The North Caucasus: Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia

[OUTLAW 09]

Official Repression of Salafis in North Caucasus Seen Radicalizing Other Muslims There
http://www.interpretermag.com/offici...muslims-there/ …

[davidbfpo]

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:

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.

[OUTLAW 09]

…
via @zvezdanews
Well IS did promise Russia a response to their being in Syria......

Explosion at checkpoint in Dagestan
http://isis.liveuamap.com/en/2016/30...nt-in-dagestan …
pic.twitter.com/8QEYb2ggOe
via @tombreadley

[davidbfpo]

A long Reuters report, sub=titled:

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.

[davidbfpo]

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:

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:

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

[OUTLAW 09]

While Russian bombs anti Assad opposition they seem to have their own jihadi problems at home.....
Big shoot-out in Dagestan, apparently
https://twitter.com/lifenews_ru/stat...47888665157637 …

Russian counter-terror operation in Dagestan: 4 spetsnaz KIA; 6 wounded in the district of Derbenthttps://tvrain.ru/news/dagestan-411537/ …
Entire Spetsnaz team taken out it appears....

3 districts in #Dagestan, south #Russia, experienced #fighting between the police & Islamist militants last night:
https://lenta.ru/news/2016/06/17/dag...medium=twitter …

[OUTLAW 09]

Protest in #Makhachkala, #Dagestan, about imam's appointment to a local #mosque turned violent: see video
https://youtu.be/3qsLMWfnCWA?list=PL...x6SB6RSEsdzmN_ …

[OUTLAW 09]

Rights group says Suleimanov, listed as shot in recent Dagestan CTO, may actually have been kidnapped and killed
https://eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/35977/

[davidbfpo]

At a recent conference @ Oxford University, hosted by Pembroke College, entitled 'The Lure of Jihad: Propaganda & the Construction of Jihadist Identities' amidst the presentations was one talk that fits here: 'Emirate or Caliphate? Competing Calls to Jihad in the North Caucasus Insurgency' by Mark Youngman, of Birmingham University.

In the potted history given he pointed out that:

1. The 2007 proclamation of a Caucasus Emirate was a victory of the jihadists over the nationalists;
2. The split in Syria of the JMA, a Chechen group, in late 2013, was quickly replicated in the North Caucasus. This was followed by the Emirate being significantly weakened and then in July 2015 an ISIS Wilayah was proclaimed;
3. This declaration was very dubious, with virtually no media explanation and no explanation how this would affect the domestic situation.

In a discussion it was suggested that the "split" was inspired by the FSB. This was supported by the first IS statement appearing on a website the FSB ran! It suits the FSB's purpose that all their opponents are IS.

[Azor]

At a recent conference @ Oxford University, hosted by Pembroke College, entitled 'The Lure of Jihad: Propaganda & the Construction of Jihadist Identities' amidst the presentations was one talk that fits here: 'Emirate or Caliphate? Competing Calls to Jihad in the North Caucasus Insurgency' by Mark Youngman, of Birmingham University.

In the potted history given he pointed out that:

1. The 2007 proclamation of a Caucasus Emirate was a victory of the jihadists over the nationalists;
2. The split in Syria of the JMA, a Chechen group, in late 2013, was quickly replicated in the North Caucasus. This was followed by the Emirate being significantly weakened and then in July 2015 an ISIS Wilayah was proclaimed;
3. This declaration was very dubious, with virtually no media explanation and no explanation how this would affect the domestic situation.

In a discussion it was suggested that the "split" was inspired by the FSB. This was supported by the first IS statement appearing on a website the FSB ran! It suits the FSB's purpose that all their opponents are IS.

Putin's approach in Chechnya worked because he was able to co-opt a major rebel faction and enable it to subdue the restive republic, not unlike how the US-led coalition worked with the Northern Alliance in 2001 against the Taliban. Of course victory is never complete and the Kadyrovtsi and Russian security forces will be playing whack-a-mole in that rugged country until the end days.

The dual Syrian and Iraqi Civil Wars provided the perfect safety valve for the build up of Islamist tension in the Caucasus, and the Russian are rumored to have facilitated the jihadi trail to Nusra and Daesh where these fighters could be bombed by the Syrians, Iraqis, Russians and Americans, turn on each other or be taken out of the game by other rebel factions. This tactic was tried by Bashar Al-Assad during the Iraq War, although it only deferred the problem...

See here from Jamestown on Caucasian Radicalization:

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_...6e9d535a3d8c99

[OUTLAW 09]

DFR Lab @DFRLab
"Dear friends! ...we have neutralized a very dangerous militant group" #Kadyrov’s Hunt for an #ISIS Sleeper Cell:
https://medium.com/p/4d38cbbe3f11/

[OUTLAW 09]

The antiterrorist op conducted in Vremenny (Dagestan), in which a whole village was destroyed, now in the ECHR:
http://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/296209/#

[OUTLAW 09]

Chechen militants emerging from the forests as winter ends - both IS-linked cadres, and small unknown groups
http://www.kavkazr.com/a/v-lesakh-ch...28401895.html#

Chechnya has seen 4 major militant attacks in last 4 months - marked shift from prevailing calm in 2015 - late 2016
http://www.kavkazr.com/a/v-chechne-n...28400863.html#

[OUTLAW 09]

Social media calls to murder gays in Chechnya; many fleeing republic; victims include clergy and TV anchors
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles...m_source=push#

Chechnya doing everything today to avoid a large scale gay pride march....

Mass crackdown on LGBT in Chechnya; more than 100 men detained; a few released; at least 3 confirmed killed;
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles...m_source=push#

[OUTLAW 09]

Kadyrov spox: Gays not persecuted in Chechnya b/c any gays there would be sent somewhere "they wouldn't return" from
http://www.interfax.ru/russia/556385

[OUTLAW 09]

.@novaya_gazeta fears for safety of reporters after Chechen Islamic leaders swear vengeance over gay abuse reports:
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles...res-redaktsii#

Chechnya has created a single prison now for gays...many have been arrested/tortured...then killed and or have simply "disappeared" leading to claims gays do not exist in Chechnya....

Unbelievably sad, grim, important story by @shaunwalker7 on persecution of men suspected of being gay in Chechnya:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...nti-gay-purge#

Russia urged to investigate alleged killings of gay people in Chechnya
http://ti.me/2odEpUU

[OUTLAW 09]

First hand accounts of the purge of gay men going on in Chechnya right now. Grim but necessary reading.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...=share_btn_tw#

[OUTLAW 09]

First hand accounts of the purge of gay men going on in Chechnya right now. Grim but necessary reading.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...=share_btn_tw#

Important:
There's open hunt for Russian journalists behind gay murders expos in Chechnya
https://en.hromadske.ua/posts/journa...are-threatened

A promise of “retribution without statute of limitations” for those risking their safety to report on the atrocities happening in #Chechnya.

[OUTLAW 09]

Chechen minister says divine retribution threats against Novaya Gazeta journos are just "ordinary local rhetoric."

https://meduza.io/news/2017/04/17/ch...skoy-ritorikoy …

[OUTLAW 09]

Moscow-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said that the Islamic State group (ISIS) is sending Nato-trained assassins to kill him.