DOCSLIB.ORG

4/2011 Chechens in the Russian Federation

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
4/2011 Chechens in the Russian Federation 4/2011 ENG Chechens in the Russian Federation Report from Danish Immigration Service’s fact finding mission to Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Russian Federation 12 to 29 June 2011 Copenhagen, October 2011 Danish Immigration Service Ryesgade 53 2100 Copenhagen Ø Phone: 00 45 35 36 66 00 Web: www.newtodenmark.dk E-mail: [email protected] Chechens in the Russian Federation Overview of fact finding reports published in 2010 and 2011 Honour Crimes against Men in Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and the Availability of Protection, Report from Danish Immigration Service‟s fact-finding mission to Erbil, Sulemaniyah and Dahuk, KRI, 6 to 20 January 2010 2010: 1 Entry Procedures and Residence in Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) for Iraqi Nationals, Report from Danish Immigration Service‟s fact-finding mission to Erbil, Sulemaniyah, Dahuk, KRI and Amman, Jordan, 6 to 20 January and 25 February to 15 March 2010 2010: 2 Human rights issues concerning Kurds in Syria, Report of a joint fact finding mission by the Danish Immigration Service (DIS) and ACCORD/Austrian Red Cross to Damascus, Syria, Beirut, Lebanon, and Erbil and Dohuk, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), 21 January to 8 February 2010 2010: 3 Allegations against the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) and warnings against return to Nigeria, Report from Danish Immigration Service‟s fact-finding mission to Abuja, Nigeria, 9 to 17 June 2010 2010: 4 Security and Human Rights in South/Central Iraq, Report from Danish Immigration Service‟s fact- finding mission to Amman, Jordan and Baghdad, Iraq, 25 February to 9 March and 6 to 16 April 2010 2010: 5 Human Rights and Security Issues concerning Tamils in Sri Lanka, Report from Danish Immigration Service‟s fact-finding mission to Colombo, Sri Lanka, 19 June to 3 July 2010 2010: 6 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and Thailand, Fact finding mission to Bangladesh and Thailand, 4 to 17 February 2011 2011: 1 Update on Entry Procedures at Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Checkpoints and Residence in Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), Report from Danish Immigration Service‟s fact-finding mission to Erbil, Suleimaniyah and Dohuk, KRI, 7 to 24 March 2011 2011: 2 Iranian Kurdish Refugees in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), Report from Danish Immigration Service‟s fact-finding mission to Erbil, Suleimaniyah and Dohuk, KRI, 7 to 24 March 2011 2011: 3 2 Chechens in the Russian Federation Contents Introduction and disclaimer ................................................................................................................... 5 Background ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Chechnya ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Ramzan Kadyrov.......................................................................................................................... 10 1. Situation for Chechens in the Russian Federation outside of Chechnya ......................................... 13 1.1 Chechen communities ................................................................................................................ 13 1.2 Registration of residence ............................................................................................................ 16 1.3 Issuance of internal passports .................................................................................................... 19 1.4 Housing ...................................................................................................................................... 20 1.5 Labour ........................................................................................................................................ 21 1.6 Access to public services ........................................................................................................... 22 1.6.1 Health .................................................................................................................................. 22 1.6.2 Education ............................................................................................................................ 24 1.7 Ethnic motivated harassment and attacks .................................................................................. 24 1.7.1 Local authorities .................................................................................................................. 27 1.8 Women in fear of honour related violence ................................................................................. 28 2. Transfers of Chechens to Chechnya from other federal entities ...................................................... 30 3. Abductions and extrajudicial killings by Chechen authorities outside of Chechnya ....................... 35 3.1 Pressure on family members ...................................................................................................... 41 3.2 Illegal tax collection ................................................................................................................... 42 4. Update on the general security situation in Chechnya/North Caucasus .......................................... 44 5. Update on the human rights situation in Chechnya ......................................................................... 52 5.1 Developments............................................................................................................................. 52 5.2 Groups at risk ............................................................................................................................. 