From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24  (Original Message)    Sent: 8/16/2007 11:37 AM
Chechnya Weekly - Volume VIII, Issue 33
August 16, 2007

IN THIS ISSUE:
* Who Bombed the Nevsky Express?
* Ramzan Visits Saudi Arabia
* Briefs
* The Challenges of the Sochi Olympics and Russia's Circassian Problem
By Fatima Tlisova
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Who Bombed the Nevsky Express?

A person claiming to belong to the Chechen extremist group Riyadus-Salikhin (Gardens of the Righteous) called the North Caucasus Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to claim responsibility for the bomb explosion that derailed the Nevsky Express passenger train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg on the evening of August 13, RFE/RL reported on August 15. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the bombing, which derailed the train near the city of Novgorod, about 500 kilometers north of Moscow, and injured dozens of people, was caused by a homemade bomb equal to two kilograms of TNT.

RFE/RL reported that the man who had phoned in the claim of responsibility identified himself as a Riyadus-Salikhin deputy commander and said the bombing was in retaliation for Russia’s role in Chechnya. Kommersant on August 16 quoted the head of RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service, Aslan Ayubov, as saying that he had received the call on his mobile phone by a person claiming to represent the deputy commander of Riyadus-Salikhin, Said-Emin Dadaev. According to Ayubov, the unidentified caller started out speaking in Chechen, but subsequently switched to Russia, saying he wanted to be completely sure that he was understood. Ayubov said the caller stated that the train was bombed in order to take revenge “for the suffering of the Chechen people,” but then hung up when Ayubov asked him for details about the bombing. Ayubov said he tried to call him back using the caller’s number as it had appeared on his phone, but that he received a message from the operator saying that the number was “out of range.” Ayubov told Kommersant that he was not convinced the person who called him was who he said he was. “I have heard that there is a [rebel] field commander by the name of Dadaev – according to my information, he commands the militants of the South-West front – but it’s the first time I’ve heard of him commanding the Riyadus-Salikhin battalion,” Ayubov said.

This past March, Chechen rebel leader Dokka Umarov issued decrees that, among other things, named several rebel commanders as ministers of the separatist underground government. The separatist Kavkaz-Center website at the time reported that under the decrees, Said-Emin Dadaev, who was identified as commanding rebel groups in the Itum-Kale, Shatoi and Sharoi districts, was appointed the separatist government’s “financial minister” (Chechnya Weekly, April 12).

Following the bombing of the Nevsky Express train, various Russian officials and politicians connected the incident to developments in the North Caucasus. On August 14, Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Nikolai Patrushev, who also heads the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, cited the train bombing and the ongoing situation in the Northern Caucasus, “where in the last two months armed attacks have increased against government officials, law enforcement officers and judges,” as evidence that the threat of terrorism has not been eliminated (Eurasia Daily Monitor, August 15). Nikolai Kovalev, the former FSB chief who is now chairman of the State Duma’s Veterans’ Affairs Committee and a member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, said the train bombing may have been an attempt to divert the government's attention away from the situation in Ingushetia, where an additional 2,500 Interior Ministry troops were deployed because of the deteriorating security situation. “It may be an attempt to divert attention to another purely geographically place,” RIA Novosti on August 14 quoted Kovalev as saying. “Terrorists often use such methods.”

Gennady Gudkov, a member of the State Duma’s Security Committee and the pro-Kremlin “A Just Russia” party, said the train bombing may have been the work of “a terrorist chain whose roots are possibly in the Caucasus,” RIA Novosti reported. “A large contingent of federal forces has been sent to Ingushetia and a special operation is being prepared,” Gudkov said. “It is possible that there is a connection here.” Viktor Plyukhin, deputy head of the State Duma’s Security Committee and a member of the Communist Party, predicted that the “the roots of this crime, if they are discovered, will be in the North Caucasus.”


On the other hand, Kavkazky Uzel on August 16 quoted Ruslan Badalov, head of the Ingushetia-based Chechen National Salvation Committee, as saying that he did not think the bombing of the Nevsky Express was connected to the special operation taking place in Ingushetia.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, for his part, reacted to the alleged Riyadus-Salikhin claim of responsibility for the Nevsky Express bombing by telling reporters at the airport in the town of Mineralniye Vody on August 15 that there are no organized terrorist groups capable of committing large-scale terrorist acts in the republic or beyond its boundaries.

