by posting a video appeal on the Kavkaz-Center rebel website. This appeal, posted on the website two...
KREMLIN LOSES CONTROL OVER INGUSH POLICE
On October 15, Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency reported that the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia, a region in the North Caucasus adjacent to Chechnya, would be strengthened by additional 200 policemen,...
PEOPLE OF NORTH CAUCASUS BELIEVE THEIR HOPES FOR JUSTICE DIED WITH POLITKOVSKAYA
The October 7 murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist who wrote about human rights violations in the North Caucasus, has enraged the people of the region. “I regard the...
Dokku Umarov: Between Jihad and the Struggle for Freedom
Last summer, following the death of Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev in Chechnya, the successor to Aslan Maskhadov as the Chechen rebel leader, senior field commander Dokku Umarov, became the top leader of...
ASSASSINATION OF POSSIBLE SOVMEN SUCCESSOR CLEARS THE WAY FOR KREMLIN CANDIDATE
During the evening of September 25, Murat Kudaev, head of the Krasnogvardeisk district of Adygeya, a republic in the North Caucasus, was returning home after a meeting of the Adygei...
REBEL “NOGAI BATTALION” SPURS RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES TO OFFER ASSISTANCE TO NOGAI MINORITY
"The leaders of bandit formations plan to carry out several terrorist acts in several republics of the North Caucasus,” Dagestan’s interior minister, Adilgirei Magomedtagirov, told journalists on September 14. But...
DISPUTABLE ANNIVERSARY COULD PROVOKE NEW CRISIS IN ADYGEYA
On September 9 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed three decrees that could deepen the crisis in the volatile North Caucasus. Putin issued the decrees to celebrate the 450th anniversary of...
REBELS AND SECURITY OFFICIALS FIGHT TO CONTROL TRANSCAUCASUS HIGHWAY
“Four servicemen were killed and four injured when a convoy of vehicles hit a mine,” the Russian state agency RIA-Novosti reported on September 6. Such news would not be a...
SEARCH FOR REBELS UNDERWAY IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA
On August 12 military and police units clashed with a group of rebels near the city of Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, a region in the North Caucasus. As troops...
Russia’s Uncertain Military Future in Chechnya
On August 10, Leonid Krivonos, the acting military commandant of Chechnya, stunned the Russian public by commenting that the Russian military command in Chechnya expects rebel activity in Chechnya to...
NEW WAVE OF REBEL ATTACKS IN DAGESTAN AND INGUSHETIA
On July 8, insurgents in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan simultaneously attacked two senior local officials. Early in the morning a roadside bomb killed Bitar Bitarov, prosecutor for the...
Putin’s Potemkin Withdrawal from Chechnya
On August 8, Rossiiskaya gazeta published an excerpt from a decree signed by the Russian President on August 2. In the decree, Putin instructs the Defense Ministry and the Interior...
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES PUT VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS ON TERROR LIST BUT IGNORE HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH
On July 28, the official Russian newspaper Rossiiskaya gazeta published a list of organizations that the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation had designated as “terrorist.” The list was drawn...
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES DOUBT REBELS WILL ACCEPT AMNESTY OFFER
Russian authorities are continuing their attempts to get maximum benefit from the July 10 death of Shamil Basaev, military commander of North Caucasian rebels. On July 15 Federal Security Service...
KREMLIN MOVES TO STRENGTHEN CONTROL OVER DAGESTAN
On Monday, July 17, Imam Yaraliev, prosecutor-general for Dagestan, announced his resignation. His deputy, Murad Kekhlerov, will take the post until the Russian prosecutor-general appoints a replacement. Yaraliev had been...
The Rebels Call for Political Dialogue While the Kremlin Demands Surrender
The unexpected death of the Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev, who was responsible for organizing ruthless terrorist attacks in Russia, has again initiated discussions about a possible dialogue between the Russian...
BASAEV’S DEATH DOES NOT SOLVE KREMLIN WORRIES IN NORTH CAUCASUS
Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev died in Ingushetia on Monday, July 10. He perished either accidentally while preparing a sabotage operation or, according to the official version, he was eliminated by...
ROBBERY, RACKETEERING, RANSOM FUND NORTH CAUCASUS INSURGENCY
Dagestan has experienced a wave of armored-car robberies this spring. The costliest attacks took place in Khasavyurt, Makhachkala, and in the mountainous Utsukul district. In March a bank vehicle in...
REBELS IN NORTH CAUCASUS TARGET SENIOR POLICE OFFICERS
On June 21 assassinations rocked the city of Khasavyurt, in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Saigidsalim Zabitov, head of the local police organized crime division, was shot dead together...
SADULAEV DEATH RESULT OF GOOD LUCK, NOT GOOD PLANNING
Russian authorities have scored a great victory over the Chechen rebels by killing their top leader, Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev. On June 17, Nikolai Patrushev, the director of the Federal Security Service...
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES LOSE CONTROL OVER INGUSHETIA
On the morning of June 9, Lieutenant Colonel Musa Nalgiev, commander of the special-task police squad (OMON) in the republic of Ingushetia, left his home in Karabulak to go to...
ANOTHER SENATOR IS FIRED: THE KREMLIN TARGETS THE LEADER OF KALMYKIA
Russia continues to be rocked by purges of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, where deputies (often called "senators") represent regional governments. On May 14, Sergei...
