The North Caucasus: Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia

[davidbfpo]

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.

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An Open Democracy article; that starts with:

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

[davidbfpo]

A rare report on a village in Dagestan, in summary:

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