The name of the foe

LJ blogger golovin points out that while the Russian government, like Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, likes to call the guerrilla groups of the North Caucasus "bandits" or "gangsters", what Moscow's forces are really up against in the region are Islamist mujahedin (akin to the Taleban), who now comprise the Chechen resistance movement and, under the leadership of Dokka Umarov, command the support of a fair proportion of the republic's citizens. The fighters' principal aim and goal is the establishment of Sharia law throughout the North Caucasus. Akhmed Zakayev - now supposed to be ready to return to Chechnya and join Kadyrov's regime - no longer represents the Chechen opposition: one look at the Kavkaz Center website is enough to reveal the true nature of that grouping, which is certainly not dead, but is not at all "democratic" or secular. Moscow appears to be blind to this.

Islamism in Chechnya

In the aftermath of last Sunday's suicide bombing in central Grozny, Ramzan Kadyrov has blamed a Russian citizen, Alexander Tikhomirov, who goes by the name of "Said Buryatsky". According to Kadyrov, Tikhomirov's father was a Buddhist and his mother a Christian, while Tikhomirov himself is now a Muslim convert and preacher whose ideas are alleged to be widely circulated in the Chechen Islamist "underground". The suicide bomber, a young man called Rustam Mukhadiyev, is supposed to have come under the influence of Tikhomirov's Islamist preaching.

In this new public televised statement about the bombing, Kadyrov declares that the terrorists "have made it their aim to spill the blood of the Chechen people, but their days are numbered... The police and other law enforcement agencies are on their trail, and the most severe punishment awaits them, the most severe punishment that is envisaged by Russian laws."

Kadyrov is also reported as saying about the relatives of wanted insurgents: "Either let them go out and destroy their dogs themselves, or let them give them to us!" Among many Chechens this has led to fears of collective retribution.

A deal undone - 2

The tension and uncertainty that have followed the assassination of Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai are having their effect on the whole of the North Caucasus region, and Prague Watchdog's Ruslan Nasipov asks Why are the counter-terrorist operations not being lifted? [my tr.]

Russia's Islamist insurgency

Jamestown's North Caucasus Weekly has published an exclusive interview by Fatima Tlisova with the Chechen guerrilla leader Anzor Astemirov, in which the Caucasus Emirate's Sharia legislative head expresses some interesting thoughts on the current status of the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, and answers recent accusations by figures in the Russian military about suspected links with Western and Arab countries:

Financial support from the West or Arab countries is an absolute lie and a myth. If we received any support—even meager, not to mention significant—we would be much more successful in all respects. We created and systematized internal support techniques, and Sharia gives us clear rules for collecting military zakat (taxes). We prepared regulations and orders, which were distributed on our territories by our naibs (deputy commanders). In today’s situation, financial or any other types of support are no longer voluntary actions but fard ‘ain (compulsory) for every true Muslim because we are in war. We do not take anything that is above a fixed percentage rate, we do not rob poor families or those who suffered from the regime; instead, we support them as much as we can afford. For those who deny obeying the law, accepting their duty, we do use various penalties, including physical threats or even death. However, we prevent our people from unnecessary violations; we always recommend beginning with persuasion by the word rather than by the gun.    

Also in North Caucasus Weekly, analyst Mairbek Vatchagaev writes about the major crossroads now being approached by the Ingush insurgency, as the real intentions of the recently-appointed President Yunus-bek Yevkurov start to become apparent.

Kadyrov approves honour killings in Chechnya

In a further sign of the advance of political Islam within Russia's borders, Chechnya's Moscow-backed President Kadyrov has defended the shooting of seven young Chechen women, the Moscow Times reports. Commentators have preferred to see Kadyrov in opposition to figures such as Dokka Umarov, who heads the Islamist "Caucasus Emirate", but the report suggests that Kadyrov is at least as intolerant and misogynist as his supposedly more fanatical rivals.

Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had "loose morals" and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings.

"If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed," Kadyrov told journalists in Grozny.

The 32-year-old former militia leader is carrying out a campaign to impose Islamic values and strengthen the traditional customs of predominantly Muslim Chechnya in an effort to blunt the appeal of hardline Islamic separatists and shore up his power.

The Jihad link

Radio Free Europe's Liz Fuller examines the re-introduction of conscription of young Chechen men into the Russian armed forces, which resumes this autumn after a gap of several years. Excerpt:

...in line with a directive issued by Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov, not only young men born in 1990 will be liable for conscription this year, but all those born between 1981 and 1990, regnum.ru reported on April 3.

That assertion raises several questions: is Kadyrov seeking to round up the entire male population between 17 and 28 and ship them out of Chechnya to serve elsewhere in Russia in order to deprive the North Caucasus resistance of potential recruits? Kadyrov has on several occasions in recent months lambasted local officials for failing to halt the exodus of young men who leave home to fight under the banner of self-proclaimed imam of the North Caucasus Doku Umarov. Indeed, how many of the pool of 70,000 hypothetical draftees have jumped the gun and already joined the resistance ranks? And could the harsh conditions of army service outside Chechnya, including the hazing for which the Russian armed forces are notorious, impel more young men to make that choice?