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Chechnya Weekly - Volume VIII, Issue 41
October 25, 2007   
 IN THIS ISSUE:
* Putin on North Caucasus: Situation Improved but “Far From Good”
* Amnesty International Expresses Concern about Ingushetia
* Chechens “Spontaneously” Rally for a Third Putin Term
* Zakaev Claims Planned “Emirate” is Part of an Anti-Chechen Kremlin Plot
* Briefs
* Umarov Trying to Increase Financial Support from the Middle East
By Andrei Smirnov
---------------------------------------------------------------------Putin on North Caucasus: Situation Improved but “Far From Good”
President Vladimir Putin said on October 18 during his annual question-and-answer session on state television that a rise in violence in Ingushetia is alarming but cannot be compared to the 1999 rebel insurgency that triggered the invasion of Chechnya, Reuters reported. “The situation is far from being considered good,” Putin said of the upsurge in violence in Ingushetia while answering a question posed by a man from a village in Dagestan. “But compared with 1999 the situation has changed fundamentally.” He added: “There are alarming factors. Incursions happen and people are dying. The federal center will take action, including permanently stationing our forces there.” Putin said during the Q&A that the situation in the North Caucasus has improved since the 1990s thanks mainly to the attitude of the “residents themselves,” Itar-Tass reported on October 18. “You should pay attention to what has happened in the Chechen Republic,” he said. “There are no acute situations because people are tired of confrontation and bloodshed. People returned to normal life. I hope that we’ll achieve the same goal in other regions … We’ll succeed in settling the situation in other regions of the North Caucasus.” Itar-Tass also quoted Putin as calling the creation of jobs a “key task” for the North Caucasus.
On October 18, the day that Putin’s televised Q&A took place, gunmen opened fire at a police car just outside Magas, Ingushetia’s capital, killing four federal police officers. The Associated Press quoted Ingushetia’s prosecutor’s office as saying that two officers died at the scene and two succumbed later to their wounds, while a fifth policeman who was also in the car was unhurt. Russian news agencies reported that the incident took in the village of Ekazhevo and that the four victims were policemen from Arkhangelsk Oblast who had been deployed to Ingushetia. The separatist Kavkaz Center website on October 18 posted an item on the attack reporting that “mujahideen of the Ingush sector of the Caucasus Front” had successfully carried out a “special operation” targeting a car carrying “Russian kaffirs [infidels] from Arkhangelsk.” According to Kavkaz Center, four policemen were killed and two wounded in the attack.
On October 19, two ethnic Ingush were shot dead in the North Ossetian village of Chermen. Prague Watchdog reported on October 20 that the incident occurred at around 11 p.m., local time, the previous day, when gunmen fired from a car on a group of young males standing on one of the village’s streets. North Ossetia-Alania’s deputy interior minister, Soslan Sikoyev, said that investigators were looking into “several different versions” of the incident, while an unnamed employee in Ingushetia’s prosecutor’s office said that “not a single crime committed against citizens of Ingush nationality on territory controlled by the North Ossetian authorities has yet been solved.” Prague Watchdog noted that Chermen is located in North Ossetia’s disputed Prigorodny district very close to the administrative border with Ingushetia and that just outside the village “there is a notorious checkpoint at a place called Chermensky Krug.”
In Dagestan, an explosion that went off in a minibus on October 23, which injured eight passengers, was triggered by an 18-year-old woman carrying an explosive device. On October 25, the Moscow Times quoted Saidula Badalov, the lead investigator into the explosion, saying that an F-1 hand grenade that the woman, identified as Sidrat Gasanbekova, was carrying in her bag accidently went off and that investigators found no evidence linking Gasanbekova to any rebel groups in the North Caucasus. Russian news agencies had originally described the blast, which took place just after the minibus passed a police checkpoint in the village of Dylym, some 10 kilometers east of the border with Chechnya, as a suicide bombing. In a separate incident that took place later on October 23, a roadside bomb detonated in Makhachkala, Dagestan’s capital, injuring two people in a taxi that was driving by when the blast took place. On October 24, a man was shot dead after he threw a grenade at police officers who were searching his house in the village of Gurbuki, in Dagestan’s Karabudakhkent district. None of the police officers was hurt.