Political Disunity Mars Chechen Rebel Strategy in the North Caucasus
Early this year Chechen separatists began to discuss holding a major meeting among North Caucasian rebel commanders and underground Muslim religious leaders to transform the Caucasian insurgency into a unified...
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES TALK ABOUT GLOBAL THREATS, BUT PREPARE FOR LOCAL WAR
On May 10 Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered an address to the Russian Federal Assembly. Focusing on issues such as reform of the armed forces and threats to national security,...
RUSSIAN REGIONS CONTINUE TO RESIST KREMLIN CENTRALIZATION POLICY
On May 14, Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Federation Council, dismissed four members of the upper house of the Federal Assembly. The sacked MPs represented one northern and two Siberian...
NEW ATTACKS FORCE KREMLIN TO LIFT INFORMATION BLOCKADE ON CHECHNYA
Yesterday, May 17, Russia's official news agency, Interfax, reported that a convoy of Russian troops had been ambushed near the Chechen village of Nikikhat. Official casualty figures listed five dead...
DAGESTAN: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM?
The North Caucasus is poised for a possible rebel offensive. Police and army troops in North Ossetia and Ingushetia have been on high alert since April (see EDM, April 20)....
Putin Address Conceals Challenges in the North Caucasus
On May 10, Putin delivered his long-awaited address to the Russian Federal Assembly. A significant part of the address was a response to the last week's speech by U.S. Vice-President...
SOVMEN REMAINS PRESIDENT OF ADYGEYA, BUT KREMLIN LOOKS FOR ALTERNATIVES
The political crisis in the North Caucasus republic of Adygeya caused by the surprise resignation of its president, Khasret Sovmen (see EDM, April 6), was resolved on April 17. That...
RUSSIAN FORCES DRILL FOR POSSIBLE REBEL OFFENSIVE IN NORTH CAUCASUS
Russian authorities are preparing for a summer or autumn rebel offensive in the North Caucasus. "It will be a hot summer," Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told AFP. As far...
RUSSIAN REACTION TO JAMESTOWN CONFERENCE REVEALS KREMLIN FEAR OF FREE SPEECH ABOUT THE SITUATION IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
On April 18 the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented William Burns, the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow, a note of protest in connection with a Jamestown Foundation-sponsored seminar that took...
Sadulaev and Putin Both Declare Victory in the Chechen War
On January 31, President Vladimir Putin declared the end of the so-called anti-terrorist operation, the official name of the second Chechen war. “I think we can rightly speak about the...
ADYGEI LEADER CONTINUES TO CHALLENGE KREMLIN
Last weak Adygeya was rocked by the unexpected announcement of the local president's resignation, followed quickly by an even more surprising reversal. On April 4 the president of Adygeya, Khasret...
KREMLIN PLAN TO MERGE ADYGEYA MEETS UNEXPECTED OBSTACLE
On April 4, the second session of the newly elected parliament of Adygeya, a region in the western section of the North Caucasus, ended abruptly when President Khasret Sovmen announced...
U.S. Journalist Detained in Dagestan: The Kremlin Closes the Curtain on the North Caucasus
On March 29, Kelly McEvers, an American freelance journalist, was detained in the city of Khasavyurt, Dagestan, when she was leaving the city accompanied by a local reporter from the...
DAGESTAN CONTINUES TO SINK INTO CHAOS DESPITE APPOINTMENT OF NEW LEADER
More than a month has passed since the Kremlin appointed a new leader for Dagestan, the largest republic in the North Caucasus. On February 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin put...
DESECRATION OF KORAN COULD PROVOKE ATTACK IN DAGESTAN
On March 3 Russian security officials swept through several villages in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan, North Caucasus. According to RIA-Dagestan, "Officers of the Ministry of Interior Affairs [MVD] and...
Chechnya Rocked by Desertions, Sex Scandal
Ramzan Kadyrov, the newly appointed prime minister of the pro-Moscow Chechen government, is continuing to introduce Islamic ethics to government practices (see Chechnya Weekly, March 6). After criticizing the local...
INGUSH REBELS TARGET LOCAL RUSSIAN POPULATION
Late on the night of February 27, Magomed Chakhkiev, a deputy to the parliament of Ingushetia, was driving in the town of Nazran when masked gunmen suddenly blocked his way...
The Kremlin’s New Strategy to Build a Pro-Russian Islamic Chechnya
During a press conference held in the Kremlin on January 31, President Vladimir Putin outlined the new Russian policy toward Islam inside the country. "Wahhabism in itself is not a...
LOCALS BELIEVE RUSSIAN MILITARY IS POISONING CHECHEN CHILDREN
Last December 7, Taisa Minkailova, a 13-year-old Chechen girl from the village of Starogladkovskaya in the Shelkovskoy District of Northern Chechnya, complained of health problems. She was gasping for air,...
MAGOMEDOV OUT AS MOSCOW OPTS FOR NEW LEADERSHIP IN MAKHACHKALA
On February 20 the Kremlin announced the appointment of a new leader for Dagestan. Russian President Vladimir Putin nominated 65-year-old Mukhu Aliev to lead the North Caucasus republic and asked...
FIGHTING ERUPTS BETWEEN NOGAI REBELS AND RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES
Stavropol Krai, a predominantly ethnic-Russian region in the North Caucasus, is the frontier zone that separates the volatile Caucasian republics from the rest of Russia. Now Stavropol has become the...