56 5.2.1 Supporters ........................................................................................................................... 57 5.2.2 Critics .................................................................................................................................. 59 5.2.3 Family members .................................................................................................................. 61 5.2.4 Former members of the illegal armed groups ..................................................................... 62 3 Chechens in the Russian Federation 5.2.5 Returnees from abroad ........................................................................................................ 62 5.3 Treatment in detention ............................................................................................................... 63 5.4 Avenues to seek redress ............................................................................................................. 64 5.5 Summons .................................................................................................................................... 66 5.6 Court cases ................................................................................................................................. 67 6. Blood revenge in Chechnya ............................................................................................................. 69 7. Salafis ............................................................................................................................................... 71 8. Ethnic minorities in Chechnya. ........................................................................................................ 72 Source consulted .................................................................................................................................. 73 Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................................... 74 Literature .............................................................................................................................................. 75 Annexes ................................................................................................................................................ 77 Annex 1 – Map of Southern Russia ................................................................................................. 77 Annex 2 – Map of Chechnya ........................................................................................................... 78 Annex 3 – SOVA statistics on crime and punishments ................................................................... 79 Annex 4 – Reports of killings of Kadyrov opponents outside of Chechnya .................................... 81 Annex 5 – Explosions and terror acts in the North-Caucasian Federal District reported by Caucasian Knot from January to August 2011 ................................................................................ 82 Annex 6 – Abductions and other human rights violations in Chechnya reported by Memorial from January to 14. September 2011 ........................................................................................................ 89 Annex 7 – Letter from the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee under the Russian Federation Prosecutor's Office for the Chechen Republic and letter from the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Chechen Republic ................................................................................ 103 4 Chechens in the Russian Federation Introduction and disclaimer This fact finding report has been produced by the Documentation and Project Division, Danish Immigration Service (DIS) for use by officials involved in the asylum
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Russia Chechnya
    Russia Chechnya Population: 1,200,000 (Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Russian Federation, 2007, Inter-Agency Transitional Workplan for the North Caucasus. The population of Chechnya according to the 2002 Russian census was approximately 1,100,000.) Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 7 Status: Not Free Overview: Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov was promoted to the Chechen premiership in March 2006 and continued to strengthen his hold on power in the republic. Critics like investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in October, have claimed that Kadyrov and his security forces torture suspected rebels, many of whom disappear without a trace. Rebel violence declined as Kadyrov consolidated his position, and two important rebel leaders were killed during the year, but the larger region remained unstable. Chechnya, a small, partly mountainous North Caucasus republic, has a history of armed resistance to Russian rule dating to the czarist period. In February 1944, the Chechens were deported en masse to Kazakhstan after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin accused them of collaborating with Nazi German forces. Officially rehabilitated in 1957 and allowed to return to their homeland, they remained politically suspect and were excluded from the region’s administration. After winning election as Chechnya’s president in October 1991, former Soviet air force Major General Dzhokhar Dudayev proclaimed Chechnya’s independence. Moscow responded with an economic blockade. In 1994, Russia began assisting Chechens opposed to Dudayev, whose rule was marked by growing corruption and the rise of powerful clans and criminal gangs. Russian President Boris Yeltsin sent 40,000 troops into Chechnya by mid-December of that year and attacked the capital, Grozny.
