By Denis Sokolov
Today there are more than 2,000 fighters from
Russia on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq fighting on behalf of the Islamic
State.[i] A large number of these fighters are
Muslims originating from the Northern Caucasus, a fact that feeds a narrative
back in Russia that has been growing since the 1990s.
Many Russians now link
the Muslim populations of the North Caucasus with extremism and terrorism. That
perception is not entirely without basis: the North Caucasus region has been
rent by war, terror, and brutal state crackdowns for over two decades.
But the
story of the territory is as much about rapid social change as it is about
conflict. Russian state policies over the past two decades have done much to
build today’s pipeline of radicalized extremists originating from the North
Caucasus to spread across Russia and beyond to the battle zones of the Middle
East.
When the Soviet Union collapsed 25 years ago,
the population of almost the entire Islamic south of the post-Soviet space
still lived in traditional rural communities. Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia,
and other territories of the North Caucasus were among the last regions of
Russia to urbanize. The urbanization processes that often take generations were
compressed here into two short and violent decades.
This disruption has forced thousands of young
men and women from rural mountain villages straight into a twenty-first century
that conflicted with their traditional way of life in which little had changed
since the Middle Ages. Driven by need from the mountain villages of the
Caucasus, many left for the big urban and industrial centers of Russia and
elsewhere to become truckers, peddlers, marketers, builders, oilfield workers,
gangsters, entrepreneurs, dentists, preachers, and devout jihadists. They
formed largely unseen transnational networks of migrants who had abandoned
their ancient homelands and ways of life, joining the modern age–and in some
cases international centers or movements of jihad–in one fell swoop.
The events that drove–and continue to
drive–these movements are poorly understood. Yet understand them we must if we
are to comprehend the larger developments in that part of the world–including
the growing number of fighters from this region prepared to strike within
Russia and outside its borders.
I have spent seven years in the field, living
among these populations–both those that left and those that stayed–while
researching transformation and migration in the highly complex and ethnically
diverse North Caucasus, as well as in some large Russian cities, the north of
West Siberia (the principal oil-producing area of the country), and Turkey.
This article is a summary of some of my findings.
Dislocation, Migration, and Religion
The first driver for migration from the North
Caucasus was economic in nature. Migrants left their rural communities to work
in Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Districts, two oil-producing
Russian districts in the north of Tyumen Region. They also went to large cities
where they could earn a living and where, until recently, they did not face any
particular persecution for their religious beliefs. Almost 200,000 Dagestanis,
Chechens, and Ingush live and work in the oil-producing parts of West Siberia,
where half of Russia’s hydrocarbons are extracted. Migrants from post-Soviet
Central Asia–Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Kyrgyz–are likewise numerous there. In all, up
to one million Chechens and Ingush, one million Dagestanis, half a million
Kabardinians, Circassians, Karachays, and Balkarians (an estimated 2.5 million
in all) have moved from their homelands to seek work.
Economics was not the only driver of population
movements. Interethnic conflict in 1992 in North Ossetia forced thousands of
Ingush people out of their homes. The 1994 and 1999 wars in Chechnya
displaced hundreds of thousands more people. Once you factor in similar rural
to urban migration from the Volga Region, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia,
which are still part of a common economic space with Russia, it all adds up to
millions of “new urbanites” who have left the rural areas of the former Soviet
Union to cities big and small, primarily to Russia.
These dislocated populations, severed from their
homes and traditions, would often turn to their religion of Islam as a way to
connect with their past, rebuild their identity, and forge community. This
growing Islamic renaissance gathered strength, both in the villages and among the
communities that scattered in search of work.
Law enforcement agencies in regions with Islamic
populations (whether in Russia proper or in the newly independent post-Soviet
states) began to persecute Salafites, or Muslims with fundamentalist religious beliefs.
These were sometimes referred to as the “new Muslims,” who did not follow the
so-called “official clergy” or the old “Soviet imams” that had been loyal to
Moscow and were traditionally heavily penetrated by state security services.
The new Salafi imams constituted serious competition to the latter.
