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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| International terror network operating in southern Russia |
| 2006-01-11 |
| Which most of us refer to as the North Caucasus. The Russian claim that the internal documents captured from Basayev's followers match up perfectly with those used by al-Qaeda, which I doubt terribly surprises Rantburg readers. According to data of the Russian General Prosecutorâs Office, terror network cells are operating in all regions of the Russian south and have millions of dollars at their disposal, the deputy prosecutor general said in an interview with the Izvestiya newspaper. The official, Nikolai Shepel, said terrorist groups with single ideology and hierarchy âare currently operating practically in all regions of the Southern Federal District, including the Stavropol, Astrakhan and Volgograd regionsâ. âShamil Basayev, who has close ties with emissaries of international religious-extremist organizations, is at the head of that criminal organization,â the deputy prosecutor general said. He admitted that there was no information on the exact strength of those groups, but said there were ârepresentatives of all nationalities living in the south of the countryâ among them, including Russians converted to Islam. According to Shepel, investigators have data on big sums of money used to finance the network. He said dozens of millions of dollars a year were involved. âThis is the money that comes from illegal drug and weapons trafficking, from kidnappings, as well as from the racketeering of those who have shadow incomes and will never go to law enforcement agencies for help,â he stressed. âRacket as a financial source has come to the forefrontâ of late, he said. âIt comes on a more and more regular basis that bandits go for their share to officials involved in the illegal misappropriation of budget means,â Shepel emphasized. He said those groups were part of an international terror chain. This is confirmed by the fact that recommendations on how to organize an underground group and ideological work in it, seized during the investigation of major terrorist acts, are absolutely the same as used by Al Qaeda. âBandits are recruiting allies everywhere, first of all in law enforcement agencies,â he said. âSeveral dozens of terroristsâ allies have been exposed in those agencies over the past five years. Some of them were killed during the arrest, while others have been brought to justice,â Shepel added. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |