2009 insurgency in the North Caucasus
Encyclopedia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n "counter-terrorist operation" in Chechnya
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
on 15 April 2009. The violence appears to be concentrated mostly in the North Caucasus
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....
republics of Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
, Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
, Ingushetia
Ingushetia
The Republic of Ingushetia is a federal subject of Russia , located in the North Caucasus region with its capital at Magas. In terms of area, the republic is the smallest of Russia's federal subjects except for the two federal cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg...
and Kabardino-Balkaria
Kabardino-Balkaria
The Kabardino-Balkar Republic , or Kabardino-Balkaria , is a federal subject of Russia located in the North Caucasus. Population: -Geography:The republic is situated in the North Caucasus mountains, with plains in the northern part....
, with only occasional clashes and bombings elsewhere (including Moscow and North Ossetia), but there are also concerns it may compromise safety of the planned 2014 Winter Olympics
2014 Winter Olympics
The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympic Winter Games, or the 22nd Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event scheduled to be celebrated from 7 to 23 February 2014, in Sochi, Russia with some events held in the resort town of Krasnaya Polyana. Both the Olympic and...
.
Background
Some observers have argued that Russia’s efforts to suppress insurgency in the North Caucasus—a border area between the Black and Caspian Seas that includes the formerly breakaway
Chechnya and other ethnic-based regions—have been the most violent in Europe in recent years
in terms of ongoing military and civilian casualties and human rights abuses. In late 1999, Russia’s then-Premier Putin ordered military, police, and security forces to enter the breakaway
Chechnya region. By early 2000, these forces occupied most of the region. High levels of fighting
continued for several more years and resulted in thousands of Russian and Chechen casualties and
hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. In 2005, then-Chechen rebel leader Abdul-Khalim
Saydullayev decreed the formation of a Caucasus Front against Russia among Islamic believers in
the North Caucasus, in an attempt to widen Chechnya’s conflict with Russia. After his death, his
successor, Doku Umarov
Doku Umarov
Doku Khamatovich Umarov is a major Chechen Islamist rebel militant in Russia. He is responsible for numerous terror attacks on civilians, earning himself the nickname "Russia's Osama Bin Laden"....
, declared continuing jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
to establish an Islamic fundamentalist
Caucasus Emirate in the North Caucasus
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....
and beyond. Russia’s pacification policy in Chechnya has involved setting up a pro-Moscow regional government and transferring more and more local security duties to this government. An important factor in Russia’s seeming success in Chechnya has been reliance on pro-Moscow Chechen clans affiliated with regional President Ramzan Kadyrov
Ramzan Kadyrov
Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov is the President of Chechnya and a former Chechen rebel.Ramzan is a son of former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, assassinated in May 2004. In February 2007 Kadyrov replaced Alu Alkhanov as President, shortly after he had turned 30, which is the minimum age for the post...
. Police and paramilitary forces under his authority have committed flagrant abuses of human rights, according to rulings by the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
and others. Terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus appeared to increase substantially in 2007-2010.
In the summer of 2009, more than 442 persons died in North Caucasus violence in just four months as compared to only 150 deaths reported in the entire year of 2008. In the whole year 2009, according to the official figures by the Russian government, 235 Interior Ministry personnel (Defense Ministry and the FSB losses not included) were killed and 686 injured, while more than 541 alleged fighters and their supporters were killed and over 600 detained. In the period from January to June 2011, 95 law enforcement and security agents had been killed and more than 200 wounded fighting militants. Although the rate of increase of terrorist incidents may have lessened in 2010 from the high rate of increase
in 2008-2009, the rate of civilian casualties substantially increased throughout the North
Caucasus in 2010 and a rising number of terrorist incidents took place outside of Chechnya.
Chechnya
The insurgency in the North Caucasus is a direct result of the two post-Soviet wars fought between Russia and Chechnya. The First Chechen WarFirst Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
was a secular, nationalist struggle for independence from Russia and took place between 1994-96; after a vicious struggle between Russian federal forces and Chechen separatist guerrillas, Chechnya was granted de facto independence per the terms of the Khasavyurt Accord signed on 30 August 1996. With a devastated infrastructure and various armed factions subordinate to specific warlords, the next three years saw Chechnya devolve into a corrupted criminal state plagued by armed gangs, an epidemic of kidnappings-for-ransom, and the rise of radical Islam in the region.