Meanwhile, on October 20, one policeman was killed and two others wounded in a shooting attack on a police car in the Oktyabrsky district of Grozny, the Chechen capital, RIA Novosti reported. On October 21, Newsru.com reported that a policeman was wounded in a similar attack in Grozny’s Leninsky district on October 16. The website noted that the situation in Chechnya was unsettled, with a significant gunfight having taken place on October 9 between some 20 rebels and Interior Ministry forces near the village of Zhani-Vedeno in the republic’s Vedeno district, resulting in the loss of one serviceman (Chechnya Weekly, October 11). “The Chechen authorities say that the situation with gang formations is under their control; this, however, is far from the reality,” Newsru.com wrote. “At the same time, in September, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov offered his help in imposing order in neighboring Ingushetia, where attacks by militants on peaceful citizens and policemen have become regular of late” (Chechnya Weekly, September 13).
Amnesty International Expresses Concern about Ingushetia

On the eve of the European Union-Russia summit set to take place in Portugal on October 26, Amnesty International released a statement calling on the Russian government and the local authorities in Ingushetia not to repeat the mistakes made in Chechnya. On October 24, the London-based human rights group warned that an increasing number of enforced disappearances, abductions and other human rights violations mark a rapidly deteriorating situation in Ingushetia.
“When dealing with the volatile situation in Ingushetia, the Russian authorities must act in line with the law, in particular by ensuring that all detentions are carried out in accordance with Russian law and international human rights standards,” said Nicola Duckworth, Director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Program. “The often complete disregard for the rule of law by the Russian federal forces during the conflict in Chechnya and the impunity with which they abducted, tortured and disappeared members of the local population have scarred the lives of thousands of people and undermined Russia’s international standing. A repeat of the same tactics in Ingushetia is unacceptable … The Russian and Ingush authorities must put an immediate end to these human rights violations, and investigate all allegations effectively. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia was responsible for grave human rights violations in the second Chechen conflict in 18 separate cases so far, and is due to consider many more. These violations must not be repeated with regard to Ingushetia,” Duckworth concluded.
According to Amnesty International, law enforcement officials are reportedly conducting document checks and detentions in Ingushetia without identifying themselves, and in some cases wearing masks. Amnesty International cited the example of “an apparently punitive raid” on the village of Ali Yurt in July 2007, in which villagers were reportedly rounded up and beaten, with seven men detained and taken to the building of the Federal Security Services in Magas, where some were reportedly ill-treated (Chechnya Weekly, August 2). The London-based watchdog reported that at least three men have been shot dead in Nazran by law enforcement officers over the course of the year. “While the authorities have stated that those had put up armed resistance, witnesses to the killings claim that the men were summarily executed,” Amnesty International reported. “Similar incidents have been reported in the towns of Malgobek and Karabulak.”
Amnesty International reported that three men remain missing after being abducted in Ingushetia this year, and that the whereabouts of a fourth man, who went missing in March, remain unknown. “Other men have been released, having been abducted; some have been ill-treated or held in secret detention, including in pits dug in the ground,” the group reported. “A number of other ethnic Ingush men are reported to have gone missing in neighboring North Ossetia. Their relatives believe they may have been detained by law enforcement officials and subsequently disappeared.”
The group specifically cited the case of Ibragim Gazdiev, an ethnic Ingush who, according to witnesses, was seized by armed men in camouflage in Karabulak on August 8 and has not been seen or heard from since. Amnesty International reported that while authorities have officially denied that Gazdiev is being held in detention, there is “unofficial information” that he might be held in incommunicado detention in Ingushetia or in a neighboring North Caucasus republic. The group said it has “grave concerns” for Gazdiev’s safety (Chechnya Weekly, August 9).
Amnesty International urged Russia to “abide by international standards it has signed up to,” adding that Russian and Ingush authorities “must ensure that all actions of its security forces are carried out according to international standards and Russian law.” Observing the rule of law, including human rights law, has to be “at the heart of the response to the security crisis in Ingushetia,” the group said.
Amnesty International said it is also concerned about human rights abuses reportedly committed by armed groups against civilians, including abductions, and that it has also received information that unknown gunmen are committing numerous attacks against civilians. “Members of ethnic Russian families have been killed and a bomb exploded at a funeral held for one of the victims, injuring several people; members of a Roma family, two Korean men, and a Dagestani family, have also been killed during such attacks,” the group said in its October 24 statement. “At the same time, armed groups have launched attacks, often fatal, against members of law enforcement agencies in Ingushetia” (Chechnya Weekly, October 18; September 27, 13, 6; July 19).