AUTHORITIES REFUSE TO RECOGNIZE INSURGENCY IN NORTH OSSETIA
On February 1 three homemade bombs exploded almost simultaneously in casinos and gambling clubs in the center of Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia. Two persons were killed and 25...
Sadulaev’s New Decrees Reveal Divisions Within the Separatist Movement
On February 2, the Chechen rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev issued three new decrees that radically changed the structure of the separatist government. In the decrees, which were posted on the...
RUSSIANS, GEORGIANS, OR CAUCASUS REBELS: WHO BLEW UP THE PIPELINES?
On January 22, several explosions stopped the flow of Russian electricity and natural gas to the North Caucasus. An export power-transmission line was damaged in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, a republic in the...
The Rebels’ New Tactics: From Independent Chechnya to Independent North Caucasus
On January 31, President Vladimir Putin held a large press conference in the Kremlin during which he answered questions from Russian and foreign journalists. He touched on almost all issues...
MOSCOW PUTS KADYROV’S PRIVATE ARMY UNDER ITS OWN COMMAND
Ramzan Kadyrov is the most powerful figure in Chechnya. Ordinary Chechens are afraid of him and his thugs, the kadyrovtsy. Even the Russian military forces posted in Chechnya do not...
RUSSIAN GENERALS WARN OF NEW REBEL OFFENSIVE IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
Less than three months after the rebel attack on the city of Nalchik, the capital of the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in the North Caucasus, the Russian military command has again...
GIMRI RE-EMERGES AS ANTI-RUSSIAN STRONGHOLD IN DAGESTAN
The year 2006 in the North Caucasus has started with a new fierce battle in Dagestan's mountains. On January 2, a special police unit that was combing a gorge between...
INSURGENTS SEEM TO HAVE UPPER HAND ACROSS THE NORTH CAUCASUS
Russian security officials stepped up their activities in the North Caucasus during the last two months of 2005. Officials in Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan proudly declared they had captured or killed...
BESLAN MOTHERS TURN TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO FIND THE TRUTH
The consequences of the September 2004 terrorist attack on the town of Beslan continue to shake the political situation in North Ossetia. Tensions between the Russian authorities and local residents...
PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN CHECHNYA: NO CLEAR WINNER
At noon on November 27, Russian TV broadcast a report about the progress of that day's parliamentary elections in Chechnya. The correspondent was standing alone inside the heavily guarded government...
HOPES FOR KREMLIN DIALOGUE WITH KABARDINO-BALKARIA INSURGENTS FADE
On November 4, the Kabardino-Balkaria branch of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) summoned Ruslan Nakhushov, chairman of the local Islamic Institute, for interrogation. According to Kommersant, Nakhushov visited the...
ABDUL-KHALIM SADULAEV: LEADER OF CHECHNYA OR THE ENTIRE NORTH CAUCASUS?
Early in November, the Kavkazcenter website posted a short video film showing Chechen rebel president Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev visiting secret bases in the mountains to meet with rank-and-file guerrillas. One can...
SECURITY OFFICIALS SCORE VICTORY IN DAGESTAN BUT INSURGENCY INCREASES IN INGUSHETIA
The massive October 13 rebel attack on the city of Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, diverted attention from the equally tense situation in the eastern part of the North Caucasus,...
DEAD BODIES HIDING TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIAN FAILURE IN NALCHIK
During his visit to the Netherlands this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked about the massive October 13 rebels attack on Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. Dutch journalists wondered...
CHECHNYA’S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS: PUBLIC RELATIONS TRUMP DEMOCRACY
The official parliamentary election campaign started in Chechnya on October 29. On November 27, 18 deputies of the Council of the Republic and 40 deputies of the People's Assembly will...
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES FEAR ISLAMIC INSURGENCY IN VOLGA REGION
During the 2000 presidential campaign, Acting President Vladimir Putin explained to journalists why he had launched a ruthless military campaign in Chechnya. Referring to the Chechen rebels who had invaded...
NALCHIK: CHECHEN REBELS BUILD ON ANCESTOR’S TACTICS
The attack on Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, on October 13 again demonstrated the unpredictability of the Chechen or, more accurately, Caucasian insurgency. When Chechen separatist leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev in...
KABARDINO-BALKARIA FACES LONG-TERM GUERRILLA WAR
Russian authorities are hailing their handling of the October 13 rebel attack on Nalchik, the capital of the Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, as a "great success." Russian Minister of Internal...
NALCHIK UNDER ATTACK: MOSCOW UNABLE TO RESPOND
Early in the morning of October 13, police in Kabardino-Balkaria received an anonymous telephone tip that gunmen had been seen near the Belya Rechka River on the outskirts of Nalchik,...
RUSSIAN LIBERALS JOIN FORCES FOR MOSCOW ELECTIONS
On September 25, the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko, Russia's two main democratic parties, announced the formation of coalition for the December 4 Moscow City Duma election. The two...
TATARSTAN RETAINS PRIVILEGED RANK AMONG RUSSIAN REPUBLICS
Following the September 2004 tragedy in Beslan, the Russian State Duma adopted President Vladimir Putin's new law to eliminate the direct election of regional leaders. Now, all incoming governors in...