    [Show full text]
  • BYZANTINE CAMEOS and the AESTHETICS of the ICON By
    BYZANTINE CAMEOS AND THE AESTHETICS OF THE ICON by James A. Magruder, III A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland March 2014 © 2014 James A. Magruder, III All rights reserved Abstract Byzantine icons have attracted artists and art historians to what they saw as the flat style of large painted panels. They tend to understand this flatness as a repudiation of the Classical priority to represent Nature and an affirmation of otherworldly spirituality. However, many extant sacred portraits from the Byzantine period were executed in relief in precious materials, such as gemstones, ivory or gold. Byzantine writers describe contemporary icons as lifelike, sometimes even coming to life with divine power. The question is what Byzantine Christians hoped to represent by crafting small icons in precious materials, specifically cameos. The dissertation catalogs and analyzes Byzantine cameos from the end of Iconoclasm (843) until the fall of Constantinople (1453). They have not received comprehensive treatment before, but since they represent saints in iconic poses, they provide a good corpus of icons comparable to icons in other media. Their durability and the difficulty of reworking them also makes them a particularly faithful record of Byzantine priorities regarding the icon as a genre. In addition, the dissertation surveys theological texts that comment on or illustrate stone to understand what role the materiality of Byzantine cameos played in choosing stone relief for icons. Finally, it examines Byzantine epigrams written about or for icons to define the terms that shaped icon production.
    [Show full text]
  • Operation Lentil: Soviet Ethnic Cleansing of the Chechens Tom Shattuck
    The Histories Volume 10 | Issue 2 Article 7 2019 Operation Lentil: Soviet Ethnic Cleansing of the Chechens Tom Shattuck Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/the_histories Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Shattuck, Tom (2019) "Operation Lentil: Soviet Ethnic Cleansing of the Chechens," The Histories: Vol. 10 : Iss. 2 , Article 7. Available at: https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/the_histories/vol10/iss2/7 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Scholarship at La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in The iH stories by an authorized editor of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Histories, Volume 10, Number 2 92 VI Operation Lentil: Soviet Ethnic Cleansing of the Chechens By Tom Shattuck ‘13 On February 23, 1944, Lavrentii Beria ordered for the NKVD to systemically remove all of the Chechen people from their homes in the Caucuses to Kazakhstan and Kirghizia in Central Asia. Before this cleansing, the Chechens had a history of tension with the Russians. This age- old conflict culminated after the Germans retreated when the Soviet Union charged the entire Chechen population with treason for aiding the Germans. Despite the fact that several thousand Chechen men had volunteered in the Red Army to help fight the Germans, Stalin still used the pretext of a German retreat through an area of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic to condemn them all. In reality, Stalin just wanted to finally end the Chechen problem. Because the cleansing removed every Chechen from their home, the process proved to be brutal and deadly for the Chechens.
    [Show full text]
  • Russia's Quiet Annexation of South Ossetia
    FEBRUARY 2015 Russia’s quiet annexation of south ossetia By Maia Otarashvili Maia Otarashvili is an FPRI Research Associate and Program Coordinator for FPRI's Project on Democratic Transitions. Her research has focused on democratic consolidation and regression in the EU-11 countries, as well as on fragile hybrid states such as Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and other former USSR states in the Black Sea and Caucasus region. Maia holds an MA in Globalization, Development and Transition from the University of Westminster in London, with emphasis on post-authoritarian transitions. All Georgian- and Russian-language material has been translated by the author. Russia and South Ossetia have ironed out final details of a “Treaty of Alliance and Integration.” The treaty was drafted in December 2014 and on January 31, 2015 Georgian news agencies reported that the leader of South Ossetia, Leonid Tibilov, had sent the finalized document back to Moscow. On February 18th Russia and South Ossetia signed a precursor to this treaty, called the “treaty on the state border.” According to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the broader treaty is still under consideration, but “the approval process won’t take long.” Once the Treaty of Alliance and Integration is signed, it is set to be implemented in a matter of three to six months, allowing Russia to absorb South Ossetia. This comes less than three months after the signing of the Russia-Abkhazia treaty of a similar nature, although it is not as comprehensive. The international community and the Georgian government have condemned Russia’s actions and will not recognize either of the treaties but that is not likely to stem Putin’s expansionist policies – if Crimea is any guide.