Chechens “Spontaneously” Rally for a Third Putin Term
Demonstrations in support of a third term for President Vladimir Putin were held across Russia, including Chechnya, on October 24. As Kommersant noted on October 25, while both the Kremlin and the pro-Kremlin United Russia party claimed the demonstrations were spontaneous actions “from below,” members of Russia’s political opposition claim they were organized “from above” by United Russia. Putin’s second and last constitutionally mandated term as president ends in 2008 and he has said repeatedly that he will not change the constitution in order to serve a third term. Still, Putin announced on October 1 that he will head United Russia’s list of candidates in December’s election to the State Duma and suggested that under certain conditions he could serve as prime minister.
According to Kavkazky Uzel, the press service of Chechnya’s president and government told the Regnum news agency that around 30,000 people took part in rallies across the republic in support of a third term for Putin. According to the official statistics, more than 20,000 people took part in a rally in Grozny under the slogan: “We are with the President of the Russian Federation.” As Prague Watchdog reported on October 24, the rally in Grozny was held at the capital’s Sultan Belimkhanov Stadium, formerly known as Dynamo Stadium. Around 5,000 people from the Kurchaloi and Gudermes districts and the city of Argun reportedly participated in a pro-third-term demonstration in Gudermes, while another roughly 5,000 people gathered in the Achkhoi-Martan district center. On October 25, Kavkazky Uzel quoted an unnamed participant in the rally in Grozny as saying that a maximum of 5,000-6,000 demonstrators had gathered at Sultan Belimkhanov Stadium.
Kavkazky Uzel reported that among the main slogans and messages on placards at the rallies in Chechnya were “The RF presidency of Vladimir Putin is the consolidation of Russia’s role as a great power,” “Putin is the guarantor of peace and stability on Chechen soil” and “Vladimir Putin stopped the war in the Chechen Republic.” Grozny-Inform quoted one rally participant as saying as saying of Putin in a speech: “Thanks to his flexible policy [and] ability to lead the country, Russia regained the status of a strong power during the years of his governance. Today, priority national projects developing all spheres of the country’s life have been elaborated and taken root. It is necessary to note his relationship with the Chechen Republic. Vladimir Putin is our hope for further strengthening and creation in the region. Only under the leadership of this person will the positive processes going on in Chechnya and Russia continue.”
Rally participants read out an appeal to the Federal Assembly (Russia’s parliament) calling for a change in current legislation that would give the Putin the opportunity to run for a third term. Kavkazky Uzel reported that they also adopted a resolution calling on all the people of Chechnya and other Russian regions to support an initiative to create a national movement called “For Putin,” which will work toward electing Putin to a third presidential term.
According to Kavkazky Uzel, the pro-Putin-third term rallies in Chechnya were organized by the “Youth Council” association of non-governmental youth organizations, the Chechen government’s youth affairs committee, the “Ramzan” patriotic club, the regional branch of United Russia and the Grozny city administration. As the website noted, in Chechnya, President Ramzan Kadyrov is leading the initiative to extend Putin’s term and has stated that Putin should be a “president for life” like the presidents of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan (Chechnya Weekly, October 4 and June 21).
Kommersant reported on October 25 that the most of the thousands of demonstrators in Grozny were students from higher learning institutions. The newspaper quoted an employee of Grozny University as saying: “We were warned to ensure the attendance of all the students.” Describing the scene in the Chechen capital, Kommersant wrote that “columns of young people dressed in T-shirts with images of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and Vladimir Putin and equipped with signs saying ‘Give Putin a third term!’ flowed toward Dynamo Stadium in the morning, guarded by policemen in parade uniforms.”
Kavkazky Uzel on October 25 quoted a student from a Grozny higher learning institution who participated in the rally in the Chechen capital as saying: “Yesterday morning, when we as usual arrived for classes, we were told that today all lessons are canceled and that everyone will have to take part in an action in support of Putin. After that we were put on buses; small flags, portraits of Putin and various signs were distributed; and we were taken to the stadium, where that so-called ‘support rally’ took place.”
Another student, Rakhman, told the website: “Such things take place here regularly. The authorities decide to carry out some kind of action – say, marking May 1 or May 9 [Victory Day] – and all lessons are canceled, we are put on buses and taken to the city to appear for a crowd scene. They promise to expel from the institute or create other problems for those who do not come. And afterwards they declare: ‘Thousand of young people came out onto the streets of Grozny to commemorate, to support,’ and so on. In reality, all of this is simply window-dressing. I, like many of my contemporaries, would never voluntarily go out to support Putin, who I consider one of the authors of the mass murder of my people.”
