Inside The Deadly Russian Region Of Chechnya And Dagestan That The Boston Marathon Bombers Use To Call Home

(Laris Karklis/The Washington Post)

Inside The Deadly Russian Region The Tsarnaev Family Used To Call Home -- Pssport/Foreign Policy

As new details emerge about the two brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings, we're learning that the Tsarnaev family briefly lived in Makhachkala, the capital of Russia's Dagestan region near Chechnya, before moving to the United States in 2002. The Associated Press says it's spoken to the suspects' father, who is in Makhachkala ("My son is a true angel," he declares). And here's the AP on the suspect who is still at large:

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More News On Chechnya And Dagestan

9 questions about Chechnya and Dagestan you were too embarrassed to ask -- Washington Post
Chechnya and Dagestan: troubled corners -- Global Post
Chechnya. Kyrgyzstan. The Caucasus. -- Slate
Chechnya, Dagestan, and the North Caucasus: A Very Brief History -- Smithsonian Magazine
Chechnya region is known as cauldron of Islamic militancy -- New York Daily News
Ties between Islamic extremist groups and Chechnya well-documented -- FOX News
Chechen Conflict Spawns Terrorism -- Voice of America
Troubled North Caucasus region still scene of conflict -- CNN
Boston Bombing Suspects Put Chechnya in Spotlight -- National Geographic
Russia's Caucasus have seen decades of war, terror -- SFGate/AP
Russia’s Caucasus: Breeding Ground for Terror -- Time/AP
Islam and Chechyna -- World Policy Blog
Chechens' Violent History Includes 'Black Widows,' Attacks on School, Theater -- ABC News
Major Chechen attacks in Russia -- Alert Net
Chechnya: What its militants are fighting for -- Mercury News/AP
What to Read Now on Chechnya The best background info on the Boston suspects -- Lydia Depillis, New Republic

The Unrest Escalates In The Caucasus

Eight Die In Russian Caucasus Bombing, Mosque Shooting -- Reuters

(Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen attending the funeral of a colleague in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Ingushetia, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in nearby Dagestan province, killing one person.

More than a decade after federal forces toppled a separatist government in a war in Chechnya, Russia is still struggling to contain an Islamic insurgency that has spread to other southern provinces in its mainly Muslim Caucasus mountains region.

Militants fighting to carve an Islamic state from the North Caucasus attack officials and law enforcement personnel almost daily but have also increasingly targeted mainstream Muslim leaders backed by the authorities.

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More News On The Escalating Violence In The Caucasus

Eight dead after suicide bombing in Russia’s Caucasus -- RT
At Least 7 Killed in Suicide Bomb Attack in Ingushetia -- RIA Novosti
Daghestan Casualties As Military Convoy Ambushed -- Radio Free Europe
In Russia, suicide attack targets police officer's funeral -- L.A. Times
Mosque shooting, suicide bombing hit Russia's Caucasus region -- CNN
Suicide bomber kills seven in North Caucasus -- The Telegraph
Suicide bomber strikes in Russian Caucasus -- Al Jazeera
Suicide bomber kills seven in Russian's Ingushetia region -- BBC

Russia's Continuing War Against Islamic Radicals

Dagestan: Russia's Islamic Enemy Within -- The Independent

Shaun Walker reports from Dagestan on a generation willing to give up their lives for the fight against Moscow.

"He is a hero," says Saida defiantly, recalling the memory of her brother. "He died for what he believed in, and he died because Allah willed it for him. I am proud he died as a shahid [martyr]."

Saida, who never tells me her real name, is in her early 20s and lives in a village outside Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, the restive southern republic of Russia that borders Chechnya on one side and looks out to the Caspian Sea on the other.

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More News On Russia's Conflict In The Caucasus

As Militants Quarrel, FSB Reports 301 Are Dead -- Moscow Times
400 police killed in 5 years in Russian province -- AP
FSB reports progress in fighting terrorism in North Caucasus -- Voice of Russia
Russia Says Suspected Organizers Of Suicide Bombing Arrested -- Radio Free Europe
Three Chechen terrorists arrested -- Voice of Russia
Three police killed in clash with militants in Caucasus -- RIA Novosti
Court official shot dead in Russia's North Caucasus -- RIA Novosti
Russian forces kill five in North Caucasus - report -- Reuters
Al-Qaeda eyes Russia's North Caucasus - Russian official -- RIA novosti
Al-Qaida has plans for Russia's North Caucasus -- Xinhuanet

Fighting Picks Up (Again) In The Caucasus

Russian Troops Kill Ten In Kabardino Balkaria -- World Bulletin

Russian troops killed ten suspected Caucasians in the restive north Caucasus region of Kabardino Balkaria, RIA Novosti reported.