KREMLIN HOPES LEADERSHIP CHANGE WILL IMPROVE SITUATION IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA
On September 16 Dmitry Kozak, the Russian presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, announced that Valery Kokov, president of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic, had resigned due to poor health. Kokov...
NEW POLICIES OF A CHECHEN REBEL LEADER: PRAGMATISM AND SELF-RELIANCE
Six months have passed since the murder of Aslan Maskhadov in the Chechen village of Tolstoi-Yurt on March 8. There was speculation after the Chechen president's death about who would...
MOTHERS OF BESLAN DECLARE WAR AGAINST FEDERAL PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE
While the first anniversary of the September 2004 Beslan hostage tragedy passed peacefully, the tension between residents of Beslan and the Russian authorities is increasing. Initially, it seemed the September...
FROM CHECHNYA TO DAGESTAN: BASAEV’S SECOND FRONT AGAINST RUSSIA
The situation in Dagestan continues to deteriorate. Despite the deployment of additional troops and police units from other Russian regions and a personal visit from President Putin, explosions and rebel...
ONE YEAR LATER, BESLAN STILL A SERIOUS TEST FOR PUTIN
Last week Russia marked the first anniversary of the Beslan tragedy. On September 1, a terrorist group from Chechnya seized a school in the North Ossetian town of Beslan, taking...
KREMLIN SEEKS SUPPORT FOR CHECHEN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
On August 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree designating November 24 as the date for parliamentary elections in Chechnya. Like previous campaigns—including the referendum on the pro-Russian Constitution...
OSSETIA RESISTS RETURN OF INGUSH REFUGEES
One of the many difficult problems in the North Caucasus is the land dispute between North Ossetia and Ingushetia. Prigorodny district was incorporated into Ossetia after the deportation of the...
THE KREMLIN’S NEW STRATEGY: USING “ISLAM” TO COMBAT INSURGENCY
The security situation in Chechnya continues to deteriorate. Last week rebels attacked two villagers in the south of the republic, killing two senior Russian officers. Days earlier, separatists continued to...
MOSCOW AND INSURGENTS TAKE STEPS TO MILITARIZE THE NORTH CAUCASUS
Observers, security officials, and journalists across Russia are all talking about the possibility of another big war in the North Caucasus. This conflict is already known as "the third Caucasus...
BASAEV INTERVIEW ENRAGES RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES
The interview with Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev that aired on American television on July 29 dealt a serious blow to the Kremlin. Russian authorities made desperate efforts to prevent the...
AS ANGER MOUNTS, OFFICIALS STILL CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR MISSING BOROZDINOVSKYA VILLAGERS
Russian and local authorities have been confronted with another refugee problem in the North Caucasus. On July 15 the residents of the Chechen village of Borozdinovskaya moved to Dagestan and...
KREMLIN GROWS WARY OF NORTH CAUCASUS GOVERNMENTS
On July 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unannounced visit to the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the very place where he began his climb to the presidency in...
LEAKED MEMO SHOWS KREMLIN FEARS COLLAPSE OF DAGESTAN
The increasing rebel attacks in Dagestan (see EDM, July 7) have finally forced Russian authorities to focus on the problems of the republic. Officials in Moscow now realize that the...
ATTACKS INCREASE IN DAGESTAN, BUT OFFICIALS REMAIN SILENT
Rebel attacks in Dagestan are becoming more frequent and more intense. Early on Saturday, June 25, yet another police car was bombed in Makhachkala. The patrol car was attacked as...
SECURITY OFFICIALS NOT HAPPY WITH “CHECHENIZATION” POLICY
On May 25, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Russian Cossack leaders in Rostov-on-Don, the political center of southern Russia. During the meeting, the Cossacks expressed to the president...
FEDERAL SWEEP IN BOROZDINOVSKAYA CREATES SERIOUS CRISIS IN NORTHERN CAUCASUS
On June 4, Russian federal troops conducted a mopping-up operation in the Chechen village of Borozdinovskaya, located in the north of the republic near the Dagestan border. This security sweep...
POPULAR SUPPORT INCREASES FOR DAGESTAN REBELS
May and early June brought intensified rebel attacks in Dagestan. On June 1, a bus carrying 20 policemen was bombed in Makhachkala, the capital (RIA-Novosti, June 1). Almost every night...
MORE REBEL ACTIVITY IN NORTHERN CHECHNYA
On June 4, a special unit of Russian troops entered the Chechen village of Borozdinovskaya in the North of the republic. "They ordered us to lie on the floor with...
ETHNIC RUSSIANS IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS FACE DECISION TO EMIGRATE
"The exodus of the ethnic Russians is creating a problem for the whole North Caucasus," Russian President Vladimir Putin told a group of Cossack atamans (chieftains) during a meeting in...
OSSETIA AND INGUSHETIA PROTEST KREMLIN PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS
On June 7, Taymuraz Mamsurov, the speaker of North Ossetian parliament, was officially declared the new leader of the republic. The process, which in other regions of Russia lasts for...
A DIFFICULT TIME FOR NEGOTIATIONS
On June 1, Andreas Gross, PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) deputy chairman and Special Rappateur on Chechnya, launched an unexpectedly strong critique of Russian policy towards the...
KREMLIN FORCES NORTH OSSETIAN PRESIDENT TO RESIGN
On May 31, Alexander Dzasokhov, president of North Ossetia, announced his early resignation, saying he wanted "to give way to a younger generation" within the Ossetian leadership. "I am making...