Kavkazky Uzel on October 24 quoted Aslambek Apaev, an expert on the North Caucasus with the Moscow Helsinki Group, as saying: “It seems to me that in the Kremlin today variants are being studied that would allow Putin to remain for a third term. The post of chairman of the cabinet of minister [prime minister], which Putin has agreed to serve as in 2008 ‘under certain conditions’ may be only be a step toward a return to the presidency. But precisely how this project will be carried out is difficult to say. I think that the real levers of control of Russia will remain in Putin’s hands after 2008.”
Zakaev Claims Planned “Emirate” is Part of an Anti-Chechen Kremlin Plot
In a fresh sign of splits within the Chechen rebel leadership (Chechnya Weekly, October 18), Akhmed Zakaev, foreign minister of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, has accused the Kremlin of plotting to destroy the statehood of Chechens and other people of the North Caucasus by instigating the proclamation of a North Caucasus “emirate” ostensibly in the name of Dokka Umarov, the Chechen rebel leader and ChRI president.
Zakaev said in a statement posted on the separatist Chechenpress website on October 22 that the announcement of the creation of an emirate would be used as a pretext to move more Russian troops into the North Caucasus, with a consequent further crackdown on the peoples of the North Caucasus and Russia’s withdrawal from the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE). Zakaev said in the statement that the Kremlin’s “criminal regime” is “trying to persuade the president of the ChRI, through its agents of influence and gambling on religious rhetoric, to declare himself the emir of a North Caucasian Emirate and on behalf of the Muslims of the Caucasus to declare a war on the whole world.” According to the alleged Kremlin plot, such a step by Umarov would “spell the end of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria,” ridding the Russian leadership of “any criminal responsibility for war crimes against the Chechen people” while removing the “inconvenient subject” of Chechnya from Russia’s debates with the West over such issues as Russia’s “annexation” of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the Trans-Dniester region, Zakaev wrote.
Zakaev wrote that even a simple verbal proclamation of a North Caucasian emirate would help Moscow “to mobilize even more forces to carry out the genocide of the peoples of the North Caucasus, who are even more vigorously calling for their ethnic and religious rights,” and would also play a “provocative” role similar to that played by the Congress of the Peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan, which, according to Zakaev, “contributed towards the second invasion by Russian troops of Chechnya.” The people who backed that congress “have been brought in to prepare for this ‘Emirate’ operation from the Chechen side,” Zakaev claimed, adding that the proclamation of an “Emirate” would help the Kremlin consolidate control over Russia’s regions by “creating an appropriate political rationale” and be used in December’s State Duma and next year’s presidential elections. Internationally, it would allow Moscow to justify repression in the North Caucasus as part of the global war against al-Qaeda, Zakaev wrote, adding that an increase of violence in the North Caucasus and consequent introduction of more troops there “are an intrinsic part of Russia's plan to finally reject the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe.”
Zakaev claimed that Moscow has allocated $500 million for preparing and carrying out the “Emirate” operation and that Russian special services agents have met in a third country with “certain representatives of the Chechen side” who have begun “lobbying” for the “proclamation” of a “North Caucasian Emirate.” Zakaev concluded: “I would like this statement to be seen as a basis for an immediate investigation into the anti-state activities of those persons who are helping to carry out the Kremlin’s latest criminal plans to discredit Chechen statehood and the lawful aspirations of the enslaved peoples of the North Caucasus.”
Briefs
- Officer Accused of War Crimes in Chechnya Will Run for the Duma
Sergei Arakcheyev, the Interior Ministry officer accused along with a fellow officer of murdering Chechen civilians, will run in December’s State Duma elections as a candidate from Patriots of Russia party, RIA Novosti reported on October 22. Arakcheyev and Yevgeny Khudyakov are accused of murdering three Chechens in January 2003. The two servicemen have been cleared of murder in jury trials twice, but each time the Supreme Court’s military collegium overturned the jury’s not-guilty verdict. In April 2006, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that grave crimes committed in Chechnya must be tried by military judges without the participation of a jury. If Arakcheyev is elected to the State Duma, the murder case against him will be dropped because parliamentary deputies enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution.
