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TRUCK BOMB SIGNALS TROUBLE ON RUSSIA'S SOUTHERN FLANK
Christian Science Monitor
Aug17, 2009
Emergency workers look through debris at a destroyed police station
in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia, Monday. A suicide bomber exploded a
truck at a police station in Russia's restive North Caucasus Monday,
killing at least 20 people and wounding 60 others, officials said.
(Musa Sadulayev/AP) Photo
Truck bomb signals trouble on Russia's southern flank A week of
regional violence climaxed Monday in Ingushetia when a suicide bomber
blew a hole in a heavily fortified police headquarters, killing at
least 20.
By Fred Weir | Correspondent 08.17.09
http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews /2009/08/17/truck-bomb-signals-trouble-on-russias- southern-flank/
A week of extremist attacks on Russia's seething southern flank
climaxed Monday with a suicide truck bombing in Ingushetia that killed
at least 20 and injured scores outside a police station in the tiny
republic's main city, Nazran.
The resulting explosion triggered a "raging fire" that destroyed a
weapons room, incinerated nearby cars, and damaged nearby apartment
buildings, according to an Associated Press (AP) report from Nazran. It
was one of the deadliest attacks in the region in years, the AP said.
Violence by Islamist insurgents, once confined mainly to separatist
Chechnya, has gradually spread throughout much of Russia's
northern Caucasus, leaving Russian authorities increasingly unable
to guarantee order, or even protect pro-Moscow officials, in the
mainly Muslim region. (See map.) For Moscow, the stakes are huge. The
northern Caucasus region is Russia's gateway to the energy-rich and
strategically vital southern Caucasus, which includes the former
Soviet nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.
Worsening violence in the area could seriously disrupt the planned 2014
Winter Olympics in nearby Sochi, into which former President Vladimir
Putin invested about $12 billion along with his own personal prestige.
Concerns Moscow could lose control Long-simmering concerns that Moscow
could lose control in the volatile northern Caucasus, where Chechen
rebels have waged a persistent insurgency since 1991, are spiking
again given the past week of attacks.
Monday's bombing in Ingushetia, which blew a huge hole in Nazran's
fortified police headquarters, was reminiscent of attacks carried out
by Chechen rebels at the height of that insurgency against Russian
troops in the early days of Mr. Putin's 2000-08 term.
Over the weekend, at least two gun battles between police and
separatist insurgents in Chechnya itself left about a dozen people
dead and made the Kremlin's boast of restoring order in that troubled
republic look increasingly hollow.
In nearby Dagestan, a multiethnic mountain republic on the Caspian Sea,
insurgent snipers killed two policemen in separate attacks on Saturday.
Last week, insurgents killed four police officers at a checkpoint in
Buinaksk, near Dagestan's border with Chechnya.
And in Ingushetia, where violence has been spiking in recent months,
three gunmen shot an killed a female fortune-teller this past
Thursday. Occultists are a common target of Islamist extremists, who
regard them as blasphemers, occording to Russian press reports. The
previous day, insurgents assassinated Ingushetia's construction
minister in his own heavily guarded office.
Cracks in Moscow's strategy to contain Caucasus Russia's northern
Caucasus includes eight republics, six of which are populated mainly
by Muslims, that were conquered and incorporated into the Russian
Empire in the 19th century.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia fought two savage
wars to regain control of separatist Chechnya.
The Kremlin seemed to find a winning formula in handing power to a
local pro-Moscow strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov, who pacified the republic
by co-opting former rebels into his personal security corps and
allegedly launching a wave of terror to suppress any dissent against
his rule.
Several human rights activists who attempted to report on Mr. Kadyrov's
methods have been killed in recent months.
But attempts to install similarly effective local bosses in other
republics, notably Ingushetia, have proven less successful.
In June, Ingushetia's recently appointed president, Yunus-Bek
Yevkurov, received grave injuries in a car-bombing, from which he is
still recovering. Mr. Yevkurov blamed Monday's attack on militants
retaliating against heightened security measures along the border
with Chechnya, reported the Associated Press.
