Insurgency in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia

The Insurgency in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia was a protracted conflict between Russian security forces and militant groups operating in the regions of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, located in the North Caucasus region of Russia. The conflict was part of the broader insurgency in the North Caucasus, which emerged following the end of the First Chechen War in 1996.

Background
The roots of the insurgency in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia can be traced back to the Chechen Wars of the 1990s. The withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya in 1996 created a power vacuum in the region, leading to the rise of various militant groups with separatist and Islamist agendas. These groups, including the Karachay Jamaat, Jamaat of Kabardino-Balkaria and Caucasus Emirate and its affiliates, sought to establish an independent Islamic state in the North Caucasus and wage jihad against the Russian government.

Origin
The militant group in Kabardino-Balkaria began as a moderate non-violent organization named the Islamic Center in 1993. The group was renamed the Jamaat of Kabardino-Balkaria when it was not allowed to re-register under the original name in 1997. The focus of the group gradually changed because of persecution by Valery Kokov, the long-time ruler of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, who labeled all alternatives to the local branch of the Spiritual Board of Russia's Muslims, operating the only official mosque in the republic, as Wahhabis, and indiscriminately and brutally harassed them.

Yarmuk was founded as a unit of around 30 Balkars and Kabardinians led by Muslim Atayev (Emir Sayfullah), which trained at the Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev's camp in Pankisi Gorge, Georgia. In 2002 the group helped Gelayev's forces in a raid of the village of Galashki in the Republic of Ingushetia. Upon their return to Kabardino-Balkaria, Atayev and his men launched a recruitment drive among alienated and radicalized youth. Mounting pressure from a continued crackdown led the group's leader, Mussa Mukozhoyev (Musa Mukozhev), to join the underground. Many local young radicals had joined the Islamic Peacekeeping Army that invaded the republic of Dagestan from Chechnya in 1999 or fought on the Chechen separatist side in the Second Chechen War.

Radical Chechen commander Shamil Basayev maintained close ties with the local Salafis, living in the town of Baksan for more than a month in 2003, before narrowly escaping a police raid. An Ingush would-be suicide bomber, Zarema Muzhakhoyeva, lived in the republic's capital of Nalchik before going on a failed suicide mission to Moscow. A Nalchik resident housed the alleged organizer of the August 2004 bombing in the Moscow metro.

Insurgency
Kabardino-Balkaria:

-Early militant activity: In August 2004 Yarmuk announced the beginning of military operations in the republic. Their online manifesto rejected terrorism, referring to alleged government responsibility for the 1999 Russian apartment bombings ("We are not fighting against women or children, like Russian invaders are doing in Ichkeria. We are not blowing up sleeping people, like FSB of the Russian Federation does"). The manifesto noted the corruption of the "mafia clans" that led the republic ("These mere apologies for rulers, who sold themselves to the invaders, have made drug addiction, prostitution, poverty, crime, depravity, drunkenness and unemployment prosper in our Republic").

Yarmuk launched its first attack in Kabardino-Balkaria that same month, ambushing policemen in Chegem district. A turning point came in December 2004, when Yarmuk members conducted a raid on the office of the federal drug control agency in Nalchik, during which they seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition. The founding leader of Yarmuk, Muslim Atayev, was killed when the police stormed an apartment in Nalchik in January 2005. The organization continued to operate, staging attacks under the leadership of his successor, Rustam Bekanov. He was killed three months later and was replaced by Anzor Astemirov, a former deputy director of the Islamic Center. The group's base of operations was Nalchik and the Balkarian enclave around Mount Elbrus.

