.jpg "New forms of extremism and the fight against them")
Since the mid 2000s, terrorism in Dagestan has taken on new forms. Along with attempts on the lives of policemen and officials, terrorists began to threaten people and extort money from businessmen. They are kidnapped and killed for refusing to pay a fee to th bandits. A victim receives flashcards with a video in which leaders of terrorist groups threaten and demand large sums of money without hiding their faces. Previously, only some regions were considered dangerous, but in recent years the illegal activity of armed militants has spread in the southern and northern mountainous areas of Dagestan. According to the ministry on ethnic policy, religious issues and external relations of Dagestan, Bekmurzy Bekmurzayeva, earlier militants got financial support from abroad, but now 70% of money used for committing terrorist activity is obtained from Dagestani businessmen.
Terrorism prevents investmentment in the economy, deflects the attention of the authorities and society from solving socio-economic problems, and postpones implementation of investment projects. However, without economic development it is impossible to destroy the social basis of extremism. So the government of the republic tries to work on all the problems at once. The head of Dagestan, Magomedsalam Magomedov, promised to free the republic of ‘the bandits who prevent honest working people from having normal lives”. Counterterrorist efforts have been intensified, internal troops’ detachments were sent to the regions where the militants are most active. As a result, in the past few years a lot of militant group leaders have been killed. In response, the terrorists launched a series of double suicide bombings. The latest incident happened on May 3 in Makhachkala and claimed the lives of 13 people. According to MP Rizvan Kurbanov, the terrorists try to intimidate Dagestani society as well as to appear like a solid force.
Apart from the law-enforcement component and the resolution of socio-economic problems, in order to break the vicious circle the presidential team for terrorist threat management decided to try to reconcile the parties and consolidate healthy forces of the society. Makhachkala residents believe that the major part of the militants are deceived young people in the age of 15 to 25 from poor families, and they would go back to peaceful lives if they would be given the chance to, as well as proper conditions. Rizvan Kurbanov dedicate all his efforts to get back these deceived young people. In 2010 the Commission for assisting the ex-militants to return to the normal live was created. Some 50 ex-militants who voluntarily gave themselves up have already applied for the commission’s help. The commission - consisting of law enforcement officers, spiritual figures and public activists - helps only those militants and their accomplices who haven’t killed anybody yet. The Commission gives these people a chance to return to normal life, and that has increased the number of cases in which militants have given themselves up in the past couple of years.
One of the major factors feeding the militant movement is the social discontent and radicalization of the youth. However, according to the republic’s head the social development strategy till 2025 would increase the level of life in the Republic. Dozens of investment projects have been created in order to give Dagestan which is now dependent on the federal budget its own sources of income. The largest ones of these projects are personally monitored by the republic’s President. However, some of the projects still move along slowly due to the fear of instability among the investors.
