Russia Can't Handle The Islamists In The North Caucasus

I've been saying for quite some time that Russia has one of the most underpublicized jihad problems in the world. And just this month, another signal was sent to Russian leadership in Moscow that the region of the North Caucasus is surely slipping away from them and into the hands of the islamic terrorists. Now, in the article here from TIME, you will see mention of a lot of other ethnic groups and widespread violence in this region of Russia, but I assure you, the problems of the Kremlin revolve around the biggest group in the region - the muslims.

Here's a bit from the article:

On June 5, Adilgerei Magomedtagirov, the interior minister of Dagestan, in Russia's North Caucasus, attended a wedding at a restaurant in the center of the republic's capital Makhachkala. When he stepped outside to talk to his brother and a co-worker, they were met with a spray of bullets shot from a nearby building. Magomedtagirov, who was also Dagestan's top police official, died almost instantly; three others, including the bride's father, were wounded, one fatally.

Much of the violence is carried out by Muslim militants who have declared war on police and state officials, calling them anti-Islamic for their allegiance to Russia. Other clashes are interethnic, with a century of conflict behind them.

"All kinds of freaks are coming here to do harm on our territory," Medvedev said to reporters when he visited Makhachkala on Tuesday. "This is a gauntlet thrown down to authority, to the state."

But it's clear that system is breaking down and now leaders in Moscow are at a loss for a solution. Sending Russian troops into these areas would not be effective, as keeping track of insurgents is an almost impossible task. Blocking funds to the republics is also not an option.

You'd think the Russians would have learned a lesson from Afghanistan - they are now seeing the same unrest and revolt by muslims throughout the North Caucasus region and the Russian government is clueless - they say they don't want to create upheaval by sending in troops but the fact of the matter is they are leary of sending troops because they know they will sustain heavy losses. But they have to be cognizant of the fact that the islamists are gaining ground and before they know it, the muslims will simply take over these smaller areas.

Right now, it takes some serious hunting to find the reports of the islamic jihad in Russia but believe me, we will be seeing much more spectacular uprisings and terror in the coming months and news outlets will no longer be able to ignore it.

Has Russia Lost Control of the North Caucasus?

The shooting raised few eyebrows in Dagestan, where blood feuds and gang wars punctuate daily life. Magomedtagirov's assassination was one of a handful in the volatile North Caucasus region in a week, and it was the second murder of a high-ranking police officer in Dagestan within a month. But in Moscow, the news of Magomedtagirov's death was enough to give President Dmitri Medvedev a jolt. Although murders of civilians and police have become common in the North Caucasus, the killing of a prominent state worker is a sign that the region is slipping out of the Kremlin's control.
The North Caucasus region, located between Europe, Asia and the Middle East, consists of a cluster of semiautonomous republics, many of them Islamic, arranged around the Caucasus Mountains. It's one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world, with over 40 distinct ethnic groups. Much of the violence is carried out by Muslim militants who have declared war on police and state officials, calling them anti-Islamic for their allegiance to Russia. Other clashes are interethnic, with a century of conflict behind them. Based on the escalating levels of violence over the past 20 years, including two wars in Chechnya, an ethnic conflict between Ingushetia and North Ossetia, and a war in Dagestan, observers say the most dangerous republics in the region are Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and North Ossetia.
"All kinds of freaks are coming here to do harm on our territory," Medvedev said to reporters when he visited Makhachkala on Tuesday. "This is a gauntlet thrown down to authority, to the state." But those "freaks" are actually most likely locals, brought up within the North Caucasus' clan system in which violence and corruption are the law of the land. "The problems for every territory are different," Alexei Makarkin, deputy general director of the think tank Center for Political Technologies in Moscow, tells TIME. "The one thing they all have in common is a culture of clans. This stops the economy from developing and also absorbs the young people. You end up with regular violence and high unemployment. If the Kremlin really wanted to, they could squash this clan system. The problem is, they have absolutely nothing to replace it with."
Medvedev told the security council of Dagestan that since the beginning of the year, a total of 235 people — 48 civilians, 112 bandits and 75 law enforcement officers — have been killed in the North Caucasus. Observers believe the real number to be much higher. Following Medvedev's visit, two policemen in Dagestan were killed by gunmen on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, the deputy chief judge of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia was murdered by unidentified gunmen outside a kindergarten.
"The Kremlin is absolutely powerless," says Alexei Malashenko, a scholar-in-residence at Moscow's Carnegie Institute. "They brought this situation on themselves by letting the local élite rule." After the fall of communism, Moscow, knowing that a secular or Orthodox Christian government would have little influence over the region's Muslim population, struck an informal deal with the republics: Moscow would appoint a governor who would be loyal to the Kremlin and, in return, that governor would remain in power provided no large-scale conflicts erupted.