DAGESTAN’S LEADERS WARN OF DANGER OF CIVIL WAR.

"They’re trying as hard as they can to push us out of Russia!" Mukhu Aliev, Speaker of the Popular Assembly (Dagestan’s parliament) told a session of the legislature this week. Aliev said he had little hope for a swift stabilization of the situation. He called for unity to preserve Dagestan’s territorial integrity, prevent the outbreak of civil war in the republic and keep Dagestan within the Russian Federation. (Itar-Tass, January 28, Kommersant-daily, January 29)

Aliev was referring to the sharp destabilization of the situation inside Dagestan that has followed last December’s raid on a Russian unit near the town of Buinaksk. (See Monitor, December 23) Responsibility for the raid was claimed by the "Dagestani Central Liberation Front," which is reportedly supported by local Wahhabis (one of the fundamentalist currents in Islam) with close ties to Chechen field commanders. (See Monitor, January 27) Tensions are running high in Dagestan and the leaders of the republic are clearly nervous. "The Wahhabis will not commit any terrorist acts before the end of Ramadan. But we have information that they are planning new terrorist acts, to be committed as soon as the fast is over," Dagestani Security Council Secretary Magomet Tolboev told the Monitor this week.

St. Petersburg Bids for Imperial Remains.