- Kadyrov says Berezovsky “Pioneered” Abductions in Chechnya
Addressing a congress of Russian political parties and movements in Grozny, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov claimed on October 23 that exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, the London-based Russian oligarch and erstwhile Kremlin insider turned Kremlin critic, “pioneered” abductions in Chechnya in the 1990s. The London-based former Kremlin insider, who today is a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin, “generously funded [Shamil] Basayev and other heads of illegal armed groups, paying them fabulous ransoms for each captured person,” Interfax quoted Kadyrov as saying. “The money was spent on the purchase of the most up-to-date arms and on committing new serious crimes in Chechnya.” Basayev and his supporters never fought for Chechnya’s independence, but instead, “connived” with Berezovsky “and “others like him and pursued the goal of destabilizing the situation in the country,” Kadyrov claimed. “They did not care about the fact that their criminal activity resulted in the torment of hundreds of thousands of people, the death of women, children, and old men, and devastated towns and villages.” Kadyrov said that Basaev himself acknowledged in public that he received “millions of U.S. dollars” from Berezovsky. Kadyrov further claimed that “from the very beginning of events in Chechnya,” Berezovsky and Aslan Maskhadov “plotted to kill [Djokhar] Dudaev and to install Maskhadov” in his place. Echoing the Kremlin, Kadyrov has in the past accused Berezovsky of colluding with Chechen rebel leaders in a host of alleged crimes (Chechnya Weekly, February 23 and March 6, 2006).
- Ingush Brothers Arrested for Nevsky Express Bombing
Kavkazky Uzel reported on October 24 that two brothers from the village of Ekazhevo Ingushetia, Amirkhan and Maksharip Khidriev, were arrested the previous day as suspects in the August 13 bombing of the Nevsky Express passenger train. The bombing derailed the train near the city of Novgorod and injured dozens of people (Chechnya Weekly, August 16). Kommersant reported on October 25 that both suspects have alibis. Prague Watchdog on October 24 quoted Ruslan Badalov, director of the Chechen Committee for National Salvation, as saying of the arrests: “In the past when anything happened in Russia, a ‘Chechen trace’ was seen everywhere, and now they’ve started to attribute it to Ingushetia  … I’m afraid that just as in the case of Chechnya, the increasingly frequent comments about an ‘Ingush trace’ are going to serve as a springboard for the launching of military operations in Ingushetia.”
Umarov Trying to Increase Financial Support from the Middle East
By Andrei Smirnov
Last month, before the start of Ramadan, the top leader of the Chechen/Caucasian rebels, Dokku Umarov, issued a video statement that revealed possible uneasy relations between the North Caucasus insurgents and their supporters and sympathizers in Muslim countries, mainly in the Middle East.
On the video, Umarov can be seen sitting with several bearded militants, including two standing behind him with machine guns, and a black flag of Jihad with the slogan “Victory or Heaven” in Arabic and a picture of a saber on it. Umarov first speaks in Chechen, but then suddenly switches to Russian. An Arab to the left of Dokku Umarov turns his head to the leader and starts telling him something in Arabic. In the end the Arab says in Russian: ‘I will always obey you (Dokku Umarov) until you go on the path of Allah”. Umarov then says in Russian, looking at the camera, that “today amir Mukhannad, amir (commander) of the Jamaat (Islamic group) that used to be headed by Khattab, Abu-Walid, and Abu Khafs, has given Bayat (an oath of loyalty) to me as the Supreme Amir of the Caucasian mujahideen. I became amir after the death of such leaders like Dzhokhar Dudaev, Maskhadov, Yandarbiev, Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, and Shamil Basayev. Mukhannad, who came to Chechnya to fight Jihad from an Arabic country that is far from the Caucasus, a person who completely devoted himself to the cause of Allah, would never have given Bayat to a man who does not fight for Allah, but has other goals.”
This scene of Mukhannad’s public Bayat to Dokku Umarov inspires a question: what did Umarov and his brothers-in-arms need this show for? It is definitely just a show, given that last July Umarov appointed Mukhannad to be a deputy of Akhmed Yevloev (Magas), who at the same time was appointed by Umarov as the military commander of the Caucasian rebels (see Chechnya Weekly, August 2). This means that Umarov already regarded Mukhannad as a person loyal to him back this past summer. So, why, this past September, did Umarov want Mukhannad to give him an oath of loyalty again and make videotape the ceremony?
