Dagestan: A mountainous, multi-ethnic, autonomous republic in Russia's politically volatile North Caucasus, Dagestan means "Land of the Mountains".
Territory: About 83,000 sq km (31,000 sq miles) - roughly the size of Ireland or Austria. Located in the north-east region of the Caucasus mountains, with a coastline on the oil-rich Caspian Sea. Shares its southern border with Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Capital: Makhachkala; the rebels are entrenched around the villages of Ansalta, Rakhata and Echeda, in the Botlikhsky area on Dagestan's border with Chechnya.
Population: About two million people, a complex patchwork quilt of 33 ethnic groups, including Lezkis, Kumyks, Chechens, Ingushes, Avars, Armenians, Kalmyks, Kabardians, Azeris and Jews. Some of the more obscure ethnic groups in the mountains number only a few hundred.
Economy: Oil and electricity production are the backbone of the economy. An oil pipeline runs across Dagestan to Russia from Azerbaijan, but Dagestan has been badly hit by Russia's economic problems.
History: Russia first annexed the Caspian Sea regions of Dagestan in 1722, under Peter the Great, but mountain guerrillas resisted the Russians for a further century and a half. In the mid-19th century, the legendary Shamil used Islam to weld the mountain tribes into a fighting force and tried to create a theocratic, Islamic state. Shamil, outnumbered and outgunned, lived out his final days as an honoured guest in the imperial capital, St Petersburg.
Dagestan avoided being dragged into Russia's most recent armed intervention in the North Caucasus, its ill-fated war against secessionist guerrillas in neighbouring Chechnya between 1994 and 1996. Russian officials believe Chechen warlords are giving armed support to radical Islamists in a bid to overthrow the pro-Moscow government of Magomedali Magomedov.