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Russia’s Most-Wanted Rebel Is Dead, Website Says Russia’s Most-Wanted Rebel Is Dead, Website Says
(about 1 hour later)
MOSCOW — The death of Doku Umarov, Russia’s most wanted terrorist leader, was announced Tuesday on a website representing Islamist militant groups in southern Russia.MOSCOW — The death of Doku Umarov, Russia’s most wanted terrorist leader, was announced Tuesday on a website representing Islamist militant groups in southern Russia.
The website, Kavkaz Center, offered no information about how or when Mr. Umarov died, instead giving a short description of his 20 years in the anti-Russian insurgency and saying he “joined the group of sincere monotheists who fulfilled their contract with Allah till the very end.” The website, Kavkaz Center, offered no evidence or explanation for Mr. Umarov’s death, instead giving a description of his 20 years in the anti-Russian insurgency and saying that he “joined the group of sincere monotheists who fulfilled their contract with Allah till the very end.”
Russian authorities have not confirmed the report. Mr. Umarov, 49, a former Chechen separatist guerrilla, embraced radical Islam in 2007 and founded a network of fighters called the Caucasus Emirate. According to Kavkaz Center, he will be replaced by a younger man from Dagestan, Magomed Kebekov, who delivered a brief address in a videotape posted on the site.
Grigory Shvedov, the editor of the web-based news service Caucasian Knot, said Mr. Umarov, 49, had first been reported dead late in January, based on audio clips posted on YouTube. That news circulated just days after rebels had posted a new video of Mr. Umarov on the Internet, but it was unclear when it had been recorded. The appointment of a new leader is a significant shift for the insurgency, which seemed diffuse and weakened in the period leading up to the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Mr. Umarov issued a chilling threat last year to attack the Games, but they came and went without incident, in a victory for Moscow.
Mr. Shvedov said he believed a courier had arrived at Kavkaz Center’s headquarters outside of Russia with evidence confirming Mr. Umarov’s death, leading the website to publish the news on Tuesday. Now it appears that Mr. Umarov may have died some time before the Games. In late January, an audiotape made by Chechen security services and posted on the Internet captured supposed militants debating the thorny question of who would succeed Mr. Umarov, said Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, the North Caucasus director for the International Crisis Group.
Mr. Shvedov said that it appeared Mr. Umarov had not been killed by Russian security forces. “If he had been killed in a counterterrorism operation, it would have been announced with great pomp,” he said. The introduction of a leader from Dagestan, which in recent years has supplanted Chechnya as the center of terrorist activity, could change the nature of the network, she said.
Ramzan A. Kadyrov, leader of the republic of Chechnya, was the only Russian official to comment on the report, writing via Instagram that “the site of the Caucasian devils informs us that Umarov has been sent to the place from which there is no return!” “Dagestanis are much more Islamist, they are much better integrated into global jihad, and they are more supernational,” she said. The Russian government’s pre-Olympics security will be lifted, she said, since “it’s impossible to keep such pressure for a long time,” and the militants “will reorganize and restore the chain of command.”
“Now it has been confirmed by the rats themselves,” he wrote. “What else is needed for the security services and the media to believe in the death of a terrorist?” She added, “Doku was ill for a long time, probably not very actively involved in recent months,” whereas Mr. Kebekov is “more fit.”
Last summer, Mr. Umarov released a video clip in which he threatened to attack the Sochi Olympics, saying it would be retribution for the slaughter of Muslims during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus in the 19th century. But his network of fighters, the Caucasus Emirate, has recently appeared weak and decentralized, and he has long been rumored to be ill. The Russian authorities have not confirmed the report of Mr. Umarov’s death.
Mr. Umarov started as a construction engineer, but left to fight with Chechen separatists after the Soviet collapse. After Russian troops were forced to withdraw from the Chechen capital, Grozny, Mr. Umarov became an official in the territory’s Security Council. But Russia kept fighting the separatists, crushing the movement and killing its leaders. Ramzan A. Kadyrov, leader of the republic of Chechnya, was the only Russian official to comment on the report on Tuesday, writing via Instagram that “the site of the Caucasian devils informs us that Umarov has been sent to the place from which there is no return!”
In 2007, Mr. Umarov shifted from separatism to an Islamist agenda. He declared himself the leader of the Caucasus Emirate with the intent to establish a Shariah-based state independent of Russia. “Now it has been confirmed by the rats themselves,” he wrote.
In 2010, Mr. Umarov took responsibility for two separate suicide bombings that killed 40 people on the Moscow subway, saying they were meant as revenge for the deaths of Chechen civilians. He also claimed responsibility for a 2011 attack on Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport. Mr. Umarov was associated with some of the bloodiest attacks of the last decade. In 2010, Mr. Umarov took responsibility for two separate suicide bombings that killed 40 people on the Moscow subway, saying they were meant as revenge for the deaths of Chechen civilians.
Experts have said his network had become so dispersed, and communication so difficult, that he had little control over militant activity. In the hours after the bombings, he made a videotape taunting Russians, saying “I promise you the war will come to your streets, and you will feel it in your own lives and on your own skin.”
Mark Galeotti, a New York University professor and authority on crime in Russia, said the insurgency continues to stubbornly frustrate Russia’s rule over the North Caucasus, a key goal for insurgents. But its attacks have had little impact recently, and the network commands little support outside the region. In 2011, he claimed responsibility for an attack on Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport that killed 36 people. His organization also took responsibility for the bombing of a luxury train, the Nevsky Express, which killed 28 in November 2009.
“The lack of a Sochi attack was a big blow,” he said. “We’re seeing a hemorrhage of experienced fighters into Syria, and it’s not clear they have any influence on the Russian political system.” Dr. Galeotti said it was unclear whether anyone would pick up the mantle from Mr. Umarov, who tried to impose structure on the network of insurgent groups scattered across the restive region, appearing for years as its only recognizable face. Mr. Umarov’s biography tracked with an insurgency that changed course several times after the fall of the Soviet Union. Employed as a construction engineer in the early 1990s, he joined the Chechen separatists.
“This has been such a one-person position, he created it in many ways,” Dr. Galeotti said. “I don’t think anyone would want to be Doku Umarov 2.” After Russian troops were forced to withdraw from the Chechen capital, Grozny, Mr. Umarov became an official in the territory’s Security Council. But Russia eventually crushed the separatists.
Searching for a more grandiose idea, Mr. Umarov declared himself the leader of the Caucasus Emirate with the intent to establish a Shariah-based state independent of Russia.