"This was the beloved tactic of the Raduevs, Basaevs, Udugovs and others – to claim responsibility for everything that happens in the world," Interfax quoted him as saying. "This tactic is known to all and contains nothing new. This is how the Basaevs, Udugovs and Raduevs tried to account for the huge funds they received." He added that "although these leaders of terrorist organizations have been long destroyed, there are still bandits who, by presenting themselves as some Riyad Al-Salihin or the army of Dzhokhar Dudaev or something similar, are trying to distract the attention of the investigation into the executors of the terrorist acts. In Chechnya, like in any part of the country or in any state of the world, it is possible that there are criminals, but there is no terrorist underground and there are certainly no organizations behind the impressive names, such as Riyad Al-Salihin and the like. The statements claiming that some forces allegedly based in Chechnya have been involved in high-profile terrorist acts could also be disseminated by those who are seriously concerned about the positive processes that are taking place in the republic. We have broken the necks of all known terrorist organizations; we destroyed them and left them without a leadership. However, some remnants, perhaps, who escaped Chechnya long ago, want to create the appearance of a force and organization."

According to Interfax, Kadyrov stressed that the fight against terrorism requires coordinated actions from all of the country's law enforcement bodies. "I have announced many times over the past few years that the fight against this evil must take place on a daily basis," he said. "And, thank God, this is now being done in the North Caucasus as a whole. I am convinced that in a very near future the remnants of these renegades will find their place deep below the ground."

The Moscow Times, citing Interfax, reported on August 16 that investigators are currently leaning toward the version that Russian ultranationalists bombed the train. “Detectives and investigators are working on several angles,” a source close to the investigation told Interfax. “The top lead, however, is that representatives of extremist nationalist organizations were involved in this terrorist act.” The source said it was also possible that Islamist militants from the North Caucasus organized the attack. According to the source, a composite sketch drawn of a potential suspect depicts a man with distinct Slavic features. The Moscow Times quoted Alexander Belov, the head of the ultranationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration, as saying that federal prosecutors had interrogated him and members of the group’s branch in the Novgorod region in connection with the bombing.

The English-language newspaper also noted that the design of the bomb used on the Nevsky Express and the tactics used “closely resembled two earlier attacks blamed on ultranationalists.” Two ultranationalists were convicted in April of bombing a Grozny-Moscow train in 2005 and a group of ultranationalists is now on trial for an attempt to kill Unified Energy System chief Anatoly Chubais with a roadside bomb in 2005. Interfax, citing sources close to the investigation, reported on August 14 that the remains of the explosive device found at the scene of the train blast were similar to those found in the two earlier bombings.

The August 13 bombing of the Nevsky Express train took place just a day after a video appeared on several Russian ultranationalist websites showing two bound and gagged captives, identified on the video as Dagestani and Tajik “colonists,” in a wooded area in front of a Nazi flag. The video then shows the two captives being executed, with at least one of them being beheaded. The video was made by the Rus National-Socialist Party. After the video was posted, the previously unknown ultranationalist party posted a statement that included its platform.

Some observers have suggested that both the bombing of the Nevsky Express and the Nazi execution video may have been provocations connected to the impending end of President Vladimir Putin’s second and last constitutionally-mandated term in office and the issue of who will succeed him. The Moscow Times on August 15 quoted Alexander Khramchikhin, a security analyst with the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, as saying that allies of Putin are seeking a third term for him by raising the specter of a terrorist threat that could have been behind the bombing of the Nevsky Express. As the English-language newspaper recalled: “In August 1999, an Islamist incursion from Chechnya into Dagestan followed by a series of apartment bombings helped to consolidate power in the hands of Putin, the then little-known prime minister, who just months later was elected president with a promise to curb terrorism and separatism. Speculation started swirling that the special services were behind the bombings when residents spotted Federal Security Service officers planting explosives in an apartment building in Ryazan in September 1999. The FSB said later that it was a training drill.”