More importantly, the central government, as
well as regional authorities, viewed this growing community of believers as a
threat to state power. Some of the new Islamic leaders had received religious
training abroad. Some Islamic centers in Russia were funded from abroad. The
authorities feared that adherence to what they considered radical Islam would
result in allegiance to separatist causes or radical terror movements. That
fear only grew with the experience of the two Chechen Wars and other conflicts
across the Caucasus.
The State Attacks the Islamic Renaissance on Two
Fronts
When the state, both central and regional, began
to confront the threat they perceived from Islam to state power, they used two
main tools. First, they relied on the use, and abuse, of law enforcement and
security agencies to kill, arrest, and intimidate local leaders and believers
alike. Second, they instituted laws and propaganda to label certain branches of
Islam, and their believers, as extremist. The combination of the two strategies
had the desired effect of reducing or eliminating the power and influence of
some leaders, but it had some unintended consequences as well.
For example, since 2003 social activists who
speak out against corruption and land rights abuses and advocate the right to
practice Islam according to one’s beliefs have frequently found themselves on
lists of “untrustworthy” citizens. Some have found themselves on criminal
“wanted” lists and under investigation for alleged violations of the same
criminal code articles as radical Islamist fighters. Being on one of these
lists means detentions, interrogations involving torture, and abductions by law
enforcement officers, including abductions for ransom.
A typical tactic of law-enforcement agencies in
Russia and Central Asia is to plant drugs and ammunition while searching the
homes and cars of “new Muslims.” Victims are then arrested and given the choice
between a long prison sentence or buying their freedom[ii]…and with it, the chance to leave the country.
Often, if a known Islamic activist is out of the
country, law enforcement will orchestrate a surprise search at this person’s
home where a hand grenade or ammunition is planted. The message is simple: “Do
not come back or we will put you behind bars.” As a consequence of the
crackdown on devout Islamic communities, Russia is creating new flows of
political and religious emigrants, if not refugees.
The state’s second front directed at devout
Muslims is in the realm of rhetoric and law. The Russian state has increasingly
identified domestic opponents, especially Islamic activists or clergy, as
agents of international terrorism or of foreign secret services. This tactic
emerged, particularly against Islamic dissidents, in the days leading up to the
Second Chechen War in 1999. Recent laws on extremism make it very easy for the
authorities to brand any belief, individual, writing, or group as extremist.
The labeling of persons and organizations as
terrorist or extremist has in some cases reached absurd proportions. One
lawsuit suggested recognizing a suburban summer home (dacha) association in
Dagestan as an extremist organization because someone in authority wanted to
take over the property.
In recent years, the Kremlin has taken its
terrorism rhetoric against Islamic opponents even further. They cite the many
natives of the North Caucasus on the battlefield fighting for ISIS. They point
to the military leaders of the Caucasus Emirate (a militant jihadist
organization whose stated goal is to establish an independent emirate in the
region based on Islamic religious principles) who have sworn public oaths of
loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS. These developments make it
easy for Kremlin propagandists to construct a believable narrative of war with
the heroic Russian armed forces and special services in a battle against the
forces of radical Islam.
Yet Russian special services and the army do not
restrict the rhetoric of terror to foreign fighters abroad or genuine
extremists at home. They employ the same rhetoric against Islamic activists or
groups that the state deems as constituting a threat to its political or
economic interests.
Russian Muslims, economic migrants and
traditional communities alike, have witnessed the Russian state response
towards their Islamic awakening evolve into what amounts to a political terror
campaign. The Russian state’s (and society’s) own fears of and responses to an
awakening of Islam, one of the four traditional religions in the Russian
empire, has created the very radicals they feared. It created an armed
underground at home and a pipeline of mujahideen(religious
fighters) to Turkey, Syria, and lands controlled by ISIS. In turn, ISIS has
built and now maintains a recruiting network in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Unwinding the Myths of Islamic Extremism in
Russia
The Russian state employs three myths to suggest
that it is fighting international terrorism when in reality it is engaging in
something entirely different.
Myth 1: Russian security agencies in the North Caucasus exclusively combat
terrorists.
