Countering Radicalization in the North Caucasus
Implementation and Challenges
In: Iran and the CaucasusSearch for other papers by Maxim Popov in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
By the mid-2010s, a significant decrease in the number of jihadists in the North Caucasus, in addition to internal ideological differences, was facilitated by fundamental factors: the lack of mass support in local Muslim communities, the anti-terrorism activities of the state, its informational and ideological support, and the policy of post-conflict integration. The number of supporters of the Caucasus Emirate decreased due to the split after the 2014 Olympics in Sochi; in 2015, the Caucasus Emirate officially ceased its activities, and after 2017, the flow of radical Islamists leaving Russia and joining ISIS stopped—violent extremism has begun to de-escalate in the region. To reduce ethnoreligious extremism and strengthen the integration of Muslims into Russian society, the federal government adopted a multi-level deradicalization strategy, including anti-terrorism operations and a large-scale policy of co-optation and support for moderate Russian Muslim leaders and their traditional communities.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
“FSB About the Terrorist Attack: New Details of The Emergency in Crocus Hall Have Been Revealed” (2024), Interfax, March 27 (available online at: https://www.interfax-russia.ru/center/view/kto-zakazal-terakt-v-krokuse-fsb-raskryli-novye-podrobnosti-rassledovaniya , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
“NYT and Reuters: ISIS Claimed Responsibility for the Crocus Attack” (2024), RBK, March 23. (available online at: https://www.rbc.ru/society/23/03/2024/65fdf7bb9a7947108eca76f3 , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
“Talgat Tajuddin Declared the Soldiers Killed During the Special Operation to Be Martyrs” (2022), Business-online, March 26 (available online at: https://m.business-gazeta.ru/news/544736 , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
“The Number of Children Killed in the Crocus Terrorist Attack Increased to Six” (2024), Kommersant, April 3 (available online at: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6614956# , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Bakke, K.M. (2014), “Help Wanted? The Mixed Record of Foreign Fighters in Domestic Insurgencies”, International Security 38.4: 150–187.
-
Borschevskaya, A. (2015) “The Islamic State Comes to Russia”, Journal of International Security Affairs 29: 27–32.
-
Brachman, J. (2009), Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice, New York-London.
-
Byman, D. (2017), “Divisions within the Global Jihad: A Primer”, Lawfare, 29 September 2017, (available online at: https://www.lawfareblog.com/divisions-within-global-jihad-primer , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Caucasian Knot (2018), “Own Business and Reality Shows as Methods of Preventing Extremism”, Conflict Analysis and Prevention Center (available online at: https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/329614 , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia (2022), March 25 (available online at: https://www.cdum.ru/news/44/11265/ , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Clifford, B. (2022), “Russian Jihadist Responses”, Terrorism, Violent Extremism, and the War in Ukraine (Program on Extremism), May 25, 2022 (available online at: https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/2023-03/terrorism-violent-extremism-and-war-in-ukraine_may-2022.pdf , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
El-Jaichi, S./Sheikh, M.K. (2020), “Explaining the Rise of Global Jihad”, Journal of Religion and Violence 8.2:196–208.
-
Estemirova L. (2020), “De-Radicalisation Tactics in the North Caucasus Can Serve as a Lesson and a Warning”, The Foreign Policy Center, February 12 (available online at: https://fpc.org.uk/de-radicalisation-tactics-in-the-north-caucasus-can-serve-as-a-lesson-and-a-warning/ , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Falkowski, M. (2014), “On the Periphery of Global Jihad. The North Caucasus: the Illusion of Stabilization”, OSW Point of View 45 (available online at: https://www.osw.waw.pl/sites/default/files/pw_46_ang_kaukaz-polnocny_net.pdf , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Goble, P. (2021), “Taliban Triumph in Afghanistan Echoes in Russia’s North Caucasus”, Eurasia Daily Monitor 18, August 19: 133, (available online at: https://jamestown.org/program/taliban-triumph-in-afghanistan-echoes-in-russias-north-caucasus/ , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Hamming, T. (2019), “Global Jihadism after the Syria War”, Perspectives on Terrorism 13.3: 1–16.
-
Hegghammer, T. (2011), “The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters, Islam and the Globalization of Jihad”, International Security 35.3: 53–94.
-
Hegghammer, T. (2013), “Should I Stay or Should I Go? Explaining Variation in Western Jihadists’ Choice between Domestic and Foreign Fighting”, American Political Science Review 107.1: 1–15.
-
Holland, E./Witmer, F./O’Loughlin, J. (2017), “The Decline and Shifting Geography of Violence in Russia’s North Caucasus, 2010–2016”, Eurasian Geography and Economics 58.6: 613–641.
-
Hossain, M.A. (2023), “How Regional Jihad Turned into Global Jihad After the Twentieth Century”, The Geopolitics, March 10, 2023 (available online at: https://thegeopolitics.com/how-regional-jihad-turned-into-global-jihad-after-the-twentieth-century , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Jones, S. (2014), A Persistent Threat: The Evolution of Al Qaida and Other Salafi Jihadists, Santa Monica: RAND.
-
Juergensmeyer, M. (2006), “Religion as a Cause of Terrorism”, L. Richardson (ed.), The Roots of Terrorism, New York: Routledge.
-
Kilcullen, D. (2016), Blood Year: Islamic State and the Failure of the War on Terror, London: Hurst and Company.