-Nalchik raid and aftermath: Yarmuk was the main force involved in the botched raid by around 100–200 mostly untrained militants on the capital Nalchik in 2005, during which more than 140 people, including 95 alleged insurgents, were killed. Scores of suspects were detained after the attack, and at least 52 were put on trial. The Jamaat apparently lost most of its members, including the deputy leader Ilyas Gorchkhanov. Survivors retrenched, and in late 2007 were subsumed into the United Vilayet of Kabarada, Balkaria and Karachay that would operate not only in Kabardino-Balkaria but also in the neighboring republic of Karachay–Cherkessia after the destruction of its native Karachay Jamaat. The number of attacks attributed to Vilayet KBK at that time had been relatively low, being mostly targeted assassinations such as that of Anatoly Kyarov. One exception was the shooting of a group of nine Russian hunters in November 2007. The militants systematically kept recruiting new fighters and gathering weapons. 

-Surge of violence: Following the killing of the group's leader Anzor Astemirov in March 2010, the leadership was assumed by more aggressive young commanders like the Baksan area-based Asker Dzhappuyev and the south-west sector commander Ratmir Shameyev, who regrouped Vilayet KBK and changed its tactics. The group went on to perpetrate two high-profile bombings: a blast at the Nalchik hippodrome that injured two ministers during May Day festivities and a sabotage attack on the Baksan hydroelectric power station that inflicted significant economic damage in July. The group was also involved in a large number of near-daily attacks directed against members of security forces. According to a statement made by the Russian federal Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev in November 2010, "the highest level of the terrorist threat in the North Caucasus is in the republics of Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria", as the KBR saw six times more gun attacks and nearly five times more explosions in 2010 as in the same period of 2009. The Vilayet KBK fighters began to simultaneously act as a Taliban-style morality police, targeting alleged "dens of vice". Between March and May 2011, the Russian Security Services killed nearly the entire leadership of the Vilayet, including overall Emir Asker Dzhappuyev, Emir Zakaria of the southwestern sector and Emir Abdul Jabbar of the Northeastern Sector.

-Low level insurgency: The death of so many commanders led to a decline in the number of rebel attacks in Kabardino-Balkaria, mostly taking the form of attacks on local police officials and police stations. In September 2011 Alim Zankishiev (aka Emir Ubaidallah) became the new leader of the rebels, he was killed by Russian security forces in March 2012. A security operation in Nalchik in September 2012 again saw the killing of several senior commanders (Emir Hamza of the North-Western sector and acting leader of the group, Emir Abdal-Malik of the North-Eastern sector and Shamil Ulbashev, Emir of the Central Sector) in a single operation. Ruslan Baryrbekov (also using the Nom de guerre Amir Khamza) briefly became leader before being killed in September 2012 when Khasanbi Fakov became emir. Fakov was killed by security forces in August 2013 in Nalchik, as was his successor Tengiz Guketlov in March 2014.

Vilayat KBK suffered a split in August 2015, with Robert Zankishiev joining Caucasus Emirate commanders in other North Caucasus republics in pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, while Zalim Shebzukhov led those who retained loyalty to the Caucasus Emirate. Both commanders were killed by Russian security forces in operations in November 2015 and August 2016 respectively.

Karachay-Cherkessia:

The Karachay Jamaat was founded in 1995. The group preached the ideas of Wahhabism, creating branches in Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria. At first, the jamaat was led by the elderly imam Adam Semyonov, but then he stopped accommodating young parishioners.

In May 2002, the newspaper „Izvestia" named Ramazan Borlakov as the founder of the Karachay-Cherkess Jamaat . Being the imam of one of the local mosques, in the mid-1990s he visited several Arab countries at once, where he found sponsors to open his own madrasah in his homeland, in the city of Uchkeken: "Gradually the sermons became more aggressive. Borlakov himself repeated more and more often that Muslims in Russia are oppressed, that Muslims need to unite and that they need to live according to Sharia, and not secular laws. That the official organization – the Spiritual Administration of Muslims – is a rotten and corrupt structure that is friendly with the authorities and does not care about the poor". Izvestia calls Achimez Gochiyaev a student of Borlakov. Borlakov handed over the management of the Karachay-Cherkess Jamaat in mid-1998 to his most faithful student Khyzyr Salpagarov. Shortly before the start of the Second Chechen War, terrorist leader Ramazan Borlakov established contact with the Arab terrorist Khattab . Borlakov sent his supporters to his training camps and then formed the so-called " Karachay battalion " from them. Among the militants of the "battalion" was Achemez Gochiyaev, who also sent his followers to the camps of Khattab and the leader of the Dagestan Wahhabis Bagautdin Dagestani.