The suspected fighters, besieged overnight in a five-storey residential building in the regional capital of Nalchik, were suspected of attacks on police, the news agency said.

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More News On Fighting In The Caucasus

14 militants, 2 policeman killed in Russia -- Yahoo News/AP
Ten rebels die in Caucasus clashes: report -- Reuters
Police officer, militants killed in anti-terrorism operation in Russia -- CNN
Criminal ringleader and his four associates killed in Nalchik -- ITAR Tass
Russian services report successes in North Caucasus -- Voice of Russia
Police officer dies after North Caucasus militant shootout -- RIA Novosti
New leads bring fresh FSB ops in south -- RT

Unrest In The Caucasus Region Is Spreading

Migrating Violence In The Caucasus -- Need To Know (PBS)

On Monday, two car bombs rocked Makhachkala, the capital of the Republic of Dagestan. A part of the Russian Federation and nestled against the Caspian Sea just north of Azerbaijan, Dagestan has struggled for years with violence stemming from the insurgency in neighboring Chechnya. What is going on?

In one sense, this most recent bombing matters very little. Small gun fights with separatists or the occasional car bomb is a depressingly regular occurrence in Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia (the four most violence-prone Republics of the Russian Caucasus). Despite the undeniable tragedy, a lot of residents in these Republics have become accustomed to the idea of random violence.

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More News On The Unrest In The Caucasus

Moscow on security alert after North Caucasus bombs -- Reuters
Moscow on Alert After Pyatigorsk Blast -- Moscow Times
Moscow Hotel Evacuated After Bomb Threat Following Attack in North Ossetia -- Bloomberg
Suicide bomb and cafe blast rock Russia's Caucasus -- Reuters
Two blasts rock Russia's Caucasus region -- AFP
Investigators of Pyatigorsk blast obtain vital information -- RIA Novosti
Moscow police tighten security after blasts in North Caucasus -- Global Times/Xinhuanet
Deadly Suicide Attacks in North Caucasus -- New York Times
Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov tells Russia he should take new title -- The Telegraph
All cafes ordered shut in Chechnya during Ramadan -- Reuters
Armenia extends Russia’s military lease -- Financial Times
Russia to beef up military presence in former Soviet space -- The Telegraph

Russia Captures Major Caucasus Rebel Leader

Russia Says Captured Caucasus Islamist Leader: Media -- Reuters

(Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday it had captured an insurgent ringleader responsible for hundreds of deaths in its troubled North Caucasus region, where the Kremlin is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency.

Quoting the FSB security services, Russian state television said that Ali Taziyev, from Ingushetia province, was one of the leaders of an envisaged Caucasus Emirate, which seeks to create a state under sharia law independent from Russia.

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More News On The Caucasus

Russia detains top Caucasus rebel leader: official -- AFP
Russian Security Chief Says Top Rebel Captured -- New York Times/AP
Russia Says Captured Caucasus Islamist Leader -- New York Times/Reuters
Major N Caucasus militant detained: Russian security chief -- Xinhuanet
FSB Captures Ingush Rebel Leader -- Moscow Times
Russia detains warlord linked to attack on Ingush president -- RIA Novosti

Ten rebels killed in Chechnya -- AFP
Ten militants killed in Russia's Chechnya -- People's Daily
Blasts, shootings kill five in Russia's N.Caucasus -- Reuters
Russians head off N. Caucasus bomb plot -- UPI
Three killed in Russia's North Caucasus -- Global Times
Pentagon Chief In Azerbaijan: Afghan War Arc Stretches To Caspian, Caucasus -- RIA novosti
Geneva talks on Caucasus end in deadlock -- RT
Russia, Georgia hold tense Caucasus talks -- Reuters

Unrest In Russia's Caucasus Continues

Russia Bombing: Jihadis Or Sign Of Other Trouble In North Caucasus? -- Christian Science Monitor

A Russia bomb that killed six people in the Russian city of Stavropol has led to speculation about jihadis or Islamic militants. But analysts worry about a widening circle of instability – and players – in the north Caucasus.

