Attacks and tensions in Chechnya and beyond

IN Chechnyaprovince in southern Russia’s North Caucasus, a Russian soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack by unknown attackers on a military convoy from Moscow. This was reported by Russian state media. Unidentified attackers attacked a convoy on the outskirts of Grozny, the provincial capital.

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This is not the only province in this area that has been the target of invasions and attacks in recent months.

Russia’s weak side: the North Caucasus

As experts note, attacks on police officers are becoming more and more frequent in the province Caucasus recently a “hot” area with frequent raids and incidents. From Dagestan to Ingushetia (a narrow Russian province in the same area), there have been numerous suspected cases and arrests. Now the situation in Chechnya is also unsettled.

According to Top War, the West’s strategy may be to shake up the Caucasian republics in order to create internal divisions in Russia.

Attack in Chechnya

“Unknown people attacked a military convoy today on the outskirts of Grozny,” the official Ria Novosti news agency reported, citing the local branch of Rosgvardiya, the Russian national guard. “A soldier was killed and another was injured,” the agency added. “Steps have been taken to find and arrest the attackers.” Moscow fought a number of bloody wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s. Russian forces have eliminated rebel groups seeking separation from Russia, which the Kremlin accuses of mounting attacks across the country. Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled the region with an iron fist for almost two decades, has received significant subsidies from Moscow in exchange for his unwavering loyalty to President Vladimir Putin. Independent human rights groups say Kadyrov considers Chechnya his personal stronghold and ruthlessly suppresses his opponents at the expense of human rights.

Law enforcement and rescue services were present at the scene of the incident, and criminal proceedings were initiated in connection with the search for the attackers.

On October 12, an explosion at a gas station in Grozny, the capital of the Russian Republic of Chechnya in the Caucasus, also killed four people, including two children. The emergency services reported this, although the causes of the explosion remain unknown.

Dagestan, attacks and explosions of gas stations

Tension on the border is also visible, among others: Dagestan (the largest Russian province in the North Caucasus, located east of Chechnya and bordering the Caspian Sea, also bordering Georgia to the south), where numerous similar cases took place. In June, the province was visited by, among others, double attack – reported ISPI (Institute of International Political Studies) – as a result, according to local media, about twenty people died.

Recently, on September 27 this year gas station explosion According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 13 people, including three children, died in the settlement of Novy Kushet in Dagestan. There were 23 injured. The Investigative Committee initiated an investigation. After the explosions, a large fire broke out. No traces of explosives were found.

In August 2023, explosions were reported at a gas station in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. 37 people were killed and 118 were injured.

Terrorists in Ingushetia, arrests and shootings

Even Ingushetia (another narrow Russian province located west of and bordering Chechnya) is a hot spot for surprise airstrikes. Here, in late August, the FSB in Russia arrested six members of an international terrorist organization accused of planning an attack on the police and an Orthodox church. Arrests took place in Nazran and the village of Kantyszewo. Both locations are located a few kilometers from the border with North Ossetia. All six arrested were Russian citizens. The security forces seized simple explosives, firearms, bladed weapons, materials with “symbols of terrorism” as well as combat tactics manuals and instructions on assembling explosives from the suspects’ mobile phones. The FSB explains, without further details, that all six confessed.

Additionally, recently, on October 12, in this area in Russia, three people, including a security officer, lost their lives as a result of shooting. According to a reconstruction provided by the authorities, armed men shot at the car of anti-extremist forces. The attackers managed to escape.

Georgia and the elections

They also border the southern provinces of Russia Georgia. The country has previously been criticized for its ambivalent attitude towards Moscow, with a more moderate approach towards the National Union and pro-Western parties.

However, after the war began, Georgia increased trade with Moscow, allowing the resumption of direct flights and possible circumvention of sanctions on the transit of goods to Russia. Could the elections now change relations at the border?