ACPC Weekly News UPDATE
August 16, 2010 – August 22, 2010

 

On Tuesday, August 17, a powerful bomb exploded in a car parked outside a cafe in a busying street in Pyatigorsk, the capital of the North Caucasus Federal District. The deadly blast injured at least 30 people, according to official sources. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, most commentators point to the North Caucasus rebels affiliated with Doku Umarov. The authorities maintain to have obtained ‘vital information’ about the perpetrators of the attack, with Rashid Nurgaliyev, the Interior Minister of the Russian Federation, announcing the existence of ‘a real investigative base in the Pyatigorsk case’. However, no credible evidence has been provided to corroborate this claim. The owner of the car has been identified as Alexander Kim, a resident of Chechnya.

 

In response to the attack, Dmitriy Medvedev used harsh rhetoric to denounce the attack and promised to ‘eliminate’ perpetrators, echoing his predecessor Vladimir Putin’s infamously tough language with regard to Chechen rebels. Also, on Tuesday, August 17, a suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint on the border of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, killing at least one officer and wounding several others. The Tuesday’s attacks revived painful memories of last year’s deadly terrorist act in Nazran, Ingushetia, where 20 people were killed and 140 injured. A commemorative event, remembering the victims of last year’s attack, took place in Ingushetia on August 17. 

 

The Kremlin has been struggling to contain violence in the volatile region, lying in a close proximity to Sochi, the site of the 2014 winter Olympics. Meanwhile, a recent opinion poll carried out by the ‘Levada’ center revealed that Russians are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the situation in the region, with 74% of the respondents describing the situation as ‘volatile’ and ‘in crisis’ and 68% expressing ‘little hope’ that the situation would improve.

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Deadly Suicide Attacks in North Caucasus:

 

The past week has marked an upsurge of violence in Dagestan. On Monday, August 16, two car bombs rocked Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. On Friday, August 20, authorities claimed to have killed four militants in the Khasavyurt district. Later this week, Russian security forces killed Magomedali Vagabov, the suspected mastermind behind the twin suicide bombings that claimed 40 lives in the Moscow metro in March, 2010. According to officials, Vagabov was the husband of Mariam Sharipova, one of the two women from Dagestan, identified as the suicide bombers in the March attacks in Moscow. Sharipova’s family, however, refuted the claim.

 

This week’s developments again drew attention to the situation in the violence-plagued republic. Earlier last week, Medvedev held a meeting in Sochi where he addressed the detrimental impact of the soaring violence on the republic’s investment climate and discussed the overall development of the region, and Dagestan in particular. The President criticized the special envoy, Aleksandr Khloponin, for failing to secure investment for ‘a single proposed project in Dagestan’. Critics notice increased desperation in Medvedev’s approach to Dagestan, remarking that ‘Medvedev may, in the final analysis, decide he has no choice than to revert to Putin's policy of brute force in a desperate bid to stabilize the region prior to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi’. Recently, Dagestan has taken over Chechnya and Ingushetia as the epicenter of violence in the North Caucasus.

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Four Alleged Militants Killed in Dagestan

RFE/RL, August 21, 2010

Attacks on Women Increase in Chechnya during Ramadan

There has been a reported increase in violence and intimidation against women in Chechnya since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan on August 12. Many women report to have been harassed by bearded men in Islamic dresses, demanding that women wear a headscarf. This campaign of intimidation and forceful imposition of traditional religious attire is part of Ramzan Kadyrov’s overall strategy to enforce and promote his vision of Islam in the Chechen society. Earlier this week, on the orders of the spiritual leader of Chechnya, Sultan Mirzayev, all cafes and restaurants completely shut down during Ramadan, a measure considered extreme even for conservative Muslim states that allow breaking the fast after sunset. Last month, Kadyrov came under fire for condoningtargeting women with paintball pellets for not wearing headscarves in Chechnya. As noted by experts, imposition of Islamic rules appears to be one of Kadyrov’s attempts to tighten control over the republic.

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Women without headscarves targeted in Muslim Chechnya