A deadly Russia bomb that killed six people and wounded 40 outside a theater where a Chechen dance group was about to perform in the southern Russian city of Stavropol has security experts worrying that the circle of instability in Russia's troubled northern Caucasus may be widening.

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More News On Russia's Caucasus

Russia on alert after bomb blast kills seven -- AFP
Russian blast death toll rises to 7 -- CBC
30 blast victims remain in hospital -- Moscow News
Washington offers condolences over south Russia terrorist attack -- RIA Novosti
Stavropol blast – two arrests -- Moscow News
Suspects in deadly Stavropol blast detained in Ingushetia -- RIA Novosti
Police in North Caucasus unable to tackle violence -- RIA Novosti
Jobs scheme planned for troubled North Caucasus -- Moscow News
North Caucasus terrorism and the search for funding -- Prague Watchdog
Security in the Caucasus: The Cossack Option -- Georgian Daily
Rebel Nagorno-Karabakh holds parliamentary vote -- Reuters
Medvedev Meets with Local NGO Leaders in Bid to Stabilize North Caucasus -- Georgian Daily
Stability in the South Caucasus versus short term gains -- Huffington Post
The Kremlin's Chechen Dragon -- New York Review of Books
Time to Let the North Caucasus Go -- Yulia Latynina, St. Petersburg Times opinion

Why Russia Has Problems In The Caucasus

The North Caucasus region is the part of Russia that slopes up towards the main ridge of the Caucasus mountains, often considered the border between Europe and Asia.It is home to dozens of nationalities and languages, many of which have troubled relationships with their neighbours or with central governments in Moscow or Tbilisi. Image from The BBC

A Region’s Wounds Fester on Russia’s South Border -- New York Times

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia — If anyone is still wondering why Russia finds itself entangled deeper and deeper in its attempt to pacify the Caucasus, Aslan Aushev, for one, would be happy to explain.

It was the spring of 2009. He had just left his family home in the Ingush central city of Nazran for work one morning when a column of armored personnel carriers manned by masked federal troops roared in and surrounded the house next door. Mr. Aushev, 23, rushed back and begged the federal officers to allow him to evacuate his family, including his 5-year-old sister, from the basement where they were cowering, thinking they would do him a favor because he is a police officer.

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More News On The Islamic Insurgency In The Caucasus

Alexander Tikhomirov's life illustrates challenge radical Islam poses in Russia -- Washington Post
Russia adopts tougher anti-terror measures in North Caucasus -- Xinhuanet
Russians Now Face-to-Face With Terrorism -- Moscow Times
New Caucasus Unit Will Fight Terrorism -- Moscow Times
Russia's 'Black Widows': Terrorism or Revenge? -- Time Magazine
2014 Olympics in Sochi face terror and environmental concerns -- Toronto Star
Chechnya Reignited: A Promise Unfulfilled in Russia's "Dirty War" -- Huffington Post
Documenting the Chechen Struggles -- New York Times

The Insurgency In The Caucasus Is Becoming A Global Jihad

Global Jihad Creeping Into Russia's Insurgency -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The Islamist insurgency in Russia's North Caucasus region appears to be mutating from a grassroots separatist movement toward global jihad or holy war, whose goals, propaganda and patronage point abroad.

In February Russia's most wanted guerrilla, Chechen-born Doku Umarov, vowed on Islamist websites to spread his attacks from the Muslim-dominated North Caucasus into the nation's heartland, wreaking havoc through jihad.

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More News on The Caucasus

Four militants killed in police operation in Chechnya - Kadyrov -- RIA Novosti
Russian 'Bin Laden' killed by Moscow's special forces -- The Telegraph
Rebel Ideologist Killed After Filming Last Sermon -- Moscow Times
Russia says Islamist rebel leader killed -- Washington Post/Reuters
Russia Says Burnt Body May Belong to Militant -- New York Times
Russian forces kill militants linked to train attack -- CNN
Armenia not taking part in arms racing in South Caucasus -- News.Az
U.S. raises rights concerns in Russian North Caucasus -- Reuters
From Chechnya, a cautionary tale -- Boston.com

Russia Is Losing Its War In The Caucasus

Map of the Caucasus

In Russia, An Intensifying Insurgency -- Washington Post

Under crackdown, Chechen separatism turns into a regional Islamist revolt.

SUNZHENSKY, RUSSIA -- Her face wet with tears and framed by a black shawl, Madina Albakova sat in her ransacked living room and described how she had become another teenage widow here in Ingushetia, the most volatile of Russia's Muslim republics.

