Experts Say Conflict in North Caucasus Waning – But Far From Over

Map of Chechnya and Environs

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – February 18, 2015) Though the security situation has improved in Russia’s turbulent North Caucasus, which for years has been plagued by almost daily battles between police and Islamic insurgents, the reduced number of fatalities seen in 2014 may just be the calm before the storm, analysts said Tuesday. “This may be the end of […]

» Read more

Interfax: Making people choose between terror, blasphemy wrong – Russian church official

Archpriest Vsevolad Chaplin file photo

(Interfax – January 14, 2015) Forcing people to choose between terrorism and blasphemy is dangerous, public relations chief of the Russian Orthodox Church Vsevolod Chaplin has said. He was speaking on the Russian Orthodox Church TV channel Spas on 14 January, as reported by Russian privately-owned news agency Interfax. A week after the deadly attacks in Paris, today the French […]

» Read more

RIA Novosti: Russian diplomat calls for renewed cooperation with West against ISIS

Map of Area Spanning Portions of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, highlighting military engagements against ISIL

(RIA Novosti – January 13, 2015) The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) poses just as much of a threat to Russia as it does to the West, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department of new threats and challenges, Ilya Rogachev, was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti (part of the state-owned International News Agency Rossiya Segodnya) on 13 January. “ISIL […]

» Read more

In Implicit Criticism Of West, Russia’s FM Calls For ‘More Serious’ Fight Against IS

Map of Middle East and North Africa with Inset Map of Holy Land

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Joanna Paraszczuk – January 13, 2015) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for a “more serious” fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, amid reports that the militant group is present in Afghanistan and is expanding elsewhere. “‘Islamic State’ is a structure that calls for a great deal more attention and a more serious reaction. […]

» Read more

In Russia, Tears and Jeers After Charlie Hebdo Massacre

Paris, France, View from Eiffel Tower

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – January 12, 2015) A mixture of genuine grief, petty political pandering and condemnation of a vaguely defined notion of blasphemy have dominated a broad array of Russian reactions to the massacre at French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead. As much of the world commiserates with France in the aftermath […]

» Read more

NEWSWATCH: In 2015, Vladimir Putin may witness his empire’s death knell

Vladimir Putin

[“In 2015, Vladimir Putin may witness his empire’s death knell” – Strobe Talbott – Reuters – Dec. 16, 2014] Strobe Talbott predicts that a third Chechen War could break out in 2015, sounding the death knell for Russia’s current geographic configuration. Indeed, Talbott comments that Russia could break apart by the end this century, and that the policies of Russian President […]

» Read more

What Can Russia Bring to War Against Islamic State?

Map of Area Spanning Portions of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, highlighting military engagements against ISIL

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko – October 28, 2014) Moscow will not join the U.S. effort to thwart the Islamic State terrorist group until Russian-American relations improve, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this weekend. The big question, however, is whether Russia is in fact in a position to offer any substantial aid to the anti-jihad campaign – […]

» Read more

Moscow Times: Russians More Afraid of U.S. Than Islamic Terrorism, Survey Shows

File Photo of Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama Seated Before Russian and U.S. Flags

(Moscow Times – moscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – October 22, 2014) Nearly a quarter of Russians believe that the United States poses a bigger terrorist threat to their country than radical Islamists, a survey published Tuesday showed. Twenty-two percent of respondents to the poll by the state-run All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), titled “Terrorist Threats Against Russia: New Sources,” […]

» Read more

NEW BOOK: The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond

Caucasus Mountains Satellite Image

Subject: Book announcement Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 From: GORDON HAHN <gordon-hahn@sbcglobal.net> My most recent book – The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond – has been published by McFarland Publishers. It is available for purchase from the publisher and Amazon. The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond Gordon M. […]

» Read more

Interfax: Most Russians unaware of ISIL, others see it as threat to peace, Russia – poll

Map of Iraq

MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) – Only 13% of Russians are aware of the existence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and 54% learned about it during a poll held by the Public Opinion Foundation. Another 26% of 1,500 respondents polled in 43 regions on September 28 had heard something about the ISIL, and 7% failed to […]