Likewise, the commentator Yulia Latynina wrote on the Yezhednevny zhurnal website (Ej.ru) on August 15: “The siloviki who are in charge of the country are deathly afraid that Putin will step down and leave them with a successor who is not their associate … They want Putin to stay. And he can stay only if something monstrous takes place. For example, a large-scale terrorist act carried out by Nazis. One that forces Putin to exclaim: ‘I must save Russia from the brown plague!’”

Another commentator, Anatoly Baranov, chief editor of the Forum.msk website (Forum.msk.ru), also recalled the events of 1999: “I have not completely lost my memory, and I remember the events of eight years ago quite well,” he recalled in comments posted by the website on August 15. “It was precisely then, on the eve of the ‘election war’ in Chechnya, that footage showing terrifying executions of Russians by terrorists somewhere in the Caucasus appeared in the media. By the way, one of those who appeared in the footage with a severed head was later discovered to be alive and well. But he served his purpose in that ‘Hollywood’ [clip]: the war in Chechnya was justified and approved by practically all of Russian society, which was confirmed by the vote for the new President Putin. There was also the blowing up of the apartment buildings, reports about numerous slaves [Russians reportedly held as slaves in Chechnya] and so on.” The latest violent acts, including the bombing of the Nevsky Express and the Nazi execution video, may have been aimed at convincing the Russian public of the existence of an “extremist underground,” Baranov wrote.

The separatist Kavkaz-Center website, for its part, headlined an August 14 analysis of the putative execution video and the statement by the Rus National-Socialist Party subsequently posted on ultranationalist websites: “A statement of the National-Socialist Party of Russia or the FSB?” Many representatives of Russia’s far right, Kavkaz-Center wrote, are talking about Kremlin “provocations” through which the FSB is preparing for “mass repressions against Russian national-socialists.” Kavkaz-Center added that it did not know whether this is in fact the case.

Russian prosecutors on August 15 detained a university student in Maikop, the capital of Adygeya, charging him with inciting racial hatred by circulating the execution video, Reuters reported. “We have detained a young person suspected of uploading this video to the Internet,” the news agency quoted an Interior Ministry spokesman as saying. “This man has declared his devotion to national socialist ideas. According to preliminary information, he has been distributing this video over the Internet but he is not the author of it ... Experts are still working to establish the authenticity of the video.”

Meanwhile, Newsru.com reported on August 16 that the Moscow police have been placed on a heightened state of alert in connection with the bombing of the Nevsky Express.

Ramzan Visits Saudi Arabia

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov made an official visit to Saudi Arabia, and on August 14 joined Saudi King Abdullah II in the traditional ceremony of the washing of the Kaaba in Mecca. Interfax reported on August 15 that Kadyrov first had a meeting with King Abdullah at the royal palace in Mecca and then went with the king to the Masjid al-Haram Mosque, where the Kaaba is located. According to the news agency, “hundreds of thousands of pilgrims saluted the Saudi monarch and the Chechen president” and all the members of the delegation accompanying Kadyrov were given permission to visit the Kaaba at his request. Kadyrov’s delegation included members of his government and Chechen mufti Sultan Mirzaev.

After the symbolic washing of the Kaaba, Kadyrov prayed at the al-Haram Mosque until dawn on August 15, Interfax reported. “In the morning he went to Jeddah to meet with the president of the Islamic Development Bank. King Abdullah gave the head of Chechnya some gifts related to Islamic shrines, which included a model of the Kaaba door made of gold and a fragment of the so-called Kiswa, a piece of the Kaaba covering bearing Koranic lines embroidered in gold thread,” the news agency reported. Interfax quoted Ziyad Sabsabi, Chechnya’s representative to the Russian president, who was part of Kadyrov’s delegation, as saying that “this part of the Kiswa is intended only as a gift to high-ranking representatives of Islamic states.” Kommersant noted on August 15 that the only other Muslim from the former Soviet Union to have participated in the washing of the Kaaba is Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s president.

On August 12, the start of Kadyrov’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Kavkazky Uzel quoted him as saying: “I intend to tell the Saudi king about the positive changes that are happening in the Chechen Republic, as well as about the situation in this region as a whole.” During his meeting with King Abdullah, Kadyrov conveyed a message from President Vladimir Putin. Citing the Kremlin’s press service, RIA Novosti on August 15 quoted Putin as saying in his message to the Saudi monarch: “Russia and Saudi Arabia are taking steps to improve the situation in the Middle East, and are actively working in the interests of settling crises and enhancing security and stability in the region.” According to RIA Novosti, Putin also thanked Abdullah “for welcoming Ramzan Kadyrov as a guest of the kingdom’s government,” adding, “I regard this as yet another confirmation of the friendly nature of Russian-Saudi relations.”

