Southern Russia on the brink of war

The author is a special correspondent for Kommersant Publishing House

“Intensify the fight against the underground, stop all negotiations”

Throughout May, special operations were carried out in different regions of Dagestan. On May 19, in the Novolaksky district, they combed the forest - they found a tent of militants, then - two owners of the tent, Zurab Abdurazakov and Valery Isaenko: the first, according to law enforcement agencies, headed the Novolak group of militants, the second came from Astrakhan to become a militant. Abdurazakov and Isaenko were killed during a shootout with the military. On the same day in Makhachkala, the police tried to stop a car for inspection: shooting rang out, and the people in the car were killed by “return fire.” According to the republic's FSB Directorate, the murdered Kazbek Rashidov and Mikhail Kutbudinov were saboteurs sent to Makhachkala to carry out terrorist attacks. The third in this group was Mahmoud Mansour, who was killed the previous day. But about the liquidation of Mansur - a little later.

On May 20, in Khasavyurt, security forces blocked the house of former policeman Murad Nurmagomedov, in which Arslan Mamedov, suspected of having connections with an illegal armed group, was located. Both refused to surrender and opened fire - both were killed. During the special operation, one SOBR officer was injured. After Mamedov and Nurmagomedov were killed, the security forces said that Mamedov was the leader of the bandit underground, the emir of the Northern Sector, and Nurmagomedov was his accomplice.

On the same day, security forces prevented a series of terrorist attacks in the Sergokalinsky district. While combing the forest, they discovered a cache - two plastic barrels with a capacity of 200 liters, which contained nine ready-to-use homemade bombs, weapons and ammunition. Two more bombs were found on the road. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan claims that the power of the bombs was over 120 kg of TNT. The bombs were destroyed.

On May 22, at the 6th kilometer of the Makhachkala-Astrakhan highway, employees of the Republican Directorate of the FSB of Russia and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the North Caucasian Federal District tried to detain a car in which there was an “alleged member of an illegal armed formation.” There was a shootout between the security forces and the suspect: the suspect fled, three law enforcement officers were wounded. Two of the three wounded died in the hospital - a FSB officer and a police officer from the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the North Caucasus Federal District.

All the cases described are official data from the law enforcement agencies of Dagestan, and if you look at what is happening in the republic only through the prism of official data, the situation seems clear: the militants have become more active, the security forces are fighting with them, and the confrontation is growing. In this regard, there is a need for additional forces, weapons, and financing. Over the past six months, more than 20 thousand military personnel from other regions of Russia have been deployed to Dagestan. And apparently, this is not the limit.

Dagestani human rights activists say that the “intensification” of militants is of a strange nature: from the reports it becomes clear that clashes are taking place, and the militants provoking them were killed (or disappeared) - but there are practically no cases where, as a result of the battle, a witness from the underground remained and lived to see trial.

The Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs has its own version. They are convinced that the militants have indeed “become brutal,” but not on their own, but because the hunt for them has intensified. An acquaintance of mine from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan says that this happened after the terrorist attack on May 3 at the Alaska 30 traffic police post, located on the outskirts of Makhachkala. That day, a double explosion occurred at the post, with an interval of 15 minutes, killing 12 people, including civilians. In Moscow, this terrorist attack was regarded as a warning for the inauguration of Vladimir Putin. According to an officer from the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs, immediately after the terrorist attack, instructions were issued “from the center”: to intensify the fight against the underground, to stop all negotiations (including within the framework of the commission on the legalization and adaptation of militants, which works in Dagestan), to clean up before the Olympics in Sochi every last bush in the forest. Therefore, in some areas, troops are burning out entire blocks of forest. “What’s the point of burning down a forest if there’s at most five percent of the total underground there?” the policeman is surprised. “These guys mostly live in cities, with their friends and relatives.”

Local security officials believe that units sent from other regions “do not understand the situation” and act as during the war in Chechnya - harshly and without much understanding of who is right and who is wrong.

“A man called us, a Russian. He did not allow us to leave the house.”

An important illustration of what is happening in the republic is the special operation that took place in Makhachkala on May 18. Special forces and armored vehicles were pulled up to house number 1 on Yubileinaya Street. According to the intelligence services, the dangerous militant Mahmud Mansur was in the house (the same one who, according to the security forces, was sent to Makhachkala as part of a group of three people for acts of sabotage). But, besides the militant, there were women and children in the house who wanted to leave the house. However, they were not released. The owner of the house, Zarina Mansur, called human rights activists, who connected her with her Moscow colleagues. “I wanted to go out for a walk with my child and saw that the house was surrounded by armored personnel carriers and armed people,” the woman said over the phone. From her words it became known that her 19-year-old son Mahmud Mansur, his wife Angela Dalgatova, family friend Abdurakhman Magomedov with his wife Fatima and two young children were in the house. By evening a crowd had gathered near the house - a rumor spread that the house was being shot.

“A man, Russian, called us and introduced himself as an FSB officer,” Zarina Mansur told employees of the Memorial human rights center. “He said that he was in charge of the operation and that we should listen only to him. And he did not allow us to leave the house.”

The authorities of Dagestan tried to intervene in the matter, but the “man from the FSB” did not listen to anyone. As Interior Ministry officials later explained to reporters, the security services feared that while the women and children were leaving, the militant would try to break out of the house.

Be that as it may, two children and women remained hostages for almost a day. Even Shamil Mutaev, an employee of the government commission for the adaptation of militants to peaceful life, was not allowed to see them. The tension around this story became so high that local residents blocked Akushinsky Avenue in protest against the blockade of the house.

