Chechen militants: ‘more prestigious’ to fight for Islamic State
Initially posted as it's own thread for visibility, a nice writeup on our old buddies the Chechen Muj.
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Fighters from Chechnya are one of the forces behind IS’s meteoric rise in Syria. The attraction to jihad is not only ideological but practical.
“The Syrian ‘jihad’ began as a sort of proxy conflict for fighters who could not go home to fight in Chechnya or Dagestan,” says Joanna Paraszczuk, a journalist and blogger who has lived and worked in the Middle East and Russia and has a special interest in researching Russian-speaking foreign fighters in Syria. Many of them, she says, are wanted by security authorities.
http://syriadirect.org/main/36-inter...-islamic-state
Moderator at work: this post was in a stand alone, with 2.4k views then merged into a 2015 thread andf now merged to here (ends).
Why aren't more people paying attention to Chechnya?
Cited in part:
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Originally Posted by
craigdouglasalbert
Why aren't more people paying attention to Chechnya?
Craig,
For many reasons most regular SWJ posters watches other places than the Caucasus region and those places can change. Secondly for a long time I suspect many people thought the Chechen fighters threat was exaggerated, so tended to dismiss Chechens and Chechnya. Add in the difficulty for most media to report within the region - which is very rare - so one is left with accepting state or insurgent views or locating a reliable distant observer.
Many readers I suspect think Chechnya is "In Russia's backyard" so leave it to them. Then when Chechens appear in the Ukraine, on both sides, it gets confusing.
So you are welcome to present your viewpoint and readers.
Chechnya, War Without Trace
Showing @ the Frontline Club, London on Friday 12 June 2015, 7 PM an Al-Jazeera documentary:
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In the space of just a few years, Chechnya has undergone a remarkable transformation. Gone are the minefields and piles of rubble, which have now been replaced by broad avenues, luxury boutiques and glass-fronted skyscrapers. It’s virtually impossible to see that there was ever a war.Award-winning journalist Manon Loizeau has spent the past 20 years covering the Chechen conflict. In Chechnya, War Without Trace she returns to the places she knew well, filming undercover, to examine the lasting effects of conflict with Russia.
Behind the gleaming facade of the new Grozny, Loizeau discovers women and men seemingly more terrified now than during all the years of war and occupation. Although a fifth of the population vanished during the war, a fear of persecution has led to a collective forgetting of history.
Loizeau mixes the moving stories of those who search in vain for their loved ones with footage capturing the newly-polished surface of Chechnya, a country that remains internally traumatised and restless.
Chechnya, War Without Trace won the Grand Prize of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) at 2015 FIFDH (Human Rights Forum and Film Festival) in Geneva.
Shortly after the showing it will appear on the club's YouTube channel, plus the Q&A:http://www.frontlineclub.com/screeni...hout-trace-qa/
The Russians are sending the Chechens to ISIS?
A long article 'Russia’s Playing a Double Game With Islamic Terror' in The Daily Beast by Michael Weiss; the sub-title is:
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Even as America touts its counterterrorism partnerships with Russia, evidence points to the FSB directly feeding Dagestanis to ISIS
Link:http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...c-terror.html?
I have placed the thread here as whilst Moscow features, the Caucasus is the focal point. IRRC allegations have been made before that supposedly legendary Chechen fighters are in the Middle East, Weiss assembles a good case that they are in effect being exported. Note he relies on one study of a village as a test case.
A couple of choice passages:
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It may sound paradoxical—helping the enemy of your friend—but the logic is actually straightforward: Better the terrorists go abroad and fight in Syria than blow things up in Russia. Penetrating and co-opting terrorism also has a long, well-attested history in the annals of Chekist tradecraft.
Hence a reported 50% drop in violence in the region.
Not that exporting Islamist fighters, many then aspiring and without extensive experience, is unprecedented - remember Afghanistan? Weiss cites the head of the Jamestown Foundation:
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What’s the most significant policy decision we made to bring down the Soviet Union? Us sending foreign fighters into Afghanistan. This is the perfect form of payback. Create a quagmire in Syria, get us bogged down—all the while, offer your cooperation in helping to root out terrorism.
One wonders how the Assad regime and their Iranian allies view this export drive. I expect the Syrians know all too well what is going on and of course Russia still supplies ample ammunition and weapons.
Moderator at work: this post was in a stand alone thread, with 5k views now merged to here (ends).
The Chechens have taken an almost mythical nature
The Chechens were reported to be going to Afghanistan in this 2007 thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=3754
A cautionary note and wise words from Tom Odom.
How to fight Islamic State in Chechnya
An Open Democracy article; that starts with:
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t’s no secret that young men and women from the North Caucasus are fighting in Iraq and Syria for Islamic State. From Europe, where they lived as refugees, and Egypt and Syria, where they studied in religious institutes, men and women originally from Russia’s North Caucasus have been travelling to join Islamic State (IS) over the past 18 months. But there are also young men and women who have travelled to Iraq and Syria from Chechnya itself. And now these fighters are appearing on YouTube, declaring they will return to their homeland and ‘put things right’. Chechnya’s security services, however, are trying to limit the influence of IS ideology on the republic’s youth, which continues to emigrate under various guises.
Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-rus...te-in-chechnya
Dagestan: a village opts for bottom up counter-insurgency
A rare report on a village in Dagestan, in summary:
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This village used to house one of the North Caucasus’ most dangerous Islamist paramilitary units. With the Russian state nowhere to be seen, Gubden has started policing—and developing—itself.
Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-rus...ice-themselves
Murder in Istanbul: Kremlin's hand suspected in shooting of Chechen
The focus of this long article is Istanbul's Chechen community, but refers to events back home:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...id-edelgireyev
I was intrigued by this passage and the highlighted remark:
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By 2012, he was ready to fight again, but conditions in Chechnya had become almost impossible. The Chechen source now living in Ukraine explained how things got progressively harder from 2004, when mobile phones began to be widespread in Chechnya.
“Before, we would go to the villages, stock up and spend the night, and then go back to the forest, but that’s impossible now. Everyone has a mobile phone; the minute you show yourself you’re dead.
"Russian Spy" Karaeva's Execution by ISIS: Is There More Than Meets the Eye?
New thread for visibility and this is an intriguing matter, by an Indian author who "lurks" here. A Russian woman spy for 4-5yrs within, my emphasis:
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It is therefore very surprising that ISIS had, on its own, admitted a Russian intelligence agency’s penetration for 4-5 years into their group in the May issue of their “Istok” magazine. This was picked up by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) who published it on 9 May 2016 quoting long excerpts from their statement that they had executed a woman named Elvira Karaeva belonging to its Caucasus affiliate.
Rightly the author points out:
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Terrorist groups do not normally give details how they frustrate intelligence penetration into their ranks unless it is for propaganda advantage.....We should remember that the ISIS intelligence is manned by Saddam era specialists (Mukhabarat) who had close contacts with Soviet intelligence.
Link:http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/N...-Meets-the-Eye
How Russia allowed homegrown radicals to go and fight in Syria
A long Reuters report, sub=titled:
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For years Islamic militants in Russia were hunted by police. But then the authorities changed tack and allowed some to travel to the Middle East, sources say.
Link:http://www.reuters.com/investigates/...sia-militants/
Hat tip to Outlaw09 for spotting this and posting a link elsewhere.