The Russian Anti-Terrorism Committee announced the elimination of two armed fighters who were members of
“an international terrorist organization”
near Nalchik, a city in the Russian Caucasus, a region which was the scene of a jihadist rebellion in the 2000s.
“Two bandits were neutralized during an anti-terrorist operation carried out in the suburbs of Nalchik with a view to locating armed people involved in terrorist activities
,” said the Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK), cited by Russian news agencies.
“The members of this group of bandits belonging to an international terrorist organization were killed during a brief exchange of fire, and (...) planned to carry out acts of sabotage and terrorism on the territory of the republic”
of Kabardino-Balkaria of which Nalchik is the capital, according to the same source.
Islamist rebellion and jihadist attacks
Russia faced a long Islamist rebellion in the 2000s in the Russian Caucasus, a movement born from the Chechen war. It was crushed by Russian security forces, under the will of President Vladimir Putin, and in recent years armed incidents have been rare there. 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 2000s.
If Moscow insists on seeing a Ukrainian-jihadist trail behind this attack, it has also carried out armed operations in the Russian Caucasus, where the remnants of the Islamist rebellion continue to exist. The attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall at the end of March was claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), but Moscow did not even mention this possibility, insisting that it could have been committed by Islamists from Tajikistan linked to Ukraine. However, no tangible evidence has been put forward.