Russia 110224 Basic Political Developments

Ten-member gang behind attack on Moscow tourists in Kabardino-Balkaria

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=224424

NALCHIK. Feb 24 (Interfax) - A group of up to ten militants found in the Elbrus district in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in Russia's North Caucasus could have been involved in a recent attack on tourists from Moscow, a law enforcement source told Interfax.

"The gang active in the Elbrus district of Kabardino-Balkaria could have included from eight to ten people," he said.

"We have practically no doubt that members of this gang were involved in an attack on Moscow tourists vacationing in the Elbrus district," he said.

tm mj

Militants' camp found in Kabardino-Balkaria

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15983360&PageNum=0

24.02.2011, 02.14

MOSCOW, February 24 (Itar-Tass) - Special task forces in the Elbrus district, Kabardino-Balkaria, found a militants' camp containing police uniforms and weapons.

"Special task units found in the highland as well-hidden and well-equipped militants' base for eight people. The base could accommodate gunmen in the winter," spokesman for the National Antiterrorist Committee Nikolai Sintsov told Itar-Tass.

"The base contained large stocks of food, police uniforms, a homemade bomb and a Kalashnikov machine-gun," Sintsov said.

The operation to detect and destroy militants continues. There has been no precise information about the casualties among the gunmen.

Reports said one special task force police officer was killed and five servicemen were wounded in the special operation against militants in highland Kabardino-Balkaria. Also, on Tuesday night, a Federal Security Colonel was wounded, law-enforcement bodies in the North Caucasus Federal District (SKFO) told Tass.

"Fighting continued throughout the night," a high-placed police officer said, "thermal imaging devices were used to track the militants."

He did not rule out that federal forces were confronting not one gang, but several, numbering five to eight gunman each.

Speaking about the casualties on the part of federal forces, the Interior Ministry representative said the special task force police officer was killed and his five colleagues were wounded when the militants detected and shelled a recon group. The militants fired from a height and had an advantage.

Mortars and aviation will be used at the targets in the mountains, he said.

Law-enforcement bodies said "there is no precise information as to whether the militants sustained losses. If some of them were killed, the bodies have been taken away."

An armed group numbering up to seven gunmen opened fire at law-enforcement personnel on a countryside road linking the Baksan and Chegem Gorges near the highland village of Bylym, Elbrus district, at around 17:00, Moscow time, on Tuesday.

The regional department of the Investigation Committee opened a criminal case over attempted murder of law-enforcement personnel and illegal turnover of weapons.

Meanwhile, Kabardino-Balkaria law-enforcement bodies have not confirmed the information about the bombing of the area where the militants might be hiding.

"A helicopter was only used for aerial reconnaissance," a police official told Tass.

"As the federal forces were pursuing the gunmen, they used automatic weapons and mortars," the source said.

Updated reports identified the fatality as K.B.Aliyev, a servicemen from interior troops unit 3787 billeted in Nalchik-20.

"The group of investigators sent to the scene does not confirm the information about the killed militants," an investigator said.

Women Live in Fear During Chechnya's Islamic Revival

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Chechnyas-Women-Live-in-Fear-od-Islamic-Revival-116776194.html

 February 23, 2011

Diana Markosian | Grozny

At the entrance to a school in Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechen republic, two security guards grip their guns as they order a woman to cover her head before walking into class.

“You can’t go inside with your head like that,” one of them yells, tapping his AK-47.

The young student fiddles inside her purse before pulling out a black silk scarf.

“Is this better?” she asks, covering up her entire head with the scarf that matched her kohl-lined eyes.

Under the watchful eye of Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the once rebellious Chechnya is transforming into a conservative Muslim state. This has coincided with the almost complete disappearance of the ethnic Russian population, which has dropped by an estimated 30 percent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Many Chechen women are the first in three generations to cover their heads. In the officially atheist Soviet Union, women in the Caucasus burnt their headscarves, in an effort to dissuade youth from falling under the sway of religion.

“The headscarf  is a symbol of purity and worth,” says Malika Omarova, head of the Union of Chechen Women in Grozny. “When I was a student, I never wore a headscarf, not one person forced me. But, I want our women to wear them - it is in our blood. That is what makes us Chechen.”

The Russian republic of Chechnya has seen two of modern history’s most brutal separatist wars in the last two decades, with atrocities committed by both rebels and federal forces. But Mr. Kadyrov, a former rebel who changed sides after the first war, has brought a semblance of stability to Chechnya, which has seen massive investment by the Kremlin.  But Mr. Kadryov’s reign has also seen a resurgence in Islamic belief and practice.

In today’s Chechnya of cafes and fashion boutiques, the mandatory headscarf symbolizes this Islamic revival.

“Chechnya is already among one of the world's most repressive societies, with the state controlling almost every aspect of daily life," wrote Jennifer Windsor of Freedom House in a report on Chechnya “With the Kremlin largely out of the picture, the culture of impunity we have seen develop under [Mr.] Kadyrov is likely to worsen, leaving the population more vulnerable to abuse.”

The battle is being played out in universities, state buildings and now in the street, where a wave of attacks last year took place on women for not wearing headscarves.  Mr. Kadyrov denies his men were involved.

“I don’t know [who they are], but when I find them I shall announce my gratitude,”   Mr. Ramzan Kadyrov said in an interview on the state-run regional television channel Grozny.  He called the victims of the paintball attacks “naked women” who had most likely been forewarned.  “Even if they were carried out with my permission, I wouldn’t be ashamed of it,” he said of the paint-pellet attacks.

In Moscow, efforts to enforce a dress code by Chechnya’s authorities have angered rights activists who say such rules violate Russia’s constitution.

Zalina, a 19-year-old student and hair stylist, who gives only one name, says wearing a headscarf is more of a chore than choice for her. “I don’t see the point in wearing it,” says Zalina, whose long dark hair flows out from under her head covering. “But if I don’t, I know I will be punished. I am scared of that.”

The vast majority of women in Chechnya are covered in headscarves; it is no longer a mark of distinction or a choice.  Few dare to challenge Mr. Kadyrov's rule in this southern border region of more than one million people.

But the headscarf continues to embody the tensions between governments and their citizens.

“We shouldn't have to force our women to wear headscarves, it should come from their heart,” says Zargan Makhazhieva of Nisso, a regional human rights organization in Grozny. “It is becoming another problem in Chechnya. We already have enough problems; we are barely recovering from the trauma of two wars. How much can we take?”