    [Show full text]
  • The North Caucasus: the Challenges of Integration (III), Governance, Elections, Rule of Law
    The North Caucasus: The Challenges of Integration (III), Governance, Elections, Rule of Law Europe Report N°226 | 6 September 2013 International Crisis Group Headquarters Avenue Louise 149 1050 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 502 90 38 Fax: +32 2 502 50 38 [email protected] Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... i Recommendations..................................................................................................................... iii I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 II. Russia between Decentralisation and the “Vertical of Power” ....................................... 3 A. Federative Relations Today ....................................................................................... 4 B. Local Government ...................................................................................................... 6 C. Funding and budgets ................................................................................................. 6 III. Elections ........................................................................................................................... 9 A. State Duma Elections 2011 ........................................................................................ 9 B. Presidential Elections 2012 ......................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Fusiongps???] Are Worse Than Prostitutes
    From: Nellie Ohr (b)(6) Sent: Monday, December 4, 2017 9:06 PM To: Holtyn, Lisa (OCDETF) Subject: Re: Invitation: The Oligarchs Strike Back? The Challenge of Anti-Corruption Reform in Ukraine – Thursday, December 7, 4:00 pm-5:30 pm Thanks for the heads-up! It's pretty depressing to attend these things :-) I hope you are well -----Original Message----- From: Holtyn, Lisa (OCDETF) (OCDETF) To: Nellie Ohr ; Ohr, Bruce (ODAG) (ODAG) Sent: Mon, Dec 4, 2017 4:47 pm Subject: FW: Invitation: The Oligarchs Strike Back? The Challenge of Anti-Corruption Reform in Ukraine – Thursday, December 7, 4:00 pm-5:30 pm Thought this might interest you both, time-permitting. From: Hudson Institute [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, December 04, 2017 4:45 PM To: Holtyn, Lisa (OCDETF) (b)(6) Subject: Invitation: The Oligarchs Strike Back? The Challenge of Anti-Corruption Reform in Ukraine – Thursday, December 7, 4:00 pm-5:30 pm □□□ The Oligarchs Strike Back? The Challenge of Anti- Corruption Reform in Ukraine 106 Thursday, December 7th 4:00 to 5:30 pm Register Hudson Institute Stern Policy Center Add to Calendar 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Suite 400 Washington, DC 20004 Four years after Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity began, Ukraine continues to work on an ambitious refmm agenda tackling conuption and stimulating the economy. Thanks to public pressure, civic engagement, and encomagement from international financial organizations, the government has introduced an open procurement process, created oversight and enforcement bodies throughout government, and required public officials to declare their wealth and assets. However, progress has slowed as anti-conuption agencies including the National Anti-Conuption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Conuption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) have come under attack from pariies within the government as well as the oligarchic interests that remain entrenched in the countly.
    [Show full text]
  • Organized Crime 1.1 Gaizer’S Criminal Group
    INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER I. ORGANIZED CRIME 1.1 Gaizer’s Criminal Group ..................................................................................6 1.2 Bandits in St. Petersburg ............................................................................ 10 1.3 The Tsapok Gang .......................................................................................... 14 Chapter II.CThe Corrupt Officials 2.1 «I Fell in Love with a Criminal» ................................................................20 2.2 Female Thief with a Birkin Bag ...............................................................24 2.3 «Moscow Crime Boss».................................................................................29 CONTENTS CHAPTER III. THE BRibE-TAKERS 3.1 Governor Khoroshavin’s medal «THE CRIMINAL RUSSIA PARTY», AN INDEPENDENT EXPERT REPORT «For Merit to the Fatherland» ..................................................................32 PUBLISHED IN MOSCOW, AUGUST 2016 3.2 The Astrakhan Brigade ...............................................................................36 AUTHOR: ILYA YASHIN 3.3 A Character from the 1990s ......................................................................39 MATERiaL COMPILING: VERONIKA SHULGINA HAPTER HE ROOKS TRANSLATION: C 4. T C EVGENia KARA-MURZA 4.1 Governor Nicknamed Hans .......................................................................42 GRAPHICS: PavEL YELIZAROV 4.2 The Party
    [Show full text]
  • Circassian Religion.Pdf