-
Klimentov, V.A. (2021), “Bringing the War Home: the Strategic Logic of ‘North Caucasian terrorism’ in Russia”, Small Wars & Insurgencies 32.2: 374–408.
-
Koehler, D. (2017), Understanding Deradicalization. Methods, Tools and Programs for Countering Violent Extremism, London-New York.
-
Kramer, A. (2018) “Raised by ISIS, Returned to Chechnya: These Children Saw Terrible Things”, The New York Times, February 24 (available online at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/world/europe/chechnya-russia-isis-children-return.html , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Laruelle, M. (2023), “Russia at War and the Islamic World”, Russie.NEI.Visions, Ifri 127: 5–28. (available online at https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/rnv127_laruelle_ukraine_muslims.pdf , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Matusitz, J. (2020), Global Jihad in Muslim and non-Muslim Contexts, New York.
-
McCauley, C./Moskalenko, S. (2008), “Mechanisms of Political Radicalization: Pathways toward Terrorism”, Terrorism and Political Violence 20.3: 415–433.
-
Moghadam. A. (2006) “Suicide Terrorism, Occupation, and the Globalization of Martyrdom: A Critique of Dying to Win”, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 29.8: 707–729.
-
Poliakov, S./Epanova, Y. (2021) “Urban Second Generation Muslims from the North Caucasus in St Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, October 2021”, Young People’s Trajectories Through Radical Islamist Milieus: Country Level Report (available online at: https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=58690 , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Popov, M. (2022), “The Ethno-Religious Contradictions as Threats to the North Caucasus Stability and Integration”, Iran and the Caucasus 26.1: 82–99.
-
Ratelle, J.-F. (2017), “The North Caucasus Insurgency: A Potential Spillover into the Russian Federation?”, Caucasus Analytical Digest 93: 2–5.
-
Ratelle, J.-F. (2022) “The North Caucasus and the Russian War in Ukraine”, PONARS Eurasia, October 13 (available online at: https://www.ponarseurasia.org/the-north-caucasus-and-the-russian-war-in-ukraine/ , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Rhodes, D. (2014), “Salafist-Takfiri Jihadism: the Ideology of the Caucasus Emirate”, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Working Paper 27, March 2014 (available online at: https://www.ict.org.il/UserFiles/ICTWPS%2027%20-%20Salafist-Takfiri%20Jihadism.pdf , accessed 20 May 2024);
-
Robinson, G. (2017), “The Four Waves of Global Jihad, 1979–2017”, Middle East Policy 24.3:70–88.
-
Robinson, G. (2021), Global Jihad: A Brief History, Stanford.
-
Roche, S. (2019), “Introduction”, The Faceless Terrorist. Transcultural Research, Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context, Springer.
-
Shlapentokh, D. (2012), “Insight 83: The North Caucasian Resistance and the Syrian Crisis”, Insights, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore, 3 December 2012, (available online at: https://mei.nus.edu.sg/publication/insight-83-the-north-caucasian-resistance-and-the-syrian-crisis , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Sibgatullina, G. (2022), “Russia’s Muslim Leaders on the Invasion of Ukraine: United in a Display of Loyalty, Divided in Competition for Power”, PONARS Eurasia Policy 765, April 7 (available online at: https://www.ponarseurasia.org/russias-muslim-leaders-on-the-invasion-of-ukraine-united-in-a-display-of-loyalty-divided-in-competition-for-power/ , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Sokirianskaia, E. (2019), Will New Waves of Radicalization in the North Caucasus, Moscow.
-
Souleimanov, E. (2017), The North Caucasus Insurgency: Dead or Alive?, Carlisle: Strategic Studies Institute.
-
Strategy for Countering Extremism in the Russian Federation until 2025 (2020), Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 29, 2020: 344 (available online at: http://www.kremlin.ru/acts/bank/45555 , accessed 20 May 2024).
-
Youngman, M. (2020), “Ideology along the Contours of Power: The Case of the Caucasus Emirate”. Perspectives on Terrorism 14.2: 11–26.
-
Zhirukhina, E. (2018), “Protecting the State: Russian Repressive Tactics in the North Caucasus”, Nationalities Papers 46.3: 374–399.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 861 | 342 | 32 |
| Full Text Views | 15 | 8 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 74 | 21 | 0 |
Countering Radicalization in the North Caucasus
Implementation and Challenges
In: Iran and the CaucasusSearch for other papers by Maxim Popov in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
By the mid-2010s, a significant decrease in the number of jihadists in the North Caucasus, in addition to internal ideological differences, was facilitated by fundamental factors: the lack of mass support in local Muslim communities, the anti-terrorism activities of the state, its informational and ideological support, and the policy of post-conflict integration. The number of supporters of the Caucasus Emirate decreased due to the split after the 2014 Olympics in Sochi; in 2015, the Caucasus Emirate officially ceased its activities, and after 2017, the flow of radical Islamists leaving Russia and joining ISIS stopped—violent extremism has begun to de-escalate in the region. To reduce ethnoreligious extremism and strengthen the integration of Muslims into Russian society, the federal government adopted a multi-level deradicalization strategy, including anti-terrorism operations and a large-scale policy of co-optation and support for moderate Russian Muslim leaders and their traditional communities.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 861 | 342 | 32 |
| Full Text Views | 15 | 8 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 74 | 21 | 0 |