"It was an attempt to stablize the situation
and sow panic," said the president in a statement.
Christian Science Monitor
Aug17, 2009
Emergency workers look through debris at a destroyed police station
in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia, Monday. A suicide bomber exploded a
truck at a police station in Russia's restive North Caucasus Monday,
killing at least 20 people and wounding 60 others, officials said.
(Musa Sadulayev/AP) Photo
Truck bomb signals trouble on Russia's southern flank A week of
regional violence climaxed Monday in Ingushetia when a suicide bomber
blew a hole in a heavily fortified police headquarters, killing at
least 20.
By Fred Weir | Correspondent 08.17.09
http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews /2009/08/17/truck-bomb-signals-trouble-on-russias- southern-flank/
A week of extremist attacks on Russia's seething southern flank
climaxed Monday with a suicide truck bombing in Ingushetia that killed
at least 20 and injured scores outside a police station in the tiny
republic's main city, Nazran.
The resulting explosion triggered a "raging fire" that destroyed a
weapons room, incinerated nearby cars, and damaged nearby apartment
buildings, according to an Associated Press (AP) report from Nazran. It
was one of the deadliest attacks in the region in years, the AP said.
Violence by Islamist insurgents, once confined mainly to separatist
Chechnya, has gradually spread throughout much of Russia's
northern Caucasus, leaving Russian authorities increasingly unable
to guarantee order, or even protect pro-Moscow officials, in the
mainly Muslim region. (See map.) For Moscow, the stakes are huge. The
northern Caucasus region is Russia's gateway to the energy-rich and
strategically vital southern Caucasus, which includes the former
Soviet nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.
Worsening violence in the area could seriously disrupt the planned 2014
Winter Olympics in nearby Sochi, into which former President Vladimir
Putin invested about $12 billion along with his own personal prestige.
Concerns Moscow could lose control Long-simmering concerns that Moscow
could lose control in the volatile northern Caucasus, where Chechen
rebels have waged a persistent insurgency since 1991, are spiking
again given the past week of attacks.
Monday's bombing in Ingushetia, which blew a huge hole in Nazran's
fortified police headquarters, was reminiscent of attacks carried out
by Chechen rebels at the height of that insurgency against Russian
troops in the early days of Mr. Putin's 2000-08 term.
Over the weekend, at least two gun battles between police and
separatist insurgents in Chechnya itself left about a dozen people
dead and made the Kremlin's boast of restoring order in that troubled
republic look increasingly hollow.
In nearby Dagestan, a multiethnic mountain republic on the Caspian Sea,
insurgent snipers killed two policemen in separate attacks on Saturday.
Last week, insurgents killed four police officers at a checkpoint in
Buinaksk, near Dagestan's border with Chechnya.
And in Ingushetia, where violence has been spiking in recent months,
three gunmen shot an killed a female fortune-teller this past
Thursday. Occultists are a common target of Islamist extremists, who
regard them as blasphemers, occording to Russian press reports. The
previous day, insurgents assassinated Ingushetia's construction
minister in his own heavily guarded office.
Cracks in Moscow's strategy to contain Caucasus Russia's northern
Caucasus includes eight republics, six of which are populated mainly
by Muslims, that were conquered and incorporated into the Russian
Empire in the 19th century.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia fought two savage
wars to regain control of separatist Chechnya.
The Kremlin seemed to find a winning formula in handing power to a
local pro-Moscow strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov, who pacified the republic
by co-opting former rebels into his personal security corps and
allegedly launching a wave of terror to suppress any dissent against
his rule.
Several human rights activists who attempted to report on Mr. Kadyrov's
methods have been killed in recent months.
But attempts to install similarly effective local bosses in other
republics, notably Ingushetia, have proven less successful.
In June, Ingushetia's recently appointed president, Yunus-Bek
Yevkurov, received grave injuries in a car-bombing, from which he is
still recovering. Mr. Yevkurov blamed Monday's attack on militants
retaliating against heightened security measures along the border
with Chechnya, reported the Associated Press.
"It was an attempt to stablize the situation
and sow panic," said the president in a statement.