STEPASHIN SAYS DAGESTAN MIRED IN CRIME AND SUBVERSION.

Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin visited the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala earlier this week. During a meeting which included Dagestan’s top officials, Russian Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Kolesnikov declared that the resistance of criminal groups in Dagestan had become systemic and that the republic will not be allowed to become a hotbed of tension and armed resistance. Kolesnikov reported that the criminal case involving the murder of Saidmukhammed-khadji-Abubakarov, Dagestan’s head Muslim, was focusing on a group of suspects, one of whom participated in the disorders in May of this year, when supporters of the Khachilaev brothers took over the republic’s government headquarters. Kolesnikov also reported that several persons had been detained for the terrorist act in the Dagestani capital this past August, in which eighteen people were killed. The deputy interior minister said that Nadyr Khachilaev, who is accused of organizing last May’s disturbances, is also accused of stealing 1.5 million nondenominated rubles.

In recent months, fifty-eight people have been arrested in Dagestan, including eleven top government officials. Thirty-six criminal cases have been launched. During this year, 464 criminals have been caught (Nezavisimaya gazeta, November 18).

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