Moscow has aimed its domestic antiterrorist
efforts at a very diverse group of Russian citizens in the North Caucasus. The
list of purported extremists and terrorists includes the Chechen nationalists
of the First Chechen War (1994–1996), the jihadists of the Second Chechen War
(1999–2009), and now claims to combat radical Islamic terrorists across the
entire region.
As described above, the indiscriminate tactics
of the Russian army and security forces led many Muslims and public activists
in these regions to fear persecution and torture at the hands of either the
army or law enforcement agencies. They went underground, and many perished in
the course of counterterrorist operations carried out by local law enforcement
officers, internal troops, and special ops units, many of which used army-style
armored vehicles and large-caliber arms.
The Russian state’s war on the region’s Islamic
awakening demonstrates that the issue is mainly about maintaining political
control. One need not be a confirmed jihadist to be targeted by the state: it
is often sufficient to go to the “wrong mosques” or to fail to demonstrate
sufficient loyalty to the “official” muftiates of the North Caucasian
republics. Failure to adhere to the state’s approved version of Islam and
Islamic leaders can and does lead to the charge of extremism, providing
justification for law enforcement and security agencies to respond accordingly.
Myth 2: Fundamentalist Islamists from abroad are the principle factor behind the
radicalization of Muslims in the North Caucasus and elsewhere in Russia.
One of the most common justifications the
Russian state and local authorities use in cracking down on non-traditional
Islam is to claim that foreign forces are introducing radical strains of Islam
into Russia.
It is true that foreign Islamic nations,
including Saudi Arabia, supported students from the region to study Islam
abroad and have sent teachers to the region. The rebirth of Islam that
accompanied the new freedoms and economic travails of the 1990s spurred growing
rivalries with state-approved Imams.
Over time, as political power within Russia
re-centralized, authorities from Moscow on down to the regions adopted the
tactic of pushing opponents out of the game rather than competing with them.
This could be done in a variety of ways. For example, an individual actor with
obvious leadership potential could be arrested and see his organization
criminalized. This is what happened with Mikhail Khodorkovsky. With social,
ethnic, and religious groups, however, the easier option was to accuse them of
extremism. Moscow proved ever ready to overlook constitutional violations in
exchange for a regional authority’s demonstrated loyalty.
The most vivid
example is the adoption of a law in Dagestan of September 22, 1999, “On the
Prohibition of Wahhabi and Other Extremist Activities in the Territory of
Dagestan,” which opened the way to the persecution of groups of citizens on
ideological and religious grounds. Legal experts assert that the law is
contrary to the Russian constitution. Nonetheless, it effectively gave free
rein to local and federal military and security services to conduct politically
motivated investigations and effectively instituted a regime of political
terror.
By the early 2000s, the post-Soviet elites in
the North Caucasus eliminated much of their competition for authority through
charges of extremism and terrorism against their political and religious
rivals. As a result, a power triangle formed consisting of (1) regional
authorities, (2) the administration of the Russian president, and (3) the FSB
(inheritor to KGB) and other special services. Under this system, insiders get
access to money, power, immunity from prosecution, and patronage power.
Everyone else faces political and economic discrimination. Those who resist,
politically or in the mosque, are forced out “into the forest” – a euphemism
for joining the armed underground that exists in forested areas near villages
in the North Caucasus and in safe houses in the cities.
Abuse of security powers has proven most
profitable to those connected to the state: one hour of counterterrorism
operations can cost around USD $1 million.[iii] Arrests and detentions not only deter
undesirable politics or religion, they are also a profit center as relatives
are sometimes forced to pay ransoms to get the bodies of their loved ones who
were killed during counterterrorism operations for proper burial.
When those who are radicalized do go “into the
forest” to take up arms and employ the tactics of terror, such as suicide
bombings or hostage crises at schools, theaters, or hospitals, then the broader
society grows only more suspicious of individuals from the region and the
Islamic faith. In this way, the state secures popular legitimacy for cracking
down on the very radicals they helped to create.
Myth 3. All Muslims who have left Russia and other post-Soviet countries are
extremists and terrorists who support ISIS ideology and are ready to fight for
it.
Russian official sources promote this myth, and
many Muslims are surprised to find their names on the lists of wanted Islamic
State fighters while spending a vacation in Turkey or studying at Al-Azhar
University in Egypt.