The details emerged between sobs: the arrival of the security forces earlier in the day, her husband's panicked attempt to flee, the gunfire that erupted without warning. He was a law student, barely 20 and "so beautiful," she said, but the soldiers planted a rifle next to his body and called him an Islamist rebel. Then they took everything of value -- the family's savings, a set of dishes, even baby clothes, she said.

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My Comment: This is Russia's dirty war, and it is growing worse. After years of repression, Russia is no closer to a solution in this conflict than when it first started. What is worse, is that the insurrection in the region is getting worse, and Russia is now realizing that they may be in a conflict that can go on for decades.

A Bloody And Violent Year In The Caucasus

Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's president, is suing human rights group Memorial over claims of his 'political guilt'. Photograph: Musa Sadulayev/AP

Russia Put 750 Militants Out Of Action In 2009 - Interior Ministry -- RIA Novosti

KHANKALA (Chechnya), October 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russian police and interior troops have killed or detained some 750 militants in the North Caucasus region, including Chechnya, in 2009, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

"This year we have prevented 64 terrorist attacks on the territory of the Southern Federal District. At least 289 militants were killed, including 25 leaders of armed groups and 11 foreign mercenaries. 457 militants were also detained, including 3 leaders of armed groups," the official said.

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More News on The Caucasus

Caucasus Chaos Causes Considerable Casualties -- Strategy Page
After Chechnya, many fear new Caucasus war looming -- AP
A look at Russia's violence-wracked North Caucasus -- AP
Chechnya president sues human rights activist over murder claim -- The Guardian
Russia's Chechen chief blames CIA for violence -- Reuters
Kadyrov: the West is Behind the North Caucasus Insurgency -- Jamestown Foundation
Dagestan: ten years since bloody assault -- RT

Dirty War Rages On Russia's Doorstep

From Times Online:

WHEN Arsen Butayev was seized on a street in broad daylight last month and held captive with four other men, including his younger brother, he must have known a terrible fate awaited them. The witnesses to his abduction knew it too. Nobody intervened.

Butayev, 23, and his comrades had fallen into the hands of a death squad operated by the security services in Dagestan, a small, mountainous republic of 3m souls riven by growing conflict in the southernmost part of Russia.

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My Comment: This is one of the unreported wars in the world today. But as the bloodshed and carnage continues and escalates .... and it is escalating .... this is all going to change .... as the Times article accurately articulates.

The Growing Insurgency In The Caucasus

Russia's Troubled Caucasus: Five Years After Beslan -- Time Magazine

Five years ago this week, separatist rebels attacked a small school in Beslan in North Ossetia. On the third day of the attack, at least 330 people were killed, more than half of them children. The attack was said to have altered the whole arc of not only the horrific conflict in nearby Chechnya but also the presidency of Vladimir Putin. Beslan was supposed to have given Moscow resolve. North Ossetia — indeed, the whole of the North Caucasus, between the Black Sea to the west and the Caspian Sea to the east — was supposed to be tranquil, harmonious, subdued. But that's not what has happened.

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More News On The Unrest In The Caucasus

Russia uses tough anti-terror tactics in tinderbox Ingushetia republic -- Times Online
3 police killed in southern Russia blast -- AP
4 suicide bombers detained in Chechnya: official -- AFP
Would-be suicide bombers arrested in Chechnya -- RT
Turkey and Armenia: Thaw in a Century-Old Feud? -- Time Magazine
Azerbaijan hints at progress over rebel region -- Calgary Herald/Reuters
Our army is the strongest in Caucasus: Azerbaijani defense ministry -- Today.az
Confronting Russia? U.S. Marines In The Caucasus -- Global Research
Haunted by History -- Newsweek

Conflict In The Caucasus Is About To Intensify

Kremlin Sends Tough General To Troubled Ingushetia -- Reuters

SOCHI, Russia, Aug 18 (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a battle-hardened Russian general "to put in order" troubled Ingushetia, a day after a suicide bomb attack defied Moscow's control of its restive southern flank.

Twenty people died and 136 were wounded in the most powerful blast in years when explosives packed in a truck detonated near Ingushetia's main police station, dealing a blow to Moscow's authority in the North Caucasus plagued by Islamist insurgency.

