In Dagestan, a local resident was abducted yesterday (October 20) in the city of Dagstanskiye Ogni by a group of men wearing camouflage uniforms and masks. The incident happened around 12:30 p.m., local time, near the headquarters of the city tax inspectorate, when a vehicle... MORE

On October 17, details emerged of a controversial operation by the Russian security services in a remote Dagestani village of Khutrakh. Rights activists who clandestinely traveled to the sealed off area condemned the police operation as a manifestly punitive action. “[I]n Khutrakh we saw frightened,... MORE

As the United States breathed a sigh of relief that the 10th anniversary of 9/11 had passed without any major incident, the U.S. Justice Department announced that three men had pled guilty to charges of trying to smuggle a member of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)... MORE

The head of the Dagestani branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Muslim Dakhkhaev, was wounded in an attack in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, yesterday (October 13).  The attack occurred just before 9 p.m., local time, when unidentified gunmen shot and threw grenades at the Mercedes in... MORE

The arrival of fall has not seen a decline in rebel attacks in Dagestan after a violent summer. Indeed, given the ferociousness of the daily battles between government forces and the insurgents in the republic, it is amazing that the head of Dagestan, Magomedsalam Magomedov,... MORE

On October 6, the Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) website reported widespread human rights abuses in Karachaevo-Cherkessia. The Russian Public Chamber under the Russian president voiced concern over large-scale arrests of Muslims in the republic. Over 80 people were arrested in Karachaevo-Cherkessia in connection with a... MORE

Two suspected rebels were killed in Kabardino-Balkaria today (October 7), during a special operation in the city of Tyrnyauz. The operation began yesterday, when police blockaded a group of four suspected militants in a five-story apartment building in the city. According to the authorities, the... MORE

On October 3, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev met the head of Dagestan’s government, Magomedsalam Magomedov, in Makhachkala. “The degree of the terrorist threat testifies that Dagestan is in the worst state [compared with] the other republics of the North Caucasian Federal District,” Nurgaliev concluded... MORE

A number of insurgency-related incidents were reported in Dagestan and Ingushetia this past week. Dagestan’s Interior Ministry reported today (September 30) that an arms cache was discovered on the outskirts of the village of Toturbiikala in the republic’s Khasavyurt district yesterday (September 29), and that... MORE

On September 23, a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) visited Ingushetia. The head of the PACE delegation, Nikolaos Dendias, called the refugees’ living conditions in the republic “unsatisfactory.” Dendias is a member of Pace’s committee on migration, refugees and... MORE