In March 2010, after the liquidation of the leader of the Kabardino-Balkarian jamaat Anzor Astemirov, the Karachay and Kabardino-Balkarian "jamaat" were united into the "United Vilayat of Kabarda, Balkaria and Karachay".

Leaders:


 * Adam Semyonov
 * Ramazan Borlakov
 * Achimez Gochiyaev
 * Idris Glow †
 * Nikolay Kipkeev †
 * Aslan Temirbulatov †
 * Ruslan Khubiev †
 * Hasanbi Fakov †

Casualties

 * Russian Security Forces: Official figures for casualties among Russian security forces were not publicly available. However, reports indicated that thousands of soldiers and law enforcement personnel were killed or wounded in clashes with militants during the insurgency.
 * Militants: Thousands of militants were killed, captured, or arrested by Russian security forces during the conflict. The exact number of casualties among the insurgents varied, with some estimates suggesting several hundred killed and thousands captured or neutralized.
 * Civilian Losses: The civilian population of Russia endured numerous terrorist attacks and acts of violence perpetrated by militant groups throughout the insurgency. In late 1990s members of the numerous jamaat's developed a plan for the armed seizure of power in Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria and the creation of a Muslim state on their territory. The Wahhabis did not have time to implement these plans due to the outbreak of hostilities in Chechnya at the end of 1999, after which they switched to carrying out terrorist attacks. Some of the notable attacks include:

House explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk
In September 1999, Gochiyaev and his accomplices Adam Dekkushev, Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, Denis Saytakov and others organized a series of explosions of residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk. This series of terrorist attacks was organized and financed by the leaders of the illegal armed group " Islamic Institute "Caucasus"" – Khattab and Abu Umar. The terrorist attacks were aimed at massive loss of life and disruption of public safety, intimidation of the population and influencing the decision-making of authorities to eliminate the consequences of the militant invasion of Dagestan in August 1999.

A series of terrorist attacks in the Stavropol region

 * October 6, 2000 – at 16:03–16:05 in Pyatigorskand Nevinnomyssk ( Stavropol Territory ) four explosions simultaneously occurred. The first explosion occurred at a bus stop near the administration of Nevinnomyssk, the second – at the Cossack market of Nevinnomyssk, the third and fourth – on the platform of the railway station in Pyatigorsk. As a result of the terrorist attacks, 4 people were killed and 20 were injured.
 * December 8, 2000 – in the city of Pyatigorsk (Stavropol Territory) in the Upper Market area, two cars were simultaneously blown up. As a result of the terrorist attacks, 4 people were killed and 45 were injured.
 * March 24, 2001 – explosion at the entrance to the Central Market of the city of Mineralnye Vody (Stavropol Territory). An explosive device with a capacity of at least 50 kg of TNT was placed in a VAZ-2103 passenger car . As a result of the terrorist attack, 21 people were killed and about 100 were injured. On the same day, a bomb exploded in a VAZ-2106 car near the local traffic police building in the city of Essentuki (Stavropol Territory). As a result of this terrorist attack, 22 people were injured. On the same day, during an inspection of a VAZ-2106 car en route to Nevinnomyssk, a bomb with a capacity of 40 kg of TNT was discovered. The car was driven into the forest near the village of Adyge-Khabl (Karachay-Cherkessia). During an attempt to clear the mines, the bomb exploded, killing 2 explosives experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs . Terrorist Arasul Khubiev, the driver of the car, was not injured.