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A suicide bomber exploded a truck at a police station in Russia's restive North Caucasus on Monday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 60 others, officials said. Musa Sadulayev/AP

More News On The Caucasus

Medvedev urges swift action on bomb attack in S. Russia -- RIA Novosti
Death Toll Rises in Ingush Suicide Blast -- Moscow Times
Blowback in the Caucasus -- Newsweek
Police blamed over Russia bombing -- BBC
Ingush Police Got Tip About Deadly Blast -- Moscow Times
Russia sacks minister after suicide bomb kills 20 -- Independent
ANALYSIS-"Afghan-isation" of Russia's North Caucasus -- Reuters

Fear Stalks Caucasus Amid Hidden War

Magomed Mutsolgov, head of an Ingush human rights group, sits in his Karabulak office with photos of missing men, including a brother. (Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times / August 15, 2009)

Fear Stalks Caucasus Amid Hidden War -- The L.A. Times

A campaign of killings and torture has mounted in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, rights groups say. Security forces are said to be involved, and signs reportedly point to Chechnya's leader.

Reporting from Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Russia - This is a place where gangs with masked faces come out of the darkness to take the young men away.

Sometimes the bodies turn up with broken limbs, bruises, torn-away fingernails and burns. Sometimes the captives are placed under arrest officially and end up in jail. Lately, many simply disappear.

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More News On The Low Level Insurgency War In The Caucasus

Blood Ties -- Newsweek
Caucasus on alert: brazen murders rock Russia’s south -- RT
Four police, two militants killed in Chechnya operation -- RIA Novosti
Chechen President Sues Russian Rights Activist -- Radio Free Europe

Clashes Kill Over 20 In Russia Region

Image from The BBC

Clashes Kill Over 20 In Russia Region -- New York Times

MOSCOW — More than 20 people were killed in violent clashes in Russia’s North Caucasus region in the last two days, including a mysterious attack on seven women in a sauna, underscoring the Kremlin’s continued struggles to bring the volatile area under control.

In one of the first attacks, on Thursday night, about 10 men opened fire with automatic weapons on a police post in the city of Buinaksk in Dagestan, killing four officers, the investigative branch of the prosecutor general’s office said in a statement. The gunmen then entered the sauna complex a short distance away and killed seven women who worked there, in a rare attack on unarmed civilians.

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More News On The Unrest In The Caucasus

Four Russian police killed in Chechen clashes -- AFP
4 police, 2 militants die in Chechnya gun battle -- AP
Gun attacks kill 14 in Russian republic -- ABC News (Australia)
Two policemen killed in Russia's Dagestan -- Reuters
Many dead in fresh Caucasus clashes -- Al Jazeera
11 killed in attack in Russia's Dagestan region: reports -- AFP
11 Killed in Russia During Attacks on Police, Sauna -- Digital Journal
South Ossetia Tries to Disarm Its Citizens -- New York Times
'Political murders' aim to destabilise Caucasus: Medvedev -- Zeenews
Medvedev Decries Chechen Killings -- Washington Post
Caucasus: The War That Was, The World War That Might Have Been -- Global Research
Center of Rebel Strikes Shifts to Dagestan -- Jamestown Foundation

Low Level Insurgency And Unrest Continues In The Caucasus -- News Updates August 4, 2009

Police Ambushed in Russia's Chechnya and Dagestan Regions -- Voice of America

Rebels have mounted a series of deadly attacks in Russia's North Caucasus, killing at least nine policemen and officials.

Russian officials say several policemen were killed Sunday when militants ambushed their three-vehicle convoy in the mountains of southern Chechnya.

Also Sunday, authorities said a policeman was killed in an ambush in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala. Another officer was wounded.

In another attack Sunday, rebels ambushed several workers from the Emergency Situations Ministry in the republic of Ingushetia.

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More News On the Conflicts In the Caucasus

Chechnya ambush leaves five dead -- BBC
Five Police Killed In Chechnya As Violence Grows -- Radio Free Europe
Gunmen Kill 5 Police Officers in Chechnya -- New York Times
Moscow's Troubles in the Caucasus -- Georgia Daily
Georgia, Russia trade barbs as war anniversary looms -- MSN News
Georgia, Russia stoke fears of new conflict -- AFP
Tension rises on Ossetia boundary -- BBC
Russia says readiness of troops raised in South Ossetia -- Reuters
Russian troops on high readiness in South Ossetia -- AP
FEATURE-Russia casts long shadow over aspiring Abkhaz state -- Reuters
Scarred South Ossetia penniless, shaky year after war -- Washington Post
FACTBOX: Georgia's rebel regions one year after war -- Reuters