» Read more

Islamic State Grooms Chechen Fighters Against Putin

Map of Iraq

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Michael Winfrey – October 9, 2014) When the Islamic State commander known as “Omar the Chechen” called to tell his father they’d routed the Iraqi army and taken the city of Mosul, he added a stark message: Russia would be next. “He said ‘don’t worry dad, I’ll come home and show the Russians,’” Temur Batirashvili said […]

» Read more

RIA Novosti: Fears of Radicalization Among Muslim Youth Rising in Russia

Russian Mosque File Photo

MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) – There is an increasing risk of radicalization among Muslim youth in Russia, Russian News Paper Kommersant reported on Wednesday. A large group of Muslim youth attacked a police bus on September 26, as the police arrested a man, who drove into an officer, after being told to move his car, parked in a no-parking […]

» Read more

One Year After Leader’s Death, North Caucasus Insurgency Soldiers On

Doku Umarov file photo

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Liz Fuller – September 7, 2014) September 7 marks the first anniversary of the death from poisoning of Doku Umarov, the Chechen field commander who abandoned the cause of an independent Chechen Republic Ichkeria in 2007 and instead proclaimed a Caucasus Emirate (IK) encompassing the entire North Caucasus. While Umarov’s death has had only minimal impact on the […]

» Read more

Moscow Times: U.S.-Russia Split Over Ukraine Gives Islamic State Upper Hand

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – September 5, 2014) As the NATO summit gets under way in Wales and world leaders put on a united front against the growing threat posed by radical terrorist organization the Islamic State, continued bickering between Russia and the West over events in Ukraine threatens to give the “apocalyptic” group carte blanche to […]

» Read more

Islamic State to Putin: We Are on Our Way to Russia

Syria Map

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – September 4, 2014) Members of the Islamic State, a violent group of extremists presently terrorizing Iraq and Syria, have released a video threatening President Vladimir Putin and vowing to wage war in Russia’s restive North Caucasus. Message to Putin A video released by Al Arabiya and reportedly filmed in a seized airport in […]

» Read more

Upsurge in Terrorism in Russia ‘Not Just about Sochi’ and Won’t End with Olympiad, Analyst Says

File Photo of Sochi Olympics Banner Near Highway in Warm Weather with Vehicle and Cyclicsts Nearby

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 20, 2104) Most commentaries in Moscow and the West have argued that the recent terrorist actions in Volgograd were undertaken to disrupt the Sochi Olympics, a suggestion that some in the Russian capital have invoked to justify even tighter security for that competition. But even if those behind the attacks are […]

» Read more

More Ethnic Russians are Converting to Islam and a Few are Becoming Terrorists

Russian Mosque File Photo

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 2, 2013) Official identification of one of the terrorist bombers in Volgograd as an ethnic Russian from Mari El who converted to Islam and fought on the side of the militants in Daghestan has attracted attention to a trend that most Russians have been reluctant to discuss: the growing number of […]

» Read more

Interfax: MP Starshinov urges counter-propaganda, covert intelligence in fight against religious extremism

Map of Russia

MOSCOW. Dec 31 (Interfax) – Russian Popular Front Central Council member, head of the inter-faction group for interaction between civil society, police and security services Mikhail Starshinov (United Russia) has proposed a number of operative measures regarding the Volgograd terror attacks. “I am confident that we need to increase the number of investigators, especially in the North Caucasus, and to […]

» Read more

Interfax: Terrorists cannot be called humans, deserve no mercy – head of Caucasus Muslim Board

Kremlin and St. Basil's

MOSCOW. Dec 31 (Interfax) – The head of the Muslim Board of the Caucasus, Allahshukur Pashazadeh, has extended his condolences following the deadly terrorist attacks in Russia’s southern city of Volgograd. “It is absolutely obvious that the terrorist attacks were meant to incite ethnic and religious hatred between people. Islam, as a religion of peace and creation, resolutely condemns the […]

» Read more

Volgograd Explosion Highlights Putin’s Failure in Fight against Terrorism, Russian Blogger Says

Large Mother Russia Statue Near Volgograd

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 30, 2013) Vladimir Putin rose to power “under the slogan of the struggle with terrorism,” and he has routinely invoked that challenge to justify the growth of his security agencies and the harshest measures against society; but as the terrorist incident in Volgograd yesterday shows, the Kremlin leader is failing in […]

» Read more

In Wake Of Repeated Bombings, A Question: Why Volgograd?

