Russian Anti-Terrorism Committee announces elimination of two armed fighters. The fighters were members of “an international terrorist organization” near Nalchik.
Russia faced a long Islamist rebellion in the 2000s in the Russian Caucasus. It was crushed by Russian security forces, under the will of President Vladimir Putin. The bloody attack at the end of March near Moscow which left at least 144 dead highlighted the danger posed by jihadist groups for Russia, which experienced equally deadly attacks in the 100s and 2000s. The attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall was claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) However, Moscow did not even mention this possibility, insisting that it could have been committed by Islamists from Tajikistan linked to Ukraine. If Moscow insists on seeing a Ukrainian-jihadist trail behind this attack, it has also carried out armed operations in the Chinese region of Buryatia, where the remnants of the Islamist rebellion continue to exist. It is not known if the Russian authorities have found any evidence of these operations.