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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Militant attack in Dagestan highlights past flaws in government tactics |
| 2025-05-07 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [KavkazUzel] The attack in Makhachkala and other recent armed incidents in Dagestan are only indirectly connected, although they stem from common premises that the authorities have not eliminated over the years of fighting the underground - social injustice and legal problems. As reported by the "Caucasian Knot", on May 5 there was an attack on a traffic police unit in Makhachkala. The police stopped a car to check documents and were shot at with machine guns. In the shootout, two police officers were killed, two more security officers and three civilians were wounded, including a woman and a 17-year-old girl. There were two attackers, both were killed, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said, refuting the previously disseminated information about four participants in the attack. Today, the Investigative Committee announced that one of the attackers survived and is in the hospital, and also admitted guilt. The attack on security forces in Makhachkala was at least the third armed incident in Dagestan in two months. Since May 2022, seven  similar incidents have occurred in the republic: two were recorded in 2024, one more in May 2023 and one in May 2022. "Caucasian Knot" maintains an updated chronicle " Dagestan: Chronicle of Terror (1996-2025) ". The attack in Makhachkala in the context of recent incidents in Dagestan that preceded it was commented on to the "Caucasian Knot" by retired police colonel Amir Kolov, representative of the republic's Public Monitoring Commission Shamil Khadulaev, journalist Milrad Fatullaev and his colleague, who wished to speak on condition of anonymity. THE MOTIVES FOR THE ATTACK ARE STILL UNCLEAR. The armed incidents that have occurred in Dagestan since the beginning of the year do not yet allow us to say that some kind of systemic underground movement is being revived in the republic, believes a journalist from the Makhachkala publication, who wished to speak on condition of anonymity. "The motives of the attackers are unknown, there is no information that they swore allegiance to any movement or that they themselves held extreme views. So far, these events do not appear to be part of some systematic underground work," he emphasized. He trusts the correction of the Interior Ministry's report that there were not four but two attackers. "This is confirmed by the analysis of video recordings and the chronology of events. The appearance of information about four militants is a consequence of the fact that there was a little confusion associated with the flow of disparate information from unofficial resources, and the official ones were slow in working," the journalist explained. He added that videos from the scene of the incident showed a rare case - a wounded and unarmed policeman was able to defeat his opponent in hand-to-hand combat. "The video shows that the militant was walking towards him with a large knife and clearly posed a threat," the journalist noted. The previous armed incident involving law enforcement officers occurred on April 23 in Derbent, where a car driver refused to stop at the request of law enforcement officers, ran over one of them and opened fire, wounding one of the police officers. Law enforcement officers shot the driver. It was later announced that the victim was preparing a terrorist attack on the Ministry of Internal Affairs department together with other residents of the republic, and four suspects were detained. Milrad Fatullayev also doubts that the various attacks could indicate some kind of revival of a single armed underground. "I think that to some extent this underground continued to exist, it was not completely eradicated. It is no secret that some part was ready and could, under certain conditions, take up arms, which happens before and during holidays. If we talk about whether these crimes are connected, I think not. Even if they have common curators, they are external, and they led these people separately. These were underground sleeper cells that woke up at a certain signal or instruction from their curators," he said. The journalist agrees that a terrorist attack took place in Derbent. "What happened in Derbent, where a policeman also tried to stop a car and the driver opened fire, and then two or three of his associates were detained, I am sure that it was a terrorist attack. The weapons they had were not intended to resolve any criminal issues. They were traveling with some other political goals and objectives," Fatulaev believes. LAWYER CALLS FOR LEAVING MILITANTS ALIVE In order to save the lives of police officers in the future, the Dagestani authorities should move away from the usual methods of counter-terrorism and "try as hard as possible to keep alive" the participants in attacks, believes lawyer and public figure Arsen Magomedov. "Their murder (neutralization) hides many secrets that could help society better understand this problem and take measures to solve it. After all, without understanding the motives of the criminals, the details of their preparation and other aspects, it is impossible to effectively protect ourselves in the future. If the criminals acted out of religious hatred, then it is necessary to urgently develop a plan of measures to increase the loyalty of the religious community to the police (...) Of course, it is important to exclude the involvement of the police in actions that the religious community perceives as an infringement of their rights," Magomedov wrote on his Telegram channel, noting that there is experience of such measures in foreign practice. On June 23, 2024, on Trinity Day, which is one of the main Christian holidays, militants attacked  synagogues and Orthodox churches in Derbent and Makhachkala. As a result, at least 22 people were killed and 46 were injured. Investigators believe that the group whose members carried out the attacks was created by the son of the head of the Sergokalinsky district, Magomed Omarov. "Caucasian Knot" has prepared reports " The Main Thing About the Participants in the Attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent " and " Attacks on the Church, Synagogues, and Security Forces in Dagestan ". SOCIAL TENSION REMAINS A PREREQUISITE FOR EXTREMISM There is an indirect connection between the May 5 attack and the terrorist attack in the summer of 2024, when militants attacked police officers in Makhachkala in almost the same place, believes Shamil Khadulaev. "After last year's terrorist attack, I knew that we would have more emergencies. Watching what was happening and understanding the trend of where we were going, this was to be expected. After the terrorist attack in June last year, I said that this, unfortunately, will not stop. Wherever you go, there is one continuous problem: corruption, problems with human rights, the gap between the poor majority and the rich, other problems," he told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. In order to prevent such terrorist attacks, it is important to work in this direction among young people." According to Khadulaev, the "airport case" also played a significant role in increasing public discontent. "These are flaws in the judicial system: we see how trials are conducted, where all the indictments are carbon copies and everyone gets roughly the same sentences, 8-10 years. Even for murder they don't give that much, no matter where the trial takes place. But we understand that this cannot be," he said. |
| Posted by:badanov |