Large Mother Russia Statue Near Volgograd

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Daisy Sindelar – December 30, 2013) Dual bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd have left more than 30 people dead and scores more injured. Why has Volgograd — and not Moscow or Sochi — become the repeated target of terror attacks? Until this autumn, Volgograd was a relatively quiet Russian city, known best for its […]

» Read more

Parents of Volgograd Train Station Bomber Pleaded for His Return

Kremlin and St. Basil's file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – December 30, 2013) [Videos here http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/parents-of-volgograd-train-station-bomber-pleaded-for-his-return-video/492336.html] The Volgograd train station bomb that killed at least 17 people on Sunday was set off by a Russian man from the nearby region of Mary El who had converted to Islam and joined Dagestani militants, officials said. The suspect, identified as Pavel Pechyonkin, worked as […]

» Read more

Interfax: Most Russians say tensions remain in North Caucasus – poll

Map of Chechnya and Environs

MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) – Russians think that the North Caucasian situation remains tense and do not expect stabilization of the situation soon, Levada Center told Interfax. Only 17% of the respondents claim that the North Caucasus is calm and prosperous, and 63% say there are tensions. Ten percent of 1,603 respondents polled in 130 towns and cities in 45 […]

» Read more

Paying for terror in Russia

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – November 14, 2013) On November 2, President Vladimir Putin signed a controversial law changing Russia’s anti-terrorism legislation, enabling law enforcement authorities to confiscate the property of relatives of anyone who has committed a terror attack. The Moscow News has asked five experts to weigh in on whether the law will work and […]

» Read more

On your marks, get set… intercept!

File Photo of Sochi Olympics Banner Near Highway in Warm Weather with Vehicle and Cyclicsts Nearby

(opendemocracy.net – Mark Galeotti – October 29, 2013) Mark Galeotti is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University’s SCPS Center for Global Affairs. He blogs on Russian security affairs at In Moscow’s Shadows and tweets as @MarkGaleotti. His most recent book is Russian Security and Paramilitary Forces since 1991 (Osprey, 2013) Russia is devoting considerable effort to trying to […]

» Read more

Obama Joins Putin War as Syria Jihadists Stalk Olympics

File Photo of Sochi Olympics Banner Near Highway in Warm Weather with Vehicle and Cyclicsts Nearby

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov and Henry Meyer – October 25, 2013) President Vladimir Putin is turning to Barack Obama for help protecting the costliest Winter Games ever from attacks by Islamic extremists, including hundreds of battle-hardened jihadists now fighting in Syria. About 400 Russian nationals, mainly from the North Caucasus, are currently battling President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in […]

» Read more

Russia’s Female Suicide Bombers: Well-Organized and Hard to Stop

Map of European Portion of Former Soviet Union

MOSCOW, October 24 (Nabi Abdullaev, RIA Novosti) – Investigators say that moments after Naida Asiyalova, a wan 30-year-old from Russia’s violence-plagued republic of Dagestan, boarded a public bus one afternoon this week in the city of Volgograd, the bomb she was carrying exploded, claiming six lives. The apparent attack serves as another reminder of the grim effectiveness of female suicide […]

» Read more

Russian Suicide Bomb Spurs Terror Alert as Putin Meets Muftis

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer and Ilya Arkhipov – October 22, 2013) Russian investigators probed yesterday’s suicide bombing that killed six bus passengers in Volgograd as the southern region was placed on high alert hours before President Vladimir Putin met Muslim clerics. The suspected female suicide bomber arrived from the capital of the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan, disembarking […]

» Read more

Russia Again Caught Between Disintegration and Dictatorship, Editor Says

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 17, 2013) The Russian Federation finds itself in a Zugswang, a German term for a situation in which any move leads to a loss, according to the editor of “Kulturolog.” And in its case, the situation is especially dire because the country increasingly finds itself forced to choose between disintegration and […]

» Read more

Interfax: Expert says there are about one million Islamists in Russia

Map of European Portion of Former Soviet Union

(Interfax – October 11, 2013) Some one million Russian Muslims are radicals, Roman Silantyev, deputy head of the expert council for the state theological review under the Justice Ministry, has said, as reported by privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax on 11 October. “On the whole, the number of Islamists in Russia may be approximately estimated at one million people, i.e. […]

