Week of February 15-21 passed without victims of armed conflict in Northern Caucasus

During the week of February 15-21, 2021, there was no information about any casualties and wounded persons in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from open sources.

Detentions

On February 15, a 32-year-old resident of Buynaksk was detained in Dagestan; earlier, he was put on the international wanted list. According to investigators, in July 2016, while outside Russia, he organized fundraising to finance terrorism. He raised his mother's money and funds of "other persons" in the amount of over 370,000 roubles.

On February 17, the Russian FSB reported that 19 radicals had been detained in Karachay-Cherkessia, Republic of Crimea, Krasnodar Territory and Rostov Region, who, apart from promoting ideology and recruiting new supporters, planned terror acts in Northern Caucasus on behalf of the extremist grouping "At-Takfir val-Hijra", banned in Russia. During searches at detainees' residences more than 40 extremist materials were seized, and in the forest in Karachay-Cherkessia a detected hideout contained weapons and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), including a "suicide belt".

On February 18, it became known about the detention of a 35-year-old resident of the village of Urukh, Lesken District of Kabardino-Balkaria. According to investigators, in 2015, he secretly transported in his car and provided housing to a 25-year-old fellow countryman who was a member of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS) banned in Russia.

On February 18, law enforcers, acting within an operation conducted in Dagestan, Krasnodar Territory, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Primorsky Territory, Bashkiria, Crimea, as well as in Oryol, Kaluga, Ivanovo Regions, detained members of the "Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami" organization banned in Russia. Propaganda materials and communication means were confiscated from the detainees. In Dagestan, a member of this organization, a native of Uzbekistan, was detained. He had been in the republic since 2019, and worked in the village of Khebda, Shamil District. According to the intelligence services, the detainee was in contact with the Ukrainian centre of the above organization.