Latest North Caucasus Weekly Articles
Despite Risks – Moscow Turns to Ski Resorts as Regional Panacea for the North Caucasus
Moscow no longer expects that the situation in the North Caucasus region will improve any time soon. Even the Russian presidential envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District, Aleksandr Khloponin, has been forced to admit on several occasions that one should not expect any positive... MORE
Security Services React to the Perceived Threat of Radical Islam in North Ossetia
On June 4, two masked men from North Ossetia calling themselves “members of the anti-Wahhabi resistance” were shown on the Russian NTV channel. In the interview, which was cited by Regnum news agency but not available on the TV channel’s website, the masked men said... MORE
In a New Trend for the North Caucasus, Dagestani Muslims Organize Civil Protests
On June 1-2, Russia’s Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights held a conference in Makhachkala, Dagestan. The heated discussions at the conference indicated the enormous explosiveness of the situation in the republic, which is rooted in complex political, social and... MORE
More Than 2,000 Disappearances in North Caucasus Remain Unsolved
Russia’s Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights held a conference on June 1 – 2 in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, devoted to the situation in the republic. Participants painted a bleak picture of the state of human rights in Dagestan, and... MORE
Moscow Is Trying to Use People’s Diplomacy Without Giving Any Power to the People
On May 31, police in Kabardino-Balkaria reported that they prevented an attempt to assassinate the president of the republic, Arsen Kanokov. According to a police source, two roadside bombs, the biggest of them containing five kilograms of TNT, were placed at the entrance to the... MORE
US Move Against Doku Umarov Will Have Little Impact on Militant Activities
May 2011 ended with a loud statement made by US President Barack Obama in Paris, in which he declared the leader of the North Caucasus-based armed resistance, Doku Umarov, a terrorist, a move bound to please Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The US president further pledged... MORE
Ethnic and Religious Conflicts on the Rise in North Ossetia After Killings
On May 20, two bodyguards of South Ossetia’s leader Eduard Kokoity were killed in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia. According to some reports, Alim Kabulov and Oleg Ikaev were at the Vladikavkaz airport to meet Kokoity, who was expected to return from Moscow on the same day.... MORE
Arrests in Astrakhan Point to the Spread of Islamic Insurgency in Russia
The term “jamaat,” considered native to the North Caucasus in view of the operations undertaken there by the armed resistance, is clearly spreading beyond the region’s borders. The Russian special forces recently did not even attempt to hide the existence of an Islamic underground cell... MORE
Militants or Civil Dissidents: Who are Moscow’s Key Enemies in Kabardino-Balkaria?
On May 22, the Russian security services killed one of the leaders of the Kabardino-Balkarian insurgency, Buzhigit Khadzhiev (aka “Musa, the emir of the northwestern front”). Magomed Zalikhanov, dubbed by the law enforcement agencies as an active supporter of the rebels, was also killed in... MORE
Georgia’s increasingly assertive North Caucasus policy is likely to cause waves across the region
On May 20, the Georgian parliament recognized the mass killings and deportations of Circassians from the North Caucasus in the nineteenth century as “genocide.” The resolution, which passed by a vote of 95 to 0, said that pre-planned “mass killings of the Circassians by Tsarist... MORE