Commenting on Kadyrov’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the separatist Kavkaz-Center website wrote on August 15 that while the Russian media declared that only “the honored and respected of the Muslim world” are allowed to take part in the washing of the Kaaba, the Saudi government had opened the doors of the Kaaba to “the head of the Tashkent regime and the mass murderer of Muslims Islam Karimov, who never in his life had prayed and did not even know how to do it.” The separatist website also noted that while Saudi Arabia is the home of Wahhabi Islam, Russia went to war “against the Chechen state and began to systematically persecute Muslims in all of the North Caucasus” under the pretext of “the fight against Wahhabism.” The main fighter against “Wahhabism” was Akhmad Kadyrov, and later his son, Ramzan, Kavkaz-Center wrote. Yet the Saudi regime is not offended by Moscow’s “fight against Wahhabism,” the website noted.

Chechen rebel leader Dokka Umarov said in a statement posted on Kavkaz-Center on August 15 that giving “the dirty murtad [traitor to Islam] and vile dog of the infidels Ramzan Kadyrov” access to the Kaaba was a “defilement of the Kaaba” and an “insult to the House of Allah, His religion and all the Islamic Ummah, the Muslims of the Caucasus and the Caucasian mujahideen, who are fighting Jihad against the aggression of the Russian kaffirs [unbelievers] and their stooges from among the hypocrites and apostates.” Umarov added: “Admitting the murtad Kadyrov to the Kaaba is also a direct insult to the Chechen people, who lost 255,000 peaceful Muslims, among them 42,000 children, as a result of the Russian aggression and the treachery of the apostates.”

Briefs

- More Violence in Ingushetia

Three servicemen were injured in a shooting that took place in a forest in the outskirts of the village of Yandare in Ingushetia’s Nazran district on August 14. ITAR-Tass reported that unidentified persons fired on the Interior Ministry's Internal Troops who were conducting a special operation in the area. The servicemen returned fire but the attackers managed to escape. The wounded servicemen were hospitalized. Isa Merzhoev, acting chief of police in Ingushetia’s Sunzhensky district, was seriously wounded by an unidentified gunman in the village of Troitskaya on July 11, ITAR-Tass reported. According to the news agency, the attacker fired at Merzhoev from close range with a weapon fitted with a silencer and then fled the scene. The federal Interior Ministry recently announced that it had sent an additional 2,500 servicemen to Ingushetia, tripling the number of federal Interior Ministry troops deployed there, as part of a “complex preventative operation” against rebels set to last until the end of August (Eurasia Daily Monitor, August 15).

- Another Attack on Police in Kabardino-Balkaria

Unknown assailants fired on a vehicle carrying policemen in the village of Elbrus in Kabardino-Balkaria, the Caucasus Times reported on August 10. No one was hurt in the attack. The website noted that this was the third attempt on the lives of law-enforcement officers in Kabardino-Balkaria’s Elbrus district in the past two months. The website of the Chechenpress news agency on July 26 posted a statement by a group describing itself as “the mujahideen of Kabarda and Balkaria” claiming responsibility for the July 23 murder of Akhmat Teberdiev, head of the criminal investigation department of the police department in Kabardino-Balkaria’s Elbrussky district. It also claimed responsibility for the July 7 murder of Zaur Khamdokhov, a captain with the anti-organized crime directorate of Kabardino-Balkaria’s Interior Ministry branch. Teberdiev was shot to death and Khamdokhov was killed when a bomb blew up his car (Chechnya Weekly, July 26 and August 2).