    Circassian Religion and Beliefs Circassian Religion and Beliefs A Descriptive Account Amjad Jaimoukha 2009 1 Circassian Culture & Folklore First published 2009 by © 2009 Amjad Jaimoukha Typeset in Printed and bound in by All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. A catalogue record for this document is available from ( ) ISBN 2 Contents Introduction 5 1. Time-line of Faith 7 2. Ancient Native Religion & Mythology 9 The Circassian Pantheon 10 List of Circassian Deities 13 Tenets of Polytheism 16 Rites & Ceremonies 17 Oaths & Vows 20 Holidays & Festivals 21 Augury & Astrology 27 Rites of Devotion to Specific Deities 29 Hentsegwasche 29 Sozeresh 33 Zchegwpathe 38 Theghelej 39 Lords of the hunt: Mezithe and Dawischjerjiy 40 Lhepsch 41 Beliefs & Cults 44 Immortality of the soul 44 Ancestor worship 45 Cult of the hero 45 Pyrolatry 45 The Circassian hearth: The inner sanctum 47 Tree worship 48 Entreaties & toasts 50 Death & life after life 52 Magic numbers: ‘Seven’ and ‘three’ 57 Magic & witchcraft 58 Superstitions, jinxes, omens & black cats 59 3 3. Related Religions 60 Circassian & Abkhaz Pantheons 60 Connection with Hattian Religion 62 4. Christianity 64 Christian Festivals 69 Christmas 69 Easter 72 ‘Night of the Wolf-burrow’ and the Assumption of Our Lady 72 5. Spread of Islam 75 6. Contemporary Religion 77 Religion under Communism 77 Glasnost & Post-Soviet Period 78 Religion Today 80 Appendices 84 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Russian-Speaking
    NOVEMBER 2017 ‘RUSSIAN-SPEAKING’ FIGHTERS IN SYRIA, IRAQ AND AT HOME: CONSEQUENCES AND CONTEXT FULL REPORT Mark Youngman and Dr Cerwyn Moore Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies Department of Political Science and International Studies University of Birmingham This report was produced out of the Actors and Narratives programme, funded by CREST. To find out more information about this programme, and to see other outputs from the team, visit the CREST website at: https://crestresearch.ac.uk/projects/actors-and-narratives/ About the authors: Mark Youngman is an ESRC-funded doctoral student and Cerwyn Moore a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Birmingham. Disclaimer: This report has been part funded by an ESRC IAA award and part funded by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (ESRC Award: ES/N009614/1). It draws on the existing work of the authors, and supplements their work with original research and ongoing data collection of Russian-speaking foreign fighters.www.crestresearch.co.uk The cover image, Caucasus Emirate, is a remixed derivative ofProposed divisions of the Caucasus Emirate by ArnoldPlaton, under CC BY-SA 3.0. Caucasus Emirate is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. by R. Stevens, CREST. ©2017 CREST Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-SA licence. www.crestresearch.ac.uk/copyright CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...............................................................................................................4 PART I: ASSESSING THE ‘RUSSIAN-SPEAKING’
    [Show full text]
  • Russia the Ingush-Ossetian Conflict in the Prigorodnyi Region
    Russia Page 1 of 32 RUSSIA THE INGUSH-OSSETIAN CONFLICT IN THE PRIGORODNYI REGION Human Rights Watch/Helsinki Human Rights Watch New York · Washington · London · Brussels Copyright © May 1996 by Human Rights Watch. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 96-75960 ISBN: 1-56432-165-7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report is based on a trip to the Republic of Ingushetiya, hereafter Ingushetiya, and the Republic of North Ossetia- Alaniya, hereafter North Ossetia, both states of the Russian Federation, from August 11-19, 1994. Until 1994, North Ossetia was the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), a part of the former Soviet Union. Until 1992, Ingushetiya was part of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), and was also part of the former Soviet Union. Human Rights/Helsinki representatives visited Vladikavkaz, Kartsa, Chermen, Tarskoye, Kurtat, Dachnoye, and Maiskii in North Ossetia and Nazran and Gaziyurt in Ingushetiya. Jeri Laber and Rachel Denber edited the report, and Shira Robinson provided production assistance for its publication. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki thanks both North Ossetian and Ingush authorities as well as officials from the Russian Temporary Administration (now the Temporary State Committee) for their cooperation with the mission participants. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki would like to express our appreciation to all those who read the report and commented on it, including Prof. John Collarusso of McMaster University. We would also like to thank the members of the Russian human rights group Memorial, who provided generous assistance and advice. In 1994 Memorial published an excellent report on the conflict in the Prigorodnyi region, "Two Years after the War: The Problem of the Forcibly Displaced in the Area of the Ossetian-Ingush Conflict." Finally, we would like to thank the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Henry Jackson Fund, the Merck Fund and the Moriah Fund for their support.