Dokku Umarov’s speech on the video provides a possible answer to the question. Umarov says that Mukhannad would never have given an oath to man “who does not fight for Allah, but has other goals.” This phrase by the rebel leader reveals that some influential people in the Muslim world may doubt that the goals of Umarov’s struggle have a religious character. Most likely, Mukhannad’s public oath was needed as proof of Umarov’s sincerity.
Dokku Umarov says in the video message that “each step of a mujahideen in the North Caucasus he makes in the name of Allah. The problem is that not all alims (Islamic scholars) of the mujahideen in the Caucasus can speak Arabic and thus Muslims on the streets (Umarov means ordinary Muslims outside Russia) cannot always understand properly what we are fighting for. We are fighting for the triumph of Allah’s word in this world and for establishing the rule of Sharia law in the North Caucasus.” It should be noted that during his video message, Umarov repeated three times that the rebels in the Caucasus are fighting for Allah's cause. It appears that he was trying to persuade somebody who is skeptical about such words coming from him. At the same time, Mukhannad, the new commander of the Arab fighters’ squad in Chechnya, who replaced such predecessors as Khattab, Abu Walid, and Abu Khafs, is needed to give Umarov’s words credibility.
At the same time, Dokku Umarov focuses on the fact that he is just a successor of slain Chechen rebel leaders, including Shamil Basayev, and can also be trusted.
This video can be regarded as a kind of fundraising effort by Umarov - his advertisement aimed at attracting investors from Arab countries and getting them interested in helping the rebels in the Caucasus. Mukhannad plays a crucial role in this fundraising effort because of his Arab origins,
Today, Turkey is the main foreign funding source for the Caucasian insurgency. The money comes from Turkish sympathizers of the Chechen separatists and from the Caucasian Diaspora in the country. Last year, Umarov’s envoys in Turkey reorganized the local Chechen Information Center to make it the main structure to collect money for the militants. A colorful Turkish-language website Al Kavkaz, which is full of recent videos and photos of the rebels in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan, was created to advertise the Caucasian Jihad in Turkey.
Still, a lot of money is needed for the war in the whole North Caucasus, and the aid coming from Turkey is definitely insufficient. Prices for weapons on the Russian black market are getting higher and higher; the days when one could buy an RPG from a Russian soldier in Chechnya for a bottle of vodka are over.
Umarov wants to reestablish ties with Muslim organizations in Arab countries in order to ensure stable financial support of his forces in the Caucasus. However, each time that Chechen rebel leaders appeal to Arabs they have the same problem: they need to prove that they have the same goals as the international Jihadi movement. The main demand of the Jihadis on the Chechens is well known. It was posted on Azzam website in 1999: “If you (Chechens) fight for independence, we won’t support you … but we will support you if you fight Jihad.”
“Arabs never give money for nothing,” Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, the Chechen rebel leader killed by Russian secret agents in Qatar in 2003, once said in an interview. Muslim organizations and personalities who give money to Dokku Umarov want to be certain that the rebels in the Caucasus share their views on the model of an Islamic state. The model of the Jihadis is to establish an Islamic state using violent methods because “if monotheism isn’t achieved by Jihad it becomes tradition and not religion” (Murad Batal al-Shishani, The Rise and Fall of Arab Fighters in Chechnya, September 14, 2006). Jihadi-sponsors or potential sponsors of the Caucasian rebels are suspicious of the word “freedom” that is used in all the declarations of the Chechen rebel leaders. In his video message, Umarov says that “a Muslim cannot be an adherent of Islam without freedom. We want to be free in the Caucasus and have a Sharia state.” Nevertheless, the political form of freedom is democracy, but international Jihadis want to have a Sharia state in which people will be forced to follow all strict rules of the Islamic religion, as it was in Afghanistan under the Taliban or on the territory of Iraq controlled by al-Qaeda Sunni insurgency. You cannot have freedom where people are forced to do something, where only one ideology dominates and has the right to exist.
Despite such ideological problems, it seems that Umarov has good chances to increase his financial support from abroad. The reason for this is that regardless of what the Jihadis think about the Jihad in the Caucasus, they cannot ignore the fact that it still remains vibrant and resisting Russian occupation. While the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda in Iraq are encountering difficulty with their insurgencies, and while nothing has been heard recently about any successful operations of local mujahideen in Algeria, Palestine, Somalia, or Kashmir, the insurgency in the North Caucasus is on the rise, widening its area of operations to Ingushetia and the rest of the North Caucasus.
Dokku Umarov says in his video message that “each step that mujahideen of the North Caucasus makes, he makes in the name of Allah”.
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