ASSASSINATION IN DAGESTAN DAMAGES KREMLIN ATTEMPTS TO ATTRACT FOREIGN INVESTMENT FOR THE CAUCASUS
Early last year Russian President Vladimir Putin solemnly declared, "Armed confrontations and conflicts are becoming history. Even in the most difficult territory, the Chechen republic, the peace process is becoming...
RUSSIAN POLICIES DRIVE NORTH CAUCASUS INTO ARMS OF REBELS
On May 16 the separatist Kavkazcenter website published a decree from Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, the new Chechen rebel leader after Aslan Maskhadov's death in March. Sadulaev ordered the insurgents to establish...
IS RAMZAN KADYROV LEAVING THE LIMELIGHT?
Ramzan Kadyrov, deputy prime minister and leader of the pro-Russian forces in Chechnya, likes to be the center of attention. He makes numerous public statements that tend to be quite...
CHECHEN FORCES ENTER DAGESTAN WITH FSB HELP
Early in the morning of April 20, Yusup Adjiev's bodyguards saw masked gunmen climbing down from the fence surrounding his house in Toturby-Kala, a village in Dagestan. Adjiev is the...
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES PRESS AHEAD WITH PLANS TO COMBINE ADYGEYA AND KRASNODAR KRAI
Plans to unify two Caucasian regions of Russia, Adygeya and Krasnodar Krai, have seriously aggravated the situation in Adygeya, the most stable national republic of the violent North Caucasus. On...
NORTH CAUCASUS AWAITS PROMISED SPRING OFFENSIVE
At the moment, the atmosphere in the North Caucasus can best be described as "the calm before the storm." As the weather becomes warmer, the population and the authorities are...
OPPOSITION IN BASHKORTOSTAN AND INGUSHETIA VOW TO NOT RETREAT
At 1:21 pm local time (3:21 am in Washington DC), a charter plane loaded with citizens opposed to the rule of Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov left Ufa airport for Moscow....
RUSSIAN REGIONAL PROTESTS SPREAD TO INGUSHETIA, BASHKORTOSTAN
Regional protests continue to spread across Russia. Late last year, the residents of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, a region in the western portion of the North Caucasus, demanded the resignation of Mustafa Batdyev,...
MOSCOW CRACKS DOWN ON INDEPENDENT MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS
Muslims in Russia's Middle Volga region have taken to the streets to protest what they say is a rising tide of xenophobia and official brutality directed against them. On March...
INSURGENTS IN DAGESTAN AND KABARDINO-BALKARIA READY FOR SUMMER CAMPAIGN
While Russian authorities were celebrating the death of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, insurgents in two other Northern Caucasus regions declared their readiness to conduct "military operations" as part of...
DAGESTAN SECURITY OFFICIALS SEARCH FOR TRAITORS IN THEIR RANKS
A recent police search of insurgents in Dagestan turned up a list of the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of more than 100 security officials in the North Caucasus republic....
NEW REMAINS DISCOVERED IN BESLAN: INCOMPETENCE OR CRIME?
On February 25, residents of Beslan, North Ossetia, found clothing and physical remains of several child hostages killed during the rescue operation on September 3, 2004. Jeremy Page, a reporter...
PEACE INITIATIVES ELICIT CONFUSED REACTION FROM THE KREMLIN
Aslan Maskhadov's unilateral ceasefire last month evoked an initial reaction of skepticism from Russian authorities over the possibility of putting this order into practice – but ultimately officials seemed surprised...
BESLAN MOTHERS TRUST PUTIN, DEMAND DZASOKHOV’S HEAD
On February 17, the "Mothers of Beslan," a group of women who lost their children in the hostage crisis in Beslan last September, petitioned Russian President Vladimir Putin to dismiss...
RUSSIAN SECURITY OFFICIALS WANT TO END CHECHENIZATION
Late in 2002, the third year of the second Chechen military campaign, the Kremlin started to implement its policy of "Chechenization." The idea was to make Chechens fight Chechens in...
KREMLIN APPOINTS NEW GOVERNMENT IN KARACHAEVO-CHERKESSIA
On February 3, a new government was announced in the republic of Karachaevo- Cherkessia. Following months of unrest, Moscow sought to stabilize the situation. With the republic's president rapidly losing...
MASKHADOV’S CEASEFIRE OBEYED IN CHECHNYA, NOT IN DAGESTAN
On January 15, the Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov issued a special order to stop all military operations both inside and outside Chechnya until the end of February (EDM, February...
CHECHEN REBELS HAND THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT AN OLIVE BRANCH AS THE KREMLIN TIGHTENS THE SCREWS
Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov's ceasefire order has forced the Russian authorities to change their information policy. Almost immediately after the news of the ceasefire order was made public, security...
WHO IS BEHIND YARMUK JAMAAT: BALKARS OR KABARDINS?
On January 27, Russian troops and local police forces surrounded an apartment building where members of an underground Islamist organization known as "Yarmuk Jamaat" were hiding in Nalchik, the capital...
KREMLIN POLITICAL REFORMS FACE FIRST REAL CHALLENGES
On January 1 a new law came into force, whereby Russia's regional executive leaders will be appointed by the president rather than elected directly by the people. The people's voice...