- Dagestani Police Break Up Protest by Detainees’ Relatives

The Associated Press reported on August 10 that police in Makhachkala, Dagestan, dispersed a demonstration of about 30 women picketing the main government building to protest the abduction of their relatives in recent months by suspected members of the security services. The protesters, who said the abductors usually wore camouflage uniforms, demanded for the dismissal of Dagestan’s interior minister and chief prosecutor, the For Human Rights group said in a statement. The demonstration was organized by the “Mothers of Dagestan” organization (Chechnya Weekly, August 9). Kavkazky Uzel on August 10 quoted protesters as saying that while breaking up the demonstration, police kicked them and beat them with clubs. Kavkazky Uzel reported on August 14 that members of the “Mothers of Dagestan” were continuing a hunger strike they had announced earlier this month. The women vowed to continue the hunger strike until Dagestani President Mukhu Aliev received them.

- Strasbourg Court Finds Russia Responsible for Death of Serviceman in Chechnya

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, ordered Russia to pay 2,000 euros (around $2,695) as moral compensation to a resident of the town of Krasnokamsk in Perm Krai whose son was killed while serving with the Russian army in Chechnya, Interfax reported on August 13. According to a Krasnokamsk human rights group, Maria Vershinina filed the suit with the Strasbourg-based court in December 2003 after the Russian Defense Ministry failed to comply with a 2001 verdict by the Krasnokamsk city court ordering it to pay compensation for the death of her son, Sergei, in October 1999. The Krasnokamsk court had ruled that Sergei Vershinin’s death was the fault of the command of the Vladikavkaz military unit.


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From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24    Sent: 8/16/2007 11:37 AM

The Challenges of the Sochi Olympics and Russia's Circassian Problem
By Fatima Tlisova

Although it has been a month since the Russian city of Sochi was awarded the 2014 Winter Olympics, the euphoria generated by this event in Russia has yet to subside. Both the state-run Russian media and the few relatively independent media sources have set aside special continuing coverage for the story. “Sochi-2014” is given priority attention, including daily updates. In some media sources, there have now been more than 3,000 news segments devoted to the Sochi games. In general, when a subject receives this level of attention in the Russian media, it is usually because the state has ordered special coverage of it.

In addition to the news bulletins, the Russian press is also lavishing analysis on the Sochi story. Many issues concerning the Sochi Olympics have elicited lively discussions both in the media and among the public, including questions regarding the following issues: the value of the government’s capital investments to prepare for the games (figures from 18 to 300 billion rubles are cited); the identity of the future supervisor of the Olympic project (it is said that President Putin himself will choose this official—undoubtedly someone who will be unquestionably loyal to the president); and the businesses and state entities that will be allowed to participate in the project (Gazprom, the state energy monopoly RAO EES, the Ministry of Defense, the state railroad corporation, and others, are all mentioned).

Regardless of their disagreements, one issue which all participants in these media debates agree: upon is that Sochi-2014 is the personal project of Vladimir Putin. In light of the upcoming elections to the Duma, to be followed by the presidential election in 2008, this project is necessarily political in character. It has already become apparent that Sochi-2014 has become the main political argument in the unopposed propaganda campaign being waged by Putin’s team, which is intended to preserve their power and expand their sphere of influence. For instance, practically every poster in the country that advertises the coming Sochi Olympics features a depiction of the Olympic ring symbol, juxtaposed with a portrait of a smiling President Putin—as though the two images represented a single organic whole. This is also true of the campaign propaganda being utilized by Putin’s United Russia Party, which likewise exploits the Sochi “brand” in most of its campaign materials.

From the media coverage of Sochi-2014, one might be under the impression that the whole country has joined together in idolizing President Putin. The Russian state-controlled media constantly emphasizes that it is only due to the sheer force of the Putin’s will that the International Olympic Committee selected Sochi. One might also get the impression that there is not a single person in Russia who does not take endless pleasure in the Sochi Olympics. This apparently universal rejoicing is one of the major achievements of Putin’s approach to the press. He enjoys such complete control over the Russian media that he can project whatever mirage he desires upon the public’s consciousness.

Yet, there is genuine opposition to the Sochi Olympic Games within today’s Russia. Opponents point to the serious problems with Sochi. The problems are serious enough that many people—including some in the government—doubt that it will actually be possible to conduct the Olympic Games on the Black Sea coast. Although such statements tend to be extremely vague and guarded, they have nonetheless been made.

For example, the most popular Russian sports newspaper, Sport Express, cites the opinion of Svetlana Zhurova, an Olympic champion and a legislative assembly member of the Leningrad Oblast. Zhurova believes that “Sochi could lose the right to host the 2014 Olympiad at any moment.” In her words, the Sochi Games “could always be canceled,” and this problem will be especially acute in the coming two to three years (Sport Express, July 24).