An August 1999 armed incursion of 1,500 Islamic radicals led by Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev
Shamil Basayev
Shamil Salmanovich Basayev was a Chechen militant Islamist and a leader of the Chechen rebel movement.Starting as a field commander in the Transcaucasus, Basayev led guerrilla campaigns against the Russian troops for years, as well as launching mass-hostage takings of civilians, with his goal...
and notorious Saudi jihadist Khattab
Ibn al-Khattab
Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem , more commonly known as Emir Khattab meaning Commander Khattab, or Leader Khattab, and also known as Habib Abdul Rahman, was a Muslim guerilla fighter and financier working with Chechen Mujahideen in the First Chechen War...
in support of a Dagestani separatist movement combined with a series of apartment bombings
Russian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and...
in Russia gave Moscow sufficient reasoning for re-invading Chechnya, thus triggering the Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
, a conflict fought with significant jihadist overtones.
Having learned harsh lessons for the first war, the Russian military - rather than get entangled in messy urban engagements such as that seen in Grozny in 1994-95 - relied heavily on aerial bombardment and artillery such as ballistic missiles and fuel air explosives, typically surrounding and then destroying any towns or villages that put up resistance before sending in ground forces for mop-up operations. The second Battle of Grozny in 1999-2000 saw the bulk of Chechen resistance smashed, particularly after a column of some 2,000 fighters attempted to break out of the besieged city in February of 2000 and instead walked directly into a minefield that Russian forces had prepared for an ambush. What remained of the decimated rebel units then withdrew into the inaccessible Vedeno
Vedeno
Vedeno is a rural locality in the Chechen Republic, Russia, located some southeast of Grozny. It is the administrative center of Vedensky District. Population: 11,512 ;...
and Argun gorges in the southern mountains of the republic in order to wage a guerrilla campaign.
Despite the official claims of peace in the supposedly pacified Chechnya, the republic remains a major center of violence even according to the government statistics. According to the official Russian figures, in the course of one-year period between April 2009 (when the anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya was officially ended) and April 2010, 97 servicemen have been killed on the territory of Chechnya; at the same time, government forces there have killed 189 persons claimed to be militants or their collaborators.
Dagestan
Dagestan is the most religious, populous and complex of all the north Caucasian republics. It is double the size of Chechnya and consists of several dozen ethnic groups, most with their own language. The conflict in Dagestan, however, is not between ethnic groups but between SufismSufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
, a syncretic form of Islam which includes local customs and recognises the state, and Salafism, a more traditional form which rejects secular rule and insists that Islam should govern all spheres of life.
Ingushetia
Along with Dagestan, Ingushetia has borne the brunt of the violence in the North Caucasus in recent years.The Islamist insurgency in the republic sprang from the wars in neighbouring Chechnya in the 1990s
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
and early 2000s
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
.
In June 2004, Ingush and Chechen fighters launched a large-scale attack on Ingushetia’s biggest town
2004 Nazran raid
The Nazran raid was a large-scale raid carried out in the Republic of Ingushetia, Russia, on the night of June 21-22, 2004, by a large number of mostly Chechen and Ingush militants led by the Chechen commander Shamil Basayev...
, Nazran
Nazran
Nazran is a town in the Republic of Ingushetia, Russia. It served as the republic's capital in 1991–2000, until the town of Magas was specially built as the new capital. Nazran is the largest city of the republic: -General:...
, killing scores of civilians, policemen and soldiers.
As elsewhere in the North Caucasus, the brutality of state security forces has been a major factor driving young men to join the Islamists. Under the presidency of the former KGB officer, Murat Zyazikov
Murat Zyazikov
Murat Magometovich Zyazikov is the former president of the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia. He was born in what is now Kyrgyzstan. Zyazikov was a controversial politician in Ingushetia.- Political Career :...
, teams of masked operatives kidnapped, tortured and killed suspected rebels and members of their families. Zyazikov’s successor, Yunus-bek Yevkurov
Yunus-bek Yevkurov
Yunus-bek Bamatgireyevich Yevkurov is the current president of the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia, appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev on 30 October 2008...
, appointed in 2008, has had some success in dampening the violence, although he was seriously injured in a suicide bombing by the militants during his first year in office. Human rights violations by Russian commandos have decreased but remain widespread.
The capture in June 2010 of Magas, an ethnic Ingush and one of the top leaders of the Caucasus Emirate
Caucasus Emirate
The Caucasus Emirate also known as the Caucasian Emirate is a self-proclaimed virtual state entity, partially successor to the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and was officially announced on October 31, 2007 by former President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov, who became the first Emir...
, dealt a blow to the jihadis in Ingushetia.
Kabardino-Balkaria
The insurgency in Kabardino-Balkaria began in the early 2000s and was led by the Yarmuk Jamaat, a militant Islamist jamaat which flourished as a result of persecution of pious Muslims by police and security forces.In October 2005, several score of the militants launched a raid on the capital of the republic, Nalchik
Nalchik
Nalchik is the capital city of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Russia, situated at an altitude of in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains; about northwest of Beslan in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. It covers an area of...
