Investigators in the Russian prosecutor’s office have said that latest operation to eliminate extremists in Kabardino-Balkaria shows conclusively that militants in the North Caucasus are receiving outside help. Foreign nationals were among the terrorists who were cornered by special unit men on August 28 in Proxladnesky region. One of the foreign terrorists, Azeri national Hatan Mansurov was killed and five others were detained. Chief investigator in the Investigations Committee in the prosecutor’s office in Kabardino-Balkaria Valery Ustov has told journalists that several more Azeri citizens whose documents are in police possession have been declared wanted, revealing that they came to Russia as tourists but that instead of going on sightseeing excursion had decided to organize bandit gangs. Investigations have revealed that they provide monetary and ideological backing to so-called Proxladnensky Djamaat; perhaps the situation in Kabardino-Balkaria is not to their liking said Ustov.
Experts are not surprised that North Caucasus militants get financial help from outside; they get the bulk of their finances from countries having large Islamic centers such as Britain and in recent times, the terrorists have changed their ideology, points out Mikhail Alexandrov, head of the department of the Caucasus in the institute for CIS.
In the 1990s Chechen militants operated under the banner of independence but the ideology now is entirely different- creation of a nebulous Caliphate in the whole of the North Caucasus, a radical ideology of expansion for all those caught in the web, said Alexandrov. The master-minds directing the groups of the uninitiated are people having nothing in common with Islamic ideology, he said.
The immediate goal of the groups is to create chaos on the Russian borders, to which end are directed all actions by the terrorists who have stepped up their activity in recent times in North Caucasus regions. The murders of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova and an employee of the We shall save the generation humanitarian organization as well as attempted assassination of the president of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov are among the latest high profile crimes.
Chief of the Russian Investigations Committee in the prosecutor’s office, Alexander Bastrykin believes that restoring stability will not be possible by force alone, advising a combination of measures such as creating in the North Caucasus emergency economic zones and announcing tax holiday for businessmen. Poverty and unemployment drive many young people in the arms of bandits, confirming the wise saying that the idle hand is the devil’s workshop. If all the able-bodied young men in North Caucasus are gainfully employed the militants will not have new recruits to continue to pursue their wild dream of Caliphate.
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