On July 12, 2002, the Stavropol Regional Court found Arasul Khubiev guilty of committing terrorist attacks and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Through Arasul Khubiev, law enforcement agencies got on the trail of the Wahhabis. Soon about 20 members of Muslim Society No. 3 were detained. Some were caught in June 2001 by police from Kabardino-Balkaria, when militants tried to cross the Russian- Georgianborder to get into the Pankisi Gorge to the location of the bandit group of field commander Ruslan Gelayev. Some of them were detained by Georgian border guards around the same time. Among the accused were ordinary performers – Otari Aibazov, Rashid Aibazov, Magomed Aushev, Oysul Kecherukov, Timur Otegenov, Dakhir Salpagarov, Enver Tekeev, Timur Shamanov, Aslan Khazbulatov, Osman Chaushev, Anzor Khutov, Valery Aibazov, Oli Kappushev, Azamat Tlisov and Ruzali Khutov. Their leaders were Kazbek Shailiev, Khyzyr Salpagarov, Ramazan Gochiyaev and Eduard Kharatokov.

16 ordinary Jamaat militants were convicted in August 2002; they all received from 4 to 16 years in prison. In relation to the three Wahhabi leaders, the criminal case was separated into separate proceedings. On September 26, 2002, the visiting session of the Stavropol Regional Court in Pyatigorsk issued a verdict against Khyzyr Salpagarov, Ramazan Gochiyaev and Eduard Kharatokov, who were the leaders of the jamaat. All three were found guilty by the jury several weeks before the verdict, but now the court sentenced them: Ramazan Gochiyaev received 23 years, Salpagarov – 19 years, Kharatokov – 15.

Explosion on a Moscow metro train
On Friday, February 6, 2004, an explosion occurred in a Moscow metro train traveling to the center between the Avtozavodskaya and Paveletskaya stations. An explosive device with a capacity of 2.9 to 6.6 kg in TNT equivalent was detonated by a 20-year-old resident of the village of Uchkeken in Karachay-Cherkessia, Anzor Izhaev; the bomb was in his backpack. As a result of the terrorist attack, 41 people (not counting Izhaev) were killed (this is the number of names listed on the memorial plaque installed at the Avtozavodskaya metro station), and about 250 people were injured. According to the investigation, the bomb for the terrorist attack was made by terrorists Idris Gloov, Tambiy Khubiev and Murat Shavaev in a rented apartment in the south of the capital.

Terrorist attack near the Rizhskaya metro station
At about 8 pm on August 31, 2004, a suicide bomber tried to enter the Rizhskaya metro station in Moscow, but after she saw the police officers on duty at the entrance, she turned around, walked a few meters and detonated an explosive device in a crowd of people. As a result of the terrorist attack, 10 people were killed, including the terrorist herself, as well as Nikolai Kipkeev, who took part in the preparation and implementation of the terrorist attack. A total of 33 people were injured. The power of the explosion was approximately 1.5–2 kg of TNT equivalent. The man who accompanied the suicide bomber to the Rizhskaya metro station and himself died along with her was Nikolai Kipkeev. Kipkeev was a member of the Karachay jamaat, was part of the personal security of Achemez Gochiyaev, and took part in a series of terrorist attacks in 2001. He also took part in the fighting in Chechnya as part of the "Karachay battalion", received several wounds, and then hid abroad.

Trial of the organizers of the terrorist attacks
The organizers of the terrorist attacks, Tambiy Khubiev, Murat Shavaev and Maxim Panaryin, who made explosive devices in rented apartments in Moscow, were arrested in May 2005. On February 2, 2007, for preparing two terrorist attacks in Moscow in 2004 and bombing bus stops in Voronezh and Krasnodar, they were sentenced by the Moscow City Court to life imprisonment.

Overall casualties from 2009 to 2017

The majority of the civilians killed in terrorist attacks were Russians.

Note: The casualty totals are compiled by the news site Caucasian Knot, which does not vouch for the data's 100-percent accuracy.

Conclusion
The insurgency in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia officially ended in 2017, following a series of successful counterinsurgency operations by Russian security forces. However, sporadic incidents of violence and unrest continue to occur in the region, highlighting the ongoing challenges of maintaining stability in the North Caucasus.