The North Caucasus: Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia

[davidbfpo]

A long article 'Russia’s Playing a Double Game With Islamic Terror' in The Daily Beast by Michael Weiss; the sub-title is:

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:

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:

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).