ONE POLICEMAN was killed and two other people were injured in a drive-by shooting yesterday in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.
The incident followed a weekend of violence, as militants carried out a series of attacks aimed at law enforcement officials and the region’s infrastructure. With six wounded in the last two days, Moscow’s political and economic efforts to bring peace to the region appear to have failed to stop the republic’s street warfare.
The local interior ministry announced yesterday that a police officer wounded in an attack in the Dagestani capital, Machkala, on Sunday had died. Three police officers were wounded in the incident when gunmen fired at their car.
A further two shootings were reported in the north of the country on Sunday night and Monday morning. In the city of Khasavyurt, a local prosecutor’s aide and his young son were shot. In a separate incident in the same city, a woman was wounded when gunmen opened fire at a passing police car. Recent attacks have also targeted more senior law enforcement officials. A senior judge at Dagestan’s Untsukulsky district court was gunned down earlier this month.
Militants further targeted the republic’s infrastructure this weekend. A blast on Sunday morning hit a freight train carrying grain and derailing 16 of 50 wagons. Local representatives of the interior ministry reported that there were no casualties, but suburban train traffic was disrupted until yesterday morning. This was the second such attack in the republic since the beginning of this month.
While receiving less media attention than neighbouring militant hotspots Chechnya and Ingushetia, Dagestan is struggling to cope with the combination of simmering ethnic tension and radicalisation of the local population. The International Crisis Group attributes much of the violence to the militant Islamist organisation Shariat Jamaat, and to close links between militants in Dagestan and neighbouring Chechnya, which developed in the late 1990s.
Moscow is trying a number of measures to stop violence escalating in the region, including the introduction of a new federal district, the North Caucasus, earlier this year.
Conceived in 2000 by then president Vladimir Putin, federal districts report directly to the Russian president, strengthening Moscow’s control in the regions, and enabling the central government to combat local corruption. Previously included in the southern federal district, the more troubled regions in the North Caucasus – the republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkess, North Ossetia as well as Stavropol territory – now come under more direct control of the Kremlin in the new, smaller district.
Mr Putin has also highlighted economic development as a key priority for the region. Calling for the North Caucasus to become a strategic transport link between Russia and Europe and the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, Mr Putin has also highlighted tourism as a potentially strong industry in the region. Unemployment, difficult economic conditions and corruption are believed to play a major part in the radicalisation of citizens of Dagestan.
Republic Of Dagestan Largest Of Russia’s Republics Home To 110 Nationalities
THE REPUBLIC of Dagestan is the largest of Russia’s republics in the troubled North Caucasus region. With a population estimated at slightly more than 2.7 million in 2009, the republic is home to over 110 nationalities.
The most ethnically diverse federal subject in Russia, the population includes Avars, Dargins, Kumyks and Lezgins as well as ethnic Russians.
Founded in 1921, Dagestan has a total area of more than 50,000sq km and borders Chechnya, Stavropol Territory and Kalmykia within Russia as well as Georgia and Azerbaijan beyond.
Dagestan is part of the recently formed North Caucasus Federal District, an administrative division established to give Moscow more power in the region.
Dagestan has a long coastline on the Caspian sea and its economy is based primarily on agriculture, hydroelectric power and local crafts. The country is also rich in oil and natural gas.
Local authorities have struggled to control ethnic tensions in the republic since the 1990s and terrorism is a major problem. With a predominantly Muslim population, tough social and economic conditions have cultivated the rise of radical forms of Islam such as Wahhabism and Salafism. There is also resentment about the dominance of Dargins, Avars and Russians in local politics, although the State Council, the main authority in the region, is made up of representatives from 14 ethnic groups.
Suicide bombings targeting law enforcement officials and politicians are common as well as attempts to sabotage local infrastructure, with train blasts a frequent occurrence.