Latest Articles about North Caucasus
Dagestani Jamaat Expands Operations into Azerbaijan
Everything started last August 17 with the explosion at the Abu Bekir mosque in Baku. This mosque is considered a meeting place for those who adhere to the Salafi ideology. A grenade was thrown into the mosque during the evening prayer, killing two people and... MORE
Kadyrov Leads a Special Operation
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov personally organized and led a special operation aimed at members of “illegal armed formations” in Chechnya’s Kurchaloi and Nozhai-Yurt districts on November 14-15, Interfax reported, citing the Chechen presidential press service. The chief of that service, Lemma Gudaev, was quoted as... MORE
Islamic Militants Ratchet Up Attacks in Dagestan
Dagestan has seen an uptick in violence between security forces and suspected Islamic militants during the past week. A police officer was killed in the village of Leninkent near the capital Makhachkala on November 19. Interfax quoted an unnamed spokesperson for Dagestan’s Interior Ministry as... MORE
New Ingush President Shows Signs that he’ll Take a Different Approach
Prague Watchdog on November 19 published a piece that warmly praised Ingushetia’s new president, General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who replaced the wildly unpopular Murat Zyazikov (North Caucasus Weekly, October 31). The website called Yevkurov “an idealist in general’s stripes.” “From the very first moment of his... MORE
Death of Dagestan’s Sharia Jamaat Leader Fails to Halt Rebel Attacks
The position of top commander in Dagestan’s Sharia Jamaat has been vacant for a month now since the death of its former leader Abdul-Majjid on September 8th near the Dagestan-Azeri border during a joint Russo-Azeri special forces operation that lasted over 10 days (www.azeri.ru/papers/echo-az_info/26465). Commenting... MORE
Briefs
Special Forces Members Targeted in ChechnyaPrague Watchdog reported on November 3 that a checkpoint on the road between Gudermes and Shuani manned by a company from the Vostok special battalion came under fire from unidentified gunmen traveling in a Zhiguli car on November 1. According... MORE
Kadyrov and Qaddafi Profess Mutual Admiration
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who made an official visit to Moscow this past weekend, met in the Russian capital with Ramzan Kadyrov and accepted an invitation from the Chechen president to visit Chechnya in 2010, RIA Novosti reported. “President Ramzan Kadyrov invited the Libyan leader... MORE
Will Yevkurov Follow the Chechen “Model” for Restoring Order?
In an article published in Gazeta on November 1, Sanobar Shermatova quoted an anonymous official who knows Yunus-Bek Yevkurov as saying that the colonel was appointed president of Ingushetia with the specific task of introducing order in the republic. The official also said that Ingushetia’s... MORE
Ingushetia’s Parliament Confirms New President
Ingushetia’s parliament on October 31 confirmed Yunus-Bek Yevkurov as the republic’s president, replacing Murat Zyazikov, who resigned the previous day (North Caucasus Weekly, October 31). According to Itar-Tass, 16 legislators out of the 18 who attended the session voted to confirm the 45-year-old colonel, while... MORE
MURDER OF KABARDINO-BALKARIA LAW-ENFORCER: ANOTHER TURN IN A VICIOUS CIRCLE?
The head of Kabardino-Balkaria’s regional anti-organized crime directorate Colonel Anatoly Kyarov, was shot to death along with his bodyguard on the evening of January 12 when their car came under fire near the headquarters of the republic’s drug control department in Nalchik, the republican capital.... MORE