, which left 142 people dead. The guerrillas have also carried out numerous assassinations of government officials and law enforcement officers.
The republic saw a flare-up of violence in late 2010 and early 2011, in the wake of the death of Anzor Astemirov
Anzor Astemirov
Anzor Astemirov , also known as Emir Sayfullah , was an Islamist militant leader in the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, in the North Caucasus....
, the head of Yarmuk Jamaat who was a senior figure in the Caucasus Emirate. The new leaders of Kabardino-Balkaria’s guerrilla movement, Emir Abdullah (Asker Dzhappuyev) and Emir Zakaria (Ratmir Shameyev), preferred a more aggressive approach and the militants murdered several civilians in the republic, including Russian tourists. In response, a shadowy vigilante group called the Black Hawks threatened the relatives of some of the Islamists.
Dzhappuyev and Shameyev were killed in a special operation by security forces in April 2011.
North Osetia-Alania
On September 9, 2010, a car-bomb attack occurred at a crowded marketplace in Vladikavkaz, thecapital of North Ossetia, killing 19 adults and children and injuring over 190. President
Medvedev responded that “we will certainly do everything to catch these monsters,… who have
committed a terrorist attack against ordinary people. What's more, a barbarous terrorist attack. We
will do everything so that they are found and punished in accordance with the law of our country,
or in the case of resistance or other cases, so that they are eliminated.” The Caucasus Emirate’s
Ingush Vilayet reportedly took responsibility, stating that the attack was aimed against “Ossetian
infidels” on “occupied Ingush lands".
See also
- List of clashes in the North Caucasus
- 2008 Vladikavkaz bombing2008 Vladikavkaz bombingThe 2008 Vladikavkaz bombing took place on a routed taxicab, which was unloading passengers at a market in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, Russia on November 6, 2008 killing 12 and injuring 41. The bombing was committed by female suicide bomber.-See also:...
- 2009 Nazran bombing2009 Nazran bombingThe 2009 Nazran bombing occurred on 17 August 2009, when a suicide car bomber attacked police headquarters in Nazran, the largest city of the Republic of Ingushetia. At least 25 people were killed and 164 injured...
- 2009 Nevsky Express bombing2009 Nevsky Express bombingThe 2009 Nevsky Express bombing occurred on 27 November 2009 when a bomb exploded under a high speed train travelling between the Russian cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg causing derailment near the town of Bologoye, Tver Oblast , on the Moscow–Saint Petersburg Railway. The derailment occurred...
- 2010 Chechen Parliament attack2010 Chechen Parliament attackThe 2010 Chechen Parliament attack took place on the morning of 19 October 2010, when three Chechen militants attacked the parliament complex in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic, a federal subject of Russia. At least six people were killed, including two police officers, one parliament...
- 2010 Moscow Metro bombings2010 Moscow Metro bombingsThe 2010 Moscow Metro bombings were suicide bombings carried out by two womenduring the morning rush hour of March 29, 2010, at two stations of the Moscow Metro , with roughly 40 minutes interval between...
- 2010 Kizlyar bombings2010 Kizlyar bombingsThe 2010 Kizlyar bombings were double suicide attacks that occurred on March 31, 2010 in Kizlyar, in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. 12 people were killed and another 18 injured.-Background:...
- 2010 Stavropol bomb blast2010 Stavropol bomb blastOn 26 May 2010, at least seven people were killed in a bomb blast in Stavropol, Russia. At least 40 people were injured, one from Moscow, while another is an outsider, and another from Azerbaijan or Turkey...
- 2010 Vladikavkaz bombing2010 Vladikavkaz bombingThe 2010 Vladikavkaz bombing took place at the Central market in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania, Russia on 9 September 2010 when a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives killing at least 17 and injuring more than 160.-Background:...
- 2011 Domodedovo International Airport bombing
- Nadira IsayevaNadira IsayevaNadira Isayeva is a Russian journalist who has been internationally recognized for her reporting on security issues in North Caucasus.Isayeva is editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Chernovik in Dagestan, described by Reporters Without Borders as "Dagestan’s leading independent newspaper"...
External links
- Caucasus jihad: Terror tactics back on the horizon?, The Long War Journal, 21 May 2009
- "What Your Children Do Will Touch Upon You", Human Rights WatchHuman Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, 2 July 2009 - Russia: Protect Rights in North Caucasus Insurgency No Excuse for Abandoning Rule of Law, International Federation for Human Rights, 7 July 2009 (UNHCR)
- North Caucasus Insurgency: Major Risks And Implications, LexisNexisLexisNexisLexisNexis Group is a company providing computer-assisted legal research services. In 2006 it had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information...
, 29 September 2009