The problems of Sochi can be grouped into three categories: environmental issues, military- and security-related issues, and issues of national history.

The environmentalists have been the most outspoken group. They continue to call attention to the irreparable damage that the construction of the Olympic sites will inflict on the unique natural environment of the Black Sea coast. The environmental organization “Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus” is distributing press releases on threats to the nearby National Park. However, these claims are not widely published, and therefore they are not receiving much public attention. There has only been one occasion when the regional government of Krasnodar Krai has engaged in actual dialog with the environmentalists. Those negotiations led to an agreement to create and finance a special nature preserve in order to compensate for the damage to the environment.

As representatives of “Environmental Watch” state in their most recent July 29 press release, the regional government abrogated all its agreements as soon as Sochi was selected by the IOC. “We’ve realized that the appearance of good will in solving major environmental problems that the government of Krasnodar Krai projected was nothing more than a cunning trap, which was intended to get us to stop making speeches during the run-up to the IOC’s decision,” says the organization.

However, the environmentalists are referring to only one aspect of the environment: the preservation of a unique natural setting and a unique climate zone. The existing problems around Sochi are evidence that no expert environmental assessments of the site of the future Olympic Games have been conducted.

The basic problem is that the eastern part of the Northwest Caucasus, and particularly the region immediately adjacent to Krasnaya Polyana on the east—the area that is the heart of the 2014 Olympic Games—should have aroused serious concern not only among environmentalists, but also within the IOC.

Here are only a few of the sites that are located within this area:

- Europe’s largest radio telescope, Ratan-600; it is not known what happens to the radioactive waste it generates.
- Southern Russia’s largest metal works, which belongs to the Ural Mining Company. It specializes in extracting and refining minerals, including radioactive ones. Its waste is emptied into an open, uninhabited space on the border between Krasnodar Krai and Karachaevo-Cherkessia. At present, this entire region is a dead zone extending for several kilometers, as the author of this article was able to confirm by personal observation during an independent research trip.

Naturally, the truth about the environmental conditions in this region is a state secret. There is only one indication that the situation is extremely alarming: the percentage of people infected with cancer among the population of the Urupskii, Pregradneskii, and Zelenchukskii districts of Karachaevo-Cherkessia is higher than that in closed radioactive sites. This assertion comes from Dr. Rashid Botashev, the chief doctor of the Cancer Center in Karachaevo-Cherkessia. In his interview with the author of this article, Dr. Botashev said, “I can’t cite figures. I can only say that there has been a directive to lower the statistics artificially. By way of comparison, I can say that our figures are higher than those in Chelyabinsk-14 [a Soviet-era nuclear research site now contaminated with radiation].”

The military or security concerns surrounding the Sochi Olympics are less serious than the environmental issues. The situation in the North Caucasus remains tense, and despite the Kremlin’s concerted attempt to convince the world that the “Chechen conflict” has been resolved, the conflict has in fact spread beyond Chechnya, expanding into the other republics. While keeping up a façade of indifference, Moscow is actually extremely concerned with the security of Russia’s southern borders. As the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta has reported in several articles in its “Caucasus” section, the total number of Russian troops deployed to the Caucasus during the last six months is greater than ever before. In addition, whereas in recent decades Russian forces in the Caucasus were mostly composed of police “special forces” (spetsnaz or special units used in counter-terrorism activities and accused of numerous human rights abuses), Interior Ministry troops, and the FSB, in the last two years the Russian Ministry of Defense has substantially increased its presence in the northwest Caucasus—Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, and Adygeya.

The recruitment of troops to be stationed in this part of the Caucasus takes place in central Russia and the Moscow region. The recruits undergo six months of specialized training, as has been reported by the Russian press, including the state television station “Severnyi Kavkaz.” Ministry of Defense forces in the Northwest Caucasus are notable for the high quality of their equipment and supplies. The Russian armed forces have deployed motorized artillery brigades specially equipped with helicopters and all-terrain vehicles for mountain warfare, and there are also four air force bases. All such forces receive the latest military technology, as well as excellent living conditions.