DAGESTAN ‘S INSURGENTS REGROUP AS NEW “SHARIA JAMAAT” ORGANIZATION
Fighting between insurgents and Russian special forces erupted on January 15 in Dagestan . Two battles broke out almost simultaneously in Makhachkala , the capital of the North Caucasus republic,...
RUSSIAN AGENTS’ RETURN FROM QATAR MAY FINALLY DISCREDIT THE ISLAMIC WORLD IN THE EYES OF CHECHNYA’S REBELS
On December 23, two Russian military intelligence agents, who had been found guilty by a court in Qatar of the murder of former Chechen president and separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev,...
CHECHEN REBELS ARE TRYING TO DAMAGE RUSSIA’S OIL-AND-GAS PIPELINE SYSTEM
On December 8, a huge explosion in the Caucasian republic of Dagestan damaged a segment of the pipeline for exporting natural gas from Russia to Azerbaijan. Local security officials almost...
KALMYK LEADERS AND BELIEVERS BUOYED BY VISIT FROM DALAI LAMA
On November 29, the Dalai Lama, the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, visited Kalmykia, a region in southern Russia, that is mainly inhabited by ethnic Kalmyks practicing Buddhism. This visit...
KREMLIN ANNOUNCES TROOP PULLOUT AS HEAVY FIGHTING CONTINUES
On November 12, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov triumphantly announced that all units of the 76th Airborne Division located in Chechnya will be withdrawn from the Republic by January 2005,...
PROTESTORS VACATE PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE IN CHERKESSK
The October crisis in the North Caucasus republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia continues, but the authorities have managed to mitigate the problem somewhat. On November 11, when angry demonstrators took over the...
TATARSTAN TRYING TO RESIST PUTIN’S CENTRALIZATION EFFORTS
On October 29, the Russian State Duma voted to adopt in its first reading President Vladimir Putin's proposal to eliminate the direct election of regional executive-branch leaders. Despite the fact...
CRISIS IN KARACHAEVO-CHERKESSIA TURNS INTO MASS UPRISING
The simmering crisis in the Karachaevo-Cherkessia region of the North Caucasus has turned violent. Relatives of the seven disappeared shareholders in the local Kavkaztsement factory, tired of waiting for their...
CAN MASKHADOV REPEAT HIS 1996 OFFENSIVE?
On November 3, Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov announced during a meeting in Grozny that the number of terrorist acts had decreased so far this year by 36 percent across...
DAGESTAN: FIGHTING CLANS AND ADVANCING ISLAMISTS
With more than 100 ethnic groups in the republic, Dagestan has a quite complicated structure of government. The republic is ruled by the State Council, in which all major indigenous...
ANGRY RELATIVES AND PARLIAMENTARIANS CALL FOR BATDYEV’S RESIGNATION
After at least a year of warnings, the situation across the entire North Caucasus has deteriorated alarmingly. All the republics in the region share the same problems: Islamist militants, popular...
BESLAN’S TRAGIC END: SPONTANEOUS OR PLANNED?
More than one month has now passed since the tragedy in the North Ossetian town of Beslan, but what really happened there is still subject to debate. When the hostages...
BESLAN: NORTH OSSETIANS BLAME MOSCOW MORE THAN THEIR INGUSH NEIGHBORS
October 12 marked the end of the 40-day Orthodox mourning period for victims of the Beslan siege in North Ossetia. The period following a funeral is sacred for Orthodox believers,...
WHO ATTACKED BESLAN? PROFILING THE TERRORIST GROUP
The investigation into the September 1 terrorist attack on the North Ossetian town of Beslan continues. Apart from law-enforcement agencies and prosecutors, the Russian Federation Council and State Duma have...
Ossetians Blame Ingush And Authorities For Beslan
The tragedy in Beslan left local Ossetians with the question, "Who is to blame?" After terrorists seized the school, the first reaction from Beslan's residents was to take revenge on...
North Ossetian President Bargaining With Kremlin And His Own People
This month's hostage crisis in Beslan, North Ossetia, and the hundreds of fatalities resulting from officials' failure to rescue the captives have produced a political standoff in the republic. Inspired...
Authorities In Karachaevo-Cherkessia Fear Union Of Basaev And Local Islamic Separatists
Martial law was unofficially declared in Karachaevo-Cherkessia early in August. According to Regnum News Agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) is bringing additional troops into the Republic from Rostov,...
Russian Officials Fear Caucasus Attacks Could Spread Westward
Late on the evening of July 28, martial law was declared in Kabardino-Balkaria. According to Radio Liberty, all security forces, police, and internal troops were put on alert. Police stations,...
Videotape Shows Basaev And Maskhadov Displaying Seized Ingush Weapons
A new videotape showing Chechen and Ingush insurgents led by warlord Shamil Basaev in a Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) warehouse in Ingushetia has become topic number one in the...
CAN MASKHADOV REPEAT HIS 1996 OFFENSIVE?
On November 3, Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov announced during a meeting in Grozny that the number of terrorist acts had decreased so far this year by 36 percent across...
KREMLIN ANNOUNCES TROOP PULLOUT AS HEAVY FIGHTING CONTINUES
On November 12, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov triumphantly announced that all units of the 76th Airborne Division located in Chechnya will be withdrawn from the Republic by January 2005,...
CHECHEN REBELS ARE TRYING TO DAMAGE RUSSIA’S OIL-AND-GAS PIPELINE SYSTEM
On December 8, a huge explosion in the Caucasian republic of Dagestan damaged a segment of the pipeline for exporting natural gas from Russia to Azerbaijan. Local security officials almost...