» Read more

Russia’s North Caucasus, Islamists seen as main terrorist threats – poll

Map of Chechnya and Environs

(Interfax – September 7, 2013) A majority of Russians (55 per cent) are confident, to greater or lesser extent, that the authorities are able to protect the public from new terrorist attacks, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 3 September, quoting the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM). (1) This answer has become more popular over the past three years […]

» Read more

Pundit says Islamism greatest threat to Russia’s national security

Russian Mosque File Photo

(Interfax – Moscow, May 22, 2013) Radical Islam has taken roots in 55 Russian regions, former Interior Minister and president of the Club of Russian Military Commanders Army Gen Anatoliy Kulikov said at a scientific conference “Islamism and Russia’s national security” today. “Radical political Islam, or Islamism, which has declared jihad on our country, is the most real threat to […]

» Read more

Russian analysts: immigrants, guest workers fertile ground for radical Islamism

Russian Mosque File Photo

(Interfax / Religion – Moscow, May 15, 2013) The head of a Russian policy think tank has argued that immigrants and guest workers who have come to Russia from Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union are potentially a fertile environment for radical Islamist ideas and called for tighter restrictions on immigration and guest labor. “The migrants are hostile toward […]

» Read more

Tsarnaev Case Highlights Communication Breakdown Between Daghestani Agencies

Boston Bombings Suspects File Photo Adapted from FBI Image

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Liz Fuller – April 30, 2013) The Boston Marathon bombings have served to corroborate many observers’ previously unsubstantiated hunch that one reason for the Russian security services’ inability to contain the North Caucasus insurgency is that the various agencies responsible fail to share information among themselves. In this particular case, Daghestan’s Center for the Struggle Against […]

» Read more

Daghestani Insurgency Denies Any Role In Boston Bombings

File Photo of Boston Bombings Aftermath with Ambulance and Security Personnel

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Liz Fuller – April 22, 2013) The Daghestani wing of the North Caucasus insurgency has formally denied any role in the Boston Marathon bombings. In a brief statement posted on April 21 on the website vDagestan.com, its leaders stress that their primary enemy is Russia and they “are not engaged in military hostilities with the United […]

» Read more

Risks Seen as U.S. Media Spotlight North Caucasus

File Photo of Groznya, Looking out Through Hole in Damaged Building at City Landscape in Daylight

(RIA Novosti – Christopher Boian – WASHINGTON, April 22, 2013) A week ago, most Americans had never heard of the North Caucasus. But the region in southern Russia has abruptly filled TV screens in US homes after it became part of the Boston Marathon bombing story, and experts warn such speed reporting on a complex subject can distort as much […]

» Read more

Chechen ‘Jihadist International’ emerges in Syria

Syria Map

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Mark Galeotti, special to RBTH – April 15, 2013) Mark Galeotti is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University. His blog, ‘In Moscow’s Shadows,’ can be read here: inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/ The result of the Syrian crisis is likely to affect Russia’s positions in the world and influence in the Middle East. At the […]

» Read more

FSB Chief: US Steps Up Geopolitical Pressure on Russia

File Photo of Partial FSB Headquarters Building Facade

MOSCOW, February 14 (RIA Novosti) – Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday the United States has increased geopolitical pressure on Russia in 2012. “Last year saw an escalation in geopolitical pressure on Russia on behalf of the United States and its allies, who still regard our state as a rival on the international arena,” he told […]

» Read more

Russian-Arab relations: Exporting immoral values?

Middle East Map

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Alaa Omar, special to RBTH – February 8, 2013) In response to Russia’s support of Bashar Assad in Syria, Russia has been condemned in Arab media and press as hostile to Islam, exporting only “immoral values” to the region. Independent journalist and political analyst Alaa Omar takes a look at the other side […]

» Read more

NEWSLINK: The Caucasus Emirate Goes Global

Chechen Militants file photo

(The Caucasus Emirate Goes Global – Stratfor.com – Gordon Hahn – Dr. Gordon M. Hahn is Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. – www.stratfor.com/other-voices/caucasus-emirate-goes-global) Gordon Hahn writes on the influences of international Islamic terrorism upon unrest in the Caucasus: For a decade almost all observers ignored, downplayed, and obfuscated an ugly truth about […]

» Read more
1 2