Caucasus Security Brief - May 15 to May 20, 2010

Caucasus Security Brief – May 15 to May 20, 2010

Pro-Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus website announces successor to Anzor Astemirov; Russian Auditing Chamber Head demands budget transparency in N. Caucasus; President Medvedev meets with NGOs and human-rights activists, discusses N. Caucasus conflict; Medvedev approves N. Caucasus Council of the Elders; 30-kg bomb defused in Dagestan; two militants killed in southern Dagestan; serviceman dies during Chechen forest sweep; police officer dies while defusing bomb in Grozny; two senior policemen shot dead in Dagestan; traffic officer injured in shootout with gunmen in Dagestan; local police guard injured in ambush in Nalchik; militants attack police station in Nazran.

Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus (IEC) Press Statements

• Kavkaz Center, a pro-IEC website and frequent IEC mouthpiece, announced “Amir Abdullah” Asker Dzhalluyev’s (alt. spelling Dzhappuyev) as the new commander and governor of the joint velayat [province] of Kabarda, Balkaria, and Karachay following the death of Anzor Astemirov.[1]

Medvedev and transparency, corruption in N. Caucasus

• The chairman of the Russian Federation (RF) Auditing Chamber, Sergei Stepashin, stated that transparency in federal budget spending in the North Caucasus should be a key priority in a meeting on May 20 with regional leaders including the president of the Ingush Republic, Yunus-bek Yevkurov.[2]

• Russian President Dimitry Medvedev met with representatives of non-governmental organizations operating in the North Caucasus, including prominent human-rights activists, in the Kremlin on May 19.[3]  Medvedev reiterated his view that corruption, unemployment, low standards of life, and youth disenfranchisement fuel the region’s militant insurgency and pose a direct threat to Russia’s national security.[4]

• Medvedev also gave his tacit approval for the formation of a Council of the Elders in the North Caucasus.[5]

Russian Anti-Militant Activities

• Police successfully defused a 30-kilogram bomb found in an empty house along the Agvali-Echeda motorway in Tsumadinski District, Dagestan, according to a source from the Dagestani law enforcement agencies.  Electric detonators and ammunition were also confiscated at the location.[6]

• Two militants died near Derbent, Dagestan, after two separate operations overnight on May 18, according to Dagestani Interior Ministry officials.[7]

Militant Operations and Other Incidents of Violence

• One serviceman died from a bomb blast as his unit swept the woods for insurgents, according to Chechen Interior Ministry spokesman Magomed Deniyev.[8]

• One policeman died and another was injured while attempting to diffuse a bomb in the Chechen capital of Grozny, on May 18.  One civilian was also hospitalized from the blast.[9]

• Assailants killed two senior-ranking policemen – a district investigation department chief and criminal police chief – in Yaruk-su, Novolaksk District, Dagestan, on May 17, according to a source in the Prosecutor General’s Office (SKP).[10]

• Militants shot and injured a traffic police officer in downtown Kaspiisk, Dagestan, on May 17, escaping by car unharmed, according to the Dagestani Interior Ministry press service.[11]

• Unknown gunmen shot and injured a police officer who was responding to an alarm at an employment center in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, on May 15, according to police reports.[12]

• Local police source said unknown gunmen fired grenades at a police station in Nazran, Ingushetia, in the early hours of May 15. No injuries were reported, but the building suffered damage.[13]