Only in the morning were women, children and Abdurakhman Magomedov allowed to leave. When the security forces asked whether Mansur was ready to surrender, his mother and wife replied that they were “not sure,” and his friend Abdurahman replied that “Mahmud will not come out.”

Soon the security forces began storming the house, Mahmoud Mansur was killed.

Human rights activists believe that if not for the noise raised around the blocked house in which there were women and children, this special operation could have had more victims.

According to the chairman of the “Civic Assistance” committee, Svetlana Gannushkina (it was with her that Zarina Mansur spoke), human rights activists were faced with a sharp reluctance of the security forces to conduct any negotiations - neither with the inhabitants of the blocked house, nor with representatives of local authorities. Gannushkina claims that the security forces lied from the very beginning that the women and children were released from the house because they did not want any mediation. And this behavior confirms what the Interior Ministry officer told me: there is a clear directive to destroy militants without any negotiations. And, unfortunately, there is no intention to save lives - both civilians and militants. Such tactics, according to Gannushkina and the head of the “Hot Spots” project of the Human Rights Center “Memorial” Oleg Orlov, are heating up the situation and turning people against the authorities.

After Mahmud Mansur was killed, his acquaintance Abdurakhman Magomedov was taken to the Kirov district police station of Makhachkala. A lawyer was not allowed to see him. Information has emerged that the detainee is being beaten. People began to arrive at the police department, more than a hundred people loudly expressed dissatisfaction and demanded the release of Magomedov. Such a reaction is the only way to “recapture” a person from the security forces. Young men continue to be kidnapped in Dagestan; human rights activists have information that some of the abducted are tortured and killed. Therefore, everyone who came to the Kirov police department on May 19 understood that tomorrow the same thing could happen to him. The situation got out of control when angry people attacked a local journalist who was filming the incident. The girl was barely repelled by the police. A fight broke out, stones and plastic bottles were thrown at the police, the police opened fire in the air, and additional forces were deployed to the scene of the fight. Several people were detained and on the same day they were sentenced to 3-5 days for petty hooliganism. However, a criminal case initiated on the basis of an attack on police officers will most likely have completely different results.

"We may lose Dagestan"

According to human rights activists, the peaceful scenario in Dagestan has many opponents. Oleg Orlov believes that in Dagestan, where the armed confrontation between the armed underground and the state is most acute, neither one nor the other is in the mood for dialogue. The underground is trying to forcefully impose its idea of ​​the correct “Islamic way of life” on the entire society of Dagestan. The security agencies are treating both terrorists and ordinary members of the Salafi community who do not fight, but only pray, with the same brush. According to Orlov, the security forces decided to respond to the terrorist attacks in Dagestan with state terror. Extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, torture, secret prisons, falsification of criminal cases are a reality for Dagestan.

Human rights activists note that on May 29, a unique meeting was held in the republic - for the first time, representatives of the Salafi community (called Wahhabis) and the official Spiritual Administration of Muslims sat down at the negotiating table. They adopted a resolution on the need to resolve all controversial religious issues that arise (often they become the subject of confrontation) through discussion in a scientific debate, for which a joint body was created, consisting of an equal number of Islamic scientists from both sides. And the Mufti of Dagestan, Akhmad-haji Abdullaev, called on Muslims to be tolerant towards each other. It would seem that this meeting could mark the beginning of a peaceful dialogue and reduce the intensity of confrontation in society. However, on May 3, a terrorist attack occurred at the Alaska 30 post, which blocked all peaceful initiatives and launched a campaign to brutally suppress any resistance.

Today in the North Caucasus, two models of fighting the armed underground are used, states Oleg Orlov. One of them is typical for Chechnya and is aimed at exterminating militants and any signs of “Wahhabism.” The second - the “Dagestan model” - calls for dialogue and tolerance, because fundamentalist Islam is already present in the North Caucasus, and it is impossible to eradicate it with fire and sword: this will only cause an increase in protest sentiments and the popularity of this branch of Islam. Therefore, according to experts, through a social contract it is necessary to develop mechanisms for coexistence with moderate Salafis, and for radicals to create channels for returning to peaceful life.

Of course, the policy of “soft power” does not produce instant results. But this is a process that, according to Orlov, lays the foundations for lasting peace. But the establishment of dialogue does not suit either the radicals or the security forces: militants are disrupting the peace process with terrorist attacks and murders; The security forces sabotage the work of the Adaptation Commission, violate the guarantees given by the state to people who surrendered, and continue to violate human rights, which, in turn, greatly benefits the radicals. In the first two weeks of May alone, 10 people were kidnapped in Dagestan - witnesses claim that the kidnappers were wearing camouflage uniforms, masks and carrying weapons. The location of several people was subsequently established - they ended up at the regional police department.

In such conditions, any skirmish can lead to a full-scale confrontation, Memorial notes. Until the security forces begin to act strictly according to the law, resistance cannot be broken: any injustice gives rise to mass protest.

Last week, the federal center allowed the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs to conduct special operations on the territory of Dagestan and Ingushetia. Thus, Moscow confirmed its loyalty to Ramzan Kadyrov and his extremely tough methods of fighting the underground.

In Dagestan, they believe that “Chechen methods” not only will not work here, but will also cause an increase in civil confrontation - there are too many factors in Dagestan, including ethnic and religious ones, which significantly distinguish the situation in this republic from the Chechen one.

In Dagestan they are convinced: there is only one way to keep the republic from war - the federal center must demand from local and visiting security forces strict compliance with the law in everything, be it investigating crimes or detaining suspects. “Otherwise, we may lose Dagestan,” says Biyakai Magomedov. “Everything that is happening here now is very similar to what happened in Chechnya in 1993-1994. A war will begin, and soldiers from all over Russia will die. Pay attention to this everything before it's too late."