Latest Articles about North Caucasus
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, mainly senior officials dispatched from other parts of Russia. Temporary police departments will be set... MORE
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 despite the broad statement by Magomedtagirov, who has fully recovered from a recent attempt on... MORE
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 the voluntary unification of Adygeya, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria with Russia. In the 16th century, a... MORE
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 surprise coming out of Chechnya, but this incident happened in North Ossetia, a North Caucasus... MORE
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 combed the woods near Nalchik, they met and clashed with a rebel group in a... MORE
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 increase in August and September. Krivonos mentioned the recent ambushes and bombings of Russian military... MORE
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 town of Buinaksk, as he was driven to his office. After the blast, Bitarov’s car... MORE
Chechnya and the Northern Caucasus without Shamil Basaev
For the president of the Russian Federation, the past month has been full of good news from Chechnya. It was only on June 17 that information about the death of Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, leader of the Chechen separatists, had come to light and now, just a... MORE
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 Russian special forces. Following the news, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, visited Grozny, the Chechen... MORE
BASAEV GONE, BUT MOSCOW STILL HAS HEADACHES IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
The July 9 death of Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev from an accidental explosion -- not a Russian-planned operation -- removes the Chechen rebels’ most charismatic and probably most ruthless commander from the scene. Although Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Nikolai Patrushev claimed, “The effort became... MORE