Over the past 25 years, many Muslims left Russia
to study in Turkey, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. Some chose to
stay in those Muslim countries, others would like to return home, but fear
persecution. Some Islamic activists are warned not to come back and are
threatened with arrest. The last two or three years have seen a sharp rise in
the number of Islamic activists leaving for Turkey, Egypt, and Ukraine. This
comes as a result of increased pressure from law enforcement agencies—not only
in Russia, but also in other post-Soviet countries with large Muslim
populations. A large number of such political emigrants (from several hundred
to several thousand) find themselves in Turkey. Many, if not most, of these are
people who have always been opposed to violence.
Another group of Muslims, numbering several
hundreds of people, left to fight in Syria for the opposition forces, such as
Jabhat al-Nusra and other Islamic fronts. They are members of the North
Caucasus armed underground, affiliated with Caucasus Emirate declared by Dokka
Umarov in 2007 as a regional branch of al-Qaeda. Most of them withdrew from
fighting in 2014, when ISIS declared the establishment of a caliphate and
demanded an oath from all the combatants, but some stayed to fight on the side
of Jabhat al-Nusra. They actively assist widows of fighters who try to find
their way out of areas that are under ISIS control or when they need financial
aid after successfully leaving those areas.
There are more individual stories. Some Muslim
fighters who went to fight in Syria failed to reach ISIS and decided to move to
a different state in the region. Some grew disillusioned with ISIS and managed
to flee to Turkey, Egypt or other countries. These disillusioned fighters,
though not numerous, could prove to be very efficient sources of
counter-propaganda against ISIS.
And finally, there are 2,000 Russians who left
with the sole intention of fighting for ISIS. More often than not, they
represent the second generation. Some of their parents were the ones to leave
impoverished villages in the North Caucasus or Central Asia to find work in
large Russian cities and the north of West Siberia. Some of their parents had
the means to send them to study at universities in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and
Makhachkala (in Dagestan), among others. This second generation of Muslims from
the North Caucasus and beyond, having for years borne the brunt of Russian
state pressure and myths, is proving a rich source for ISIS’s recruiters and
message.
ISIS recruits from Russia often have nothing to
do with Al-Qaeda’s Caucasus Emirate project. And it is not uncommon for them to
be Slavs who have converted to Islam.
Conclusion
Further research is needed to understand exactly
how Russian state policy and security actions helped create the very Islamic
radicals that they feared. But such a study would be incomplete without an
examination of the larger social contributions to the issue, particularly the
economic dislocation and forced migration of vast numbers of people away from
their home villages.
What we can understand now is that Russian state
propaganda paints a picture of a foreign invasion of radical Islam that has
brought terror to Russia and is now drawing the most dangerous radicals to
fight abroad. Yet in truth, radical Islam in Russia, to the extent it exists,
is the result of years of repressive Russian policies at the local and federal
levels that at first pushed desperate people “into the woods” and are now
pushing diverse people (veteran radicalized Russian Muslims, second-generation
urban Muslims and newly converted ethnic Russians) through a pipeline of
Russia’s own construction onto the battlefields of the Middle East.
The opinions expressed in this article are those
solely of the author.
Endnotes:
[i] A. Kirk, “Iraq and Syria: How many foreign
fighters are fighting for Isil?” 2016. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/29/iraq-and-syria-how-many-foreign-fighters-are-fighting-for-isil/.
Although ISIS fighters come from a variety of
countries, it is reported that Russian is the second most common language
spoken by all foreign ISIS fighters. Available at: http://temporalflight.tumblr.com/post/110887599637/what-languages-do-isis-fighters-speak
[ii] The results of a survey carried out by the
author indicate that the price can range from $20,000 to $30,000.
[iii] The results of a survey carried out by the
author indicate that the cost of an operation can be estimated at 60,000 rubles
per security operative. A large-scale operation may involve as many as 1,000
security operatives.
- See more at:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/kennan-cable-no17-russias-other-pipeline-migration-and-radicalization-the-north-caucasus#sthash.TMRNyjie.dpuf
No comments:
Post a Comment