RUSSIAN AGENTS’ RETURN FROM QATAR MAY FINALLY DISCREDIT THE ISLAMIC WORLD IN THE EYES OF CHECHNYA’S REBELS
On December 23, two Russian military intelligence agents, who had been found guilty by a court in Qatar of the murder of former Chechen president and separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev,...
CHECHEN REBELS HAND THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT AN OLIVE BRANCH AS THE KREMLIN TIGHTENS THE SCREWS
Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov's ceasefire order has forced the Russian authorities to change their information policy. Almost immediately after the news of the ceasefire order was made public, security...
RUSSIAN SECURITY OFFICIALS WANT TO END CHECHENIZATION
Late in 2002, the third year of the second Chechen military campaign, the Kremlin started to implement its policy of "Chechenization." The idea was to make Chechens fight Chechens in...
PEACE INITIATIVES ELICIT CONFUSED REACTION FROM THE KREMLIN
Aslan Maskhadov's unilateral ceasefire last month evoked an initial reaction of skepticism from Russian authorities over the possibility of putting this order into practice – but ultimately officials seemed surprised...
A DIFFICULT TIME FOR NEGOTIATIONS
On June 1, Andreas Gross, PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) deputy chairman and Special Rappateur on Chechnya, launched an unexpectedly strong critique of Russian policy towards the...
MORE REBEL ACTIVITY IN NORTHERN CHECHNYA
On June 4, a special unit of Russian troops entered the Chechen village of Borozdinovskaya in the North of the republic. "They ordered us to lie on the floor with...
SECURITY OFFICIALS NOT HAPPY WITH “CHECHENIZATION” POLICY
On May 25, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Russian Cossack leaders in Rostov-on-Don, the political center of southern Russia. During the meeting, the Cossacks expressed to the president...
THE KREMLIN’S NEW STRATEGY: USING “ISLAM” TO COMBAT INSURGENCY
The security situation in Chechnya continues to deteriorate. Last week rebels attacked two villagers in the south of the republic, killing two senior Russian officers. Days earlier, separatists continued to...
KREMLIN SEEKS SUPPORT FOR CHECHEN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
On August 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree designating November 24 as the date for parliamentary elections in Chechnya. Like previous campaigns—including the referendum on the pro-Russian Constitution...
FROM CHECHNYA TO DAGESTAN: BASAEV’S SECOND FRONT AGAINST RUSSIA
The situation in Dagestan continues to deteriorate. Despite the deployment of additional troops and police units from other Russian regions and a personal visit from President Putin, explosions and rebel...
NEW POLICIES OF A CHECHEN REBEL LEADER: PRAGMATISM AND SELF-RELIANCE
Six months have passed since the murder of Aslan Maskhadov in the Chechen village of Tolstoi-Yurt on March 8. There was speculation after the Chechen president's death about who would...
NALCHIK: CHECHEN REBELS BUILD ON ANCESTOR’S TACTICS
The attack on Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, on October 13 again demonstrated the unpredictability of the Chechen or, more accurately, Caucasian insurgency. When Chechen separatist leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev in...
CHECHNYA’S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS: PUBLIC RELATIONS TRUMP DEMOCRACY
The official parliamentary election campaign started in Chechnya on October 29. On November 27, 18 deputies of the Council of the Republic and 40 deputies of the People's Assembly will...
ABDUL-KHALIM SADULAEV: LEADER OF CHECHNYA OR THE ENTIRE NORTH CAUCASUS?
Early in November, the Kavkazcenter website posted a short video film showing Chechen rebel president Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev visiting secret bases in the mountains to meet with rank-and-file guerrillas. One can...
GIMRI RE-EMERGES AS ANTI-RUSSIAN STRONGHOLD IN DAGESTAN
The year 2006 in the North Caucasus has started with a new fierce battle in Dagestan's mountains. On January 2, a special police unit that was combing a gorge between...
The Rebels’ New Tactics: From Independent Chechnya to Independent North Caucasus
On January 31, President Vladimir Putin held a large press conference in the Kremlin during which he answered questions from Russian and foreign journalists. He touched on almost all issues...
Sadulaev’s New Decrees Reveal Divisions Within the Separatist Movement
On February 2, the Chechen rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev issued three new decrees that radically changed the structure of the separatist government. In the decrees, which were posted on the...
The Kremlin’s New Strategy to Build a Pro-Russian Islamic Chechnya
During a press conference held in the Kremlin on January 31, President Vladimir Putin outlined the new Russian policy toward Islam inside the country. "Wahhabism in itself is not a...
Chechnya Rocked by Desertions, Sex Scandal
Ramzan Kadyrov, the newly appointed prime minister of the pro-Moscow Chechen government, is continuing to introduce Islamic ethics to government practices (see Chechnya Weekly, March 6). After criticizing the local...
U.S. Journalist Detained in Dagestan: The Kremlin Closes the Curtain on the North Caucasus
On March 29, Kelly McEvers, an American freelance journalist, was detained in the city of Khasavyurt, Dagestan, when she was leaving the city accompanied by a local reporter from the...
Sadulaev and Putin Both Declare Victory in the Chechen War
On January 31, President Vladimir Putin declared the end of the so-called anti-terrorist operation, the official name of the second Chechen war. “I think we can rightly speak about the...