    [Show full text]
  • The Second Chechen War: the Information Component
    WARNING! The views expressed in FMSO publications and reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. The Second Chechen War: The Information Component by Emil Pain, Former Russian Ethno-national Relations Advisor Translated by Mr. Robert R. Love Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS. This article appeared in The linked image cannot be displayed. The file may have been moved, renamed, or deleted. Verify that the link points to the correct file a Military Review July-August 2000 In December 1994 Russian authorities made their first attempt to crush Chechen separatism militarily. However, after two years of bloody combat the Russian army was forced to withdraw from the Chechen Republic. The obstinacy of the Russian authorities who had decided on a policy of victory in Chechnya resulted in the deaths of at least 30,000 Chechens and 5,000 Russian soldiers.1 This war, which caused an estimated $5.5 billion in economic damage, was largely the cause of Russia's national economic crisis in 1998, when the Russian government proved unable to service its huge debts.2 It seemed that after the 1994-1996 war Russian society and the federal government realized the ineffectiveness of using colonial approaches to resolve ethnopolitical issues.3 They also understood, it seemed, the impossibility of forcibly imposing their will upon even a small ethnoterritorial community if a significant portion of that community is prepared to take up arms to defend its interests.
    [Show full text]
  • Stability in Russia's Chechnya and Other Regions of the North Caucasus: Recent Developments
    Order Code RL34613 Stability in Russia’s Chechnya and Other Regions of the North Caucasus: Recent Developments August 12, 2008 Jim Nichol Specialist in Russian and Eurasian Affairs Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Stability in Russia’s Chechnya and Other Regions of the North Caucasus: Recent Developments Summary In recent years, there have not been major terrorist attacks in Russia’s North Caucasus — a border area between the Black and Caspian Seas that includes the formerly breakaway Chechnya and other ethnic-based regions — on the scale of the June 2004 raid on security offices in the town of Nazran (in Ingushetia), where nearly 100 security personnel and civilians were killed, or the September 2004 attack at the Beslan grade school (in North Ossetia), where 300 or more civilians were killed. This record, in part, might be attributed to government tactics. For instance, the Russian Interior (police) Ministry reported that its troops had conducted over 850 sweep operations (“zachistki”) in 2007 in the North Caucasus, in which they surround a village and search every house, ostensibly in a bid to apprehend terrorists. Critics of the operations allege that the troops frequently engage in pillaging and gratuitous violence and are responsible for kidnapings for ransom and “disappearances” of civilians. Although it appears that major terrorist attacks have abated, there reportedly have been increasingly frequent small-scale attacks against government targets. Additionally, many ethnic Russian and other non-native civilians have been murdered or have disappeared, which has spurred the migration of most of the non- native population from the North Caucasus.
    [Show full text]