The extensive resources that are being devoted to the Northwest Caucasus suggest that Moscow is frightened, and is seriously preparing itself behind the scenes for something that will be on a larger scale than the war in Chechnya. In these circumstances, the very idea that the Olympic Games could be conducted in such a region has to be called into question.

The third problem of Sochi is that of national history, or to be precise, the Circassian problem. On first glance, the Circassian issue is less serious than the two previous ones—but not for those who are familiar with the history of the hundred-year Russo-Circassian War and the contemporary problems in the relations between the Circassians and the Russian state.

For people in Russia, “Sochi” is an ordinary place, with a name that has no particular meaning. But for Circassians—the indigenous inhabitants of the Northwest Caucasus—Sochi is not only a word in their native language (which can be translated into English as “extreme heat”), but also a symbol of the Circassians’ national tragedy. According to the memoirs of Russian military historians and Generals Berzhe, Velyaminov, and Potto, the Black Sea coastal region was the arena of the fiercest battles in the history of the Russo-Caucasian War of the nineteenth century. According to their estimates, at least 300,000 Circassians perished in this region, including women and children.

Circassian sources, on the other hand, believe that these mortality figures have been deliberately lowered. Relying on data compiled by foreign scholars of the Caucasus, the scholar Samir Khatko has written an academic article asserting that there were actually more than one million deaths among the Circassians during the last four years of the war in the Northwest Caucasus. According to Khatko’s data, a roughly equal number of people were deported from the Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire. As a result, in the contemporary world, the Circassian diaspora consists of approximately six million people residing in many different countries—a figure that is six times larger than the number of Circassians residing in Russia.

On July 5, the Caucasus Times published a historical essay entitled, "The Games on Bones." The article contains an analysis of the nineteenth century history of Sochi and does not support the holding of the Olympic Games in the city. Moreover, the phrase “The Games on Bones” is not just a figure of speech, but is a literal description of recent developments. There have been claims that human remains uncovered during the construction of the Olympic sites in Sochi have been defiled.

An anti-Olympic movement exists on all of the numerous Circassian internet sites. For instance, one of the sites, elot.ru, based in Karachaevo-Cherkessia, contains a posting from a participant under the username “Pilgrim” that describes how the construction work has been conducted in Krasnaya Polyana. “Pilgrim” tells the story of a former construction worker, who was dismissed after he saw a bulldozer unearth an incredible number of human bones from under the top layer of the soil. The former employee claims that the bones were then plowed back under the ground. This kind of suppression of the truth makes sense when one bears in mind just how important this construction project is for the Kremlin.

For the Circassians, their history is not a matter of the remote past. In 2006, the Circassian Congress, an organization which has representative offices in two countries of the world, appealed to a number of Russian and international organizations to acknowledge the genocide committed by Russia against the Circassians in the nineteenth century. While Russia’s official institutions refused to consider the Circassians’ appeal, the European Parliament has accepted it for consideration.

The Circassian diaspora is unwilling to accept such treatment from Russia. “During Vladimir Putin’s visit to Jordan, he was asked a question about Circassia. The Russian President answered that Circassia is an internal problem of Russia,” Iyad Yougar, president of the Circassian Cultural Institute in America noted. "This is absolutely false," Yougar argues, "because we, the six million Circassians living in the diaspora, have never been Russian citizens. We cannot become Russian citizens even if we wish to do so, because Russia will not let us. So, we are deprived of the right to regain our historic homeland, Circassia. That’s why we insist that the Circassian problem is an international one and is a matter for international law."

One also has to consider the fact that there is now armed resistance occurring in the territory of historic Circassia. Analysts both within Russia and abroad have viewed the Nalchik uprising of October 2005 as Circassia’s entry into a war of liberation.

When one considers all of the problems that surround it, Sochi’s Olympic future looks extremely alarming. One can only conclude that the IOC could not have made a more unfortunate choice in selecting the location of the 2014 Winter Olympics. If the Sochi Games do indeed take place, they may well suffer the same fate as the last Soviet Olympics held in Moscow in 1980: international isolation.

Fatima Tlisova was the Editor-in-Chief of the North Caucasus desk at the Regnum News Agency. She was also a staff correspondent for the Associated Press in this region. Her duties have carried her across the North Caucasus from Adygeya to Dagestan.
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