Putin Address Conceals Challenges in the North Caucasus
On May 10, Putin delivered his long-awaited address to the Russian Federal Assembly. A significant part of the address was a response to the last week's speech by U.S. Vice-President...
Political Disunity Mars Chechen Rebel Strategy in the North Caucasus
Early this year Chechen separatists began to discuss holding a major meeting among North Caucasian rebel commanders and underground Muslim religious leaders to transform the Caucasian insurgency into a unified...
The Rebels Call for Political Dialogue While the Kremlin Demands Surrender
The unexpected death of the Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev, who was responsible for organizing ruthless terrorist attacks in Russia, has again initiated discussions about a possible dialogue between the Russian...
Putin’s Potemkin Withdrawal from Chechnya
On August 8, Rossiiskaya gazeta published an excerpt from a decree signed by the Russian President on August 2. In the decree, Putin instructs the Defense Ministry and the Interior...
Russia’s Uncertain Military Future in Chechnya
On August 10, Leonid Krivonos, the acting military commandant of Chechnya, stunned the Russian public by commenting that the Russian military command in Chechnya expects rebel activity in Chechnya to...
Dokku Umarov: Between Jihad and the Struggle for Freedom
Last summer, following the death of Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev in Chechnya, the successor to Aslan Maskhadov as the Chechen rebel leader, senior field commander Dokku Umarov, became the top leader of...
Dagestani Rebels Show Their Faces
Sharia Jamaat, the Dagestani rebel group, has shown the faces of its leaders by posting a video appeal on the Kavkaz-Center rebel website. This appeal, posted on the website two...
Dagestan’s Hidden Insurgency
“Four bandit groups continue to operate in Dagestan,” Major-General Sergei Solodovnikov, deputy head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for the Southern Federal District, said at a press conference...
Russia’s Deepening Military Crisis in Chechnya
Russian generals continue to stun the public with sensational statements about the situation in Chechnya. A month ago Colonel-General Yevgeny Baryaev, the commander of the Russian military group in Chechnya,...
Chechnya’s Rebels Step Up Attacks: An Examination of Their Tactics
The recent ambush of an OMON special police detachment by Chechen rebels in the mountainous Sharoi district and the recent flurry of alarming statements by Russian generals (Chechnya Weekly, November...
Kabardino-Balkaria Rebels Vow to Renew Attacks
On November 15 and 16, a video statement made by Anzor Astemirov, aka Emir Seyfullah, the leader of the rebels of Kabardino-Balkaria, a region in the North Caucasus, was posted...
Siloviki Blame Kadyrov for Ongoing Military Failures in Chechnya
The recent murder of Movladi Baisarov, a pro-Russian Chechen field commander, in a shootout in Moscow has trigged a discussion about the uneasy relations between Ramzan Kadyrov, the most influential...
Kadyrov Disputes Russian Military Figures on Chechen Insurgency
On December 5, Ramzan Kadyrov, the prime minister of Chechnya’s pro-Russian government, triumphantly declared that “the illegal armed formations in Chechnya have almost been destroyed” and that the republic has...
Captured Documents Reveal Sources of Rebel Financing
On December 8, the Russian newspaper Rossiiskaya gazeta published an article about Abu Hafs, a Chechen rebel field commander of Arab origin who was killed in the Dagestani town of...
The Illusion of Victory: Kremlin Proxies Mount Year-End Propaganda Drive
On August 2 of last year, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree instructing the Russian military command to submit, by December 15, 2006, a plan for a stage-by-stage withdrawal of...
Yaseen Rasulov: Dagestan’s Rebel Scholar
There is a widespread opinion that Wahhabism, or Salafism, a branch of Sunni Islam, is not a traditional religion for the North Caucasus. Many scholars, especially in Russia, say that...
Levada’s Last Poll on Chechnya: Russians Still Skeptical about the Success of Putin’s North Caucasus Policy
Many believe that Russia’s populace supports the Kremlin’s policy toward Chechnya. It is very common to hear from Russian political scientists that Russians no longer care about the situation in...
Putin Overlooks Assassination Campaign Sweeping the North Caucasus
During his most recent annual press conference, which took place in the Kremlin on February 1, Vladimir Putin said very little about one of the most painful issues of his...
Kremlin Potemkinizes the Situation in Chechnya
There is no doubt that during the 43rd annual Munich Conference on Security Policy, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, a potential successor to Putin, attempted to...
Takhir Bataev: Chechnya’s Elusive Nogai Warlord
Early in the morning of February 24, Russian Special Forces supported by military troops started to move slowly around the village of Pervy Kizlyarsky, a settlement located in the Kizlyar...
Pacifying Chechnya with Artillery: The Never Ending Campaign
In November 2001, Akhmad Kadyrov, then head of the pro-Russian administration in Chechnya, declared that “there is no more need to use aviation and artillery in the region” and that...
Kadyrov Turns to Zikrism to Legitimize His Rule
On the evening of February 15, 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov, at that time still Chechnya’s prime minister, prayed together with members of his family in his native village of Tsentoroi. According...
The Opening of the Civilian Airport in Chechnya: A Sign of Peace?
On March 8, the first regularly scheduled civilian passenger flight since 1999 arrived at Severny airport near Grozny, Chechnya’s capital. This airport was completely ruined during the intensive hostilities in...