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PLACE AND ROLE OF ISLAM IN REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, THE CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
ASLANBEK ADIYEV, AYSHAT MUSAYEVA. PREVENTION OF TERRORISM IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS*
Keywords: national security, North Caucasus, prevention of terrorism, countering the ideology of terrorism; National AntiTerrorist Committee, Anti-Terrorist Commission, Daghestan; Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachayevo-Circassia, North Ossetia-Alania, Chechnya.
Aslanbek Adiyev,
PhD(Politology), Senior Research Associate, Regional Center of Ethnopolitical Researches, Daghestan Scientific Center, RAS e-mail: [email protected] Ayshat Musayeva, Research Associate,
Regional Center of Ethnopolitical Researches, Daghestan Scientific Center, RAS © Adiyev A., Musayeva A. 2022
Citation: Adiyev A., Musayeva A. Prevention of terrorism in the North Caucasus // Russia and the Moslem World, 2022, № 2 (316), P. 25-48. DOI: 10.31249/rmw/2022.02.03
* The study was carried out with the financial support of the RFBR and EISI within the framework of scientific project No. 21-011-31438.
Abstract. The article reflects the experience of recent years in the field of terrorism prevention in the republics of the North Caucasus, where today there is a significant decline in terrorist activity. Based on the analysis of the research data, it is argued that the success of the state in preventing terrorism is due to an increase in the quality of interdepartmental and inter-level interaction of all subjects of countering terrorism, focusing on targeted work with categories of persons most exposed to the ideology of terrorism and extremism, as well as the involvement of broad public circles in this activity. The article also describes some problems in the approaches and organization of measures to prevent terrorism in a number of republics of the North Caucasus, and suggests for testing those solutions that are successfully practiced in individual municipalities and regions.
The North Caucasian republics have accumulated solid practical experience in preventing terrorism1 based on the ideology of radical Islamism.2 The reports of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) of Russia, interviews with heads of law enforcement agencies and heads of the North Caucasian republics show a decrease in the number of violent terrorist crimes in the region every year. A clear sign of the stabilization of the socio-political situation in the North Caucasus is the growing popularity of Daghestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya for tourism, which 5-10 years ago were perceived by the general public as regions that should not be visited for security reasons. Positive changes in the North Caucasus have largely become possible due to the increased effectiveness of the state in countering terrorism. According to the statements of the representative of the FSB of Russia, in 2010-2020 more than 170 terrorist acts were prevented at the stage of preparation in various regions of the country, their organizers, perpetrators and accomplices were detained, and those who offered armed resistance were destroyed on the spot [8, p. 28]. By now, the main centers of terrorist activity and all the leaders of the gangs who tried to impose their pseudo-religious orders on the North Caucasian regional societies have been
eliminated there.3 The success of the state in countering terrorism in the North Caucasus is due to a complex combination of forceful methods with non-forceful preventive measures aimed at informational and ideological counteraction to terrorism; reduction of the social base of sympathizers with the terrorist underground; elimination of radicalization factors of local youth and prevention of involvement in terrorist activities of persons most exposed to the ideology of terrorism. All preventive antiterrorist measures are being implemented in the North Caucasus systematically under the leadership of the NAC as part of the implementation of federal and republican comprehensive plans to counter the ideology of terrorism. The implementation of these plans involves not only representatives of state authorities and local self-government (LSG), but also the scientific community, religious authorities and representatives of the widest civil circles. At the same time, each North Caucasian republic has its own peculiarities in preventive work, due to a variety of internal and external factors. The purpose of the article is to describe the experience gained in recent years in the prevention of terrorism in the republics of the North Caucasus.
Empirical basis. The empirical basis of the study consists of: republican and municipal comprehensive plans and programs for countering the ideology of terrorism and extremism; minutes of meetings of anti-terrorist commissions in municipalities of the North Caucasian republics published on their websites; materials of a thematic reviews of regional socio-political print media for 2010-2020; a review of materials posted in the "Publications" section on the official website of the NAC of Russia; recordings of interviews with subjects of terrorism prevention in the North Caucasus, conducted by the authors in July-November 2021.
The problem of terrorism in the North Caucasus
The problem of terrorism in the post-Soviet North Caucasus was actualized shortly after the penetration of the ideology of
radical Islamism into the region, whose adherents are making their efforts to overthrow the constitutional system of the state there and establish a theocratic regime through the direct imposition of Islamic religious law (Sharia). The process of spreading the ideology of radical Islamism in the North Caucasus at the end of the 20 - beginning of the 21-st century is studied in detail in the works of Russian Islamic-Caucasian scholars [See, for example, 1, 3, 5, 11]. The analysis of the literature on this topic reveals terminological pluralism ("Islamic radicalism", "Islamic extremism", "radical Islam", "radical Islamism", "religious and political extremism", "Salaf jihadism", "Takfri", etc.), when different authors try to identify the ideological platform of extremist and terrorist practices of radical Islamists. In order to preserve the terminological uniformity in the text, when designating the ideological basis of terrorism in the North Caucasus, we will use the term "radical Islamism".
The Moslem clergy of the North Caucasian republics have nicknamed radical Islamists "Wahhabis" and this name has firmly stuck with them in public discourse, although they themselves prefer to call themselves "true Moslems", "brothers", "Salafists", but not "Wahhabis". The pioneers of radical Islamism in the region were students and graduates of foreign Islamic educational centers who were exposed to these radical beliefs while studying abroad. In addition to them, this ideology was also spread in the North Caucasus by professional preachers of the so-called "pure Islam" from abroad, including through video cassettes with sermons, religious newspapers, pamphlets and other propaganda literature. As noted by a prominent researcher from Daghestan K.M. Khanbabayev, interest in radical Islam was initiated by the religious centers of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, as well as a number of Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, considering Daghestan as a springboard for asserting their spiritual and political influence in the North Caucasus and other Moslem regions of Russia [11, pp. 284-285].
Expert on Islam in the Caucasus A.A. Yarlykapov notes that at first most of the North Caucasian Salafists adhered to a peaceful agenda and were limited mainly to proselytizing activities [7, p. 306]. In the 1990s (up to the military events of August-September 1999), Salafists in the republics of the North Caucasus were most active in creating all kinds of social movements, Islamic political parties, mass media, publishing houses and printing houses, charitable foundations, madrassas, educational and cultural centers. And quite quickly the leadership positions among the so-called "true Moslems" of the region proved to be occupied by radical elements, calling for active actions to establish Islamic order through the violent seizure of power. By the mid-1990s, foreign fighters with military and sabotage experience rushed en masse to Chechnya, which was not controlled by the official authorities, and the scale of arms smuggling increased dramatically. For example, the Saudi jihadist Khattab attracted significant financial resources and support to separatist Chechnya in the mid-1990s [14]. As researchers from MGIMO write: "foreign and local jihadists have organized military and religious training camps in Southern Chechnya with the aim of spreading armed jihad to the entire North Caucasus" [7, p. 306]. They were joined by preachers of radical Islamism from neighboring republics, who called on the Moslems of the region to armed resistance to the Russian authorities. Urus-Martan, Professor V.H. Akaev notes, "since the summer of 1998 has turned into a major center of Wahhabism in Chechnya" [1, p. 160]. The Islamists tried to impose on the world community the perception of their actions in Chechnya as a "jihad", the struggle of North Caucasian Moslems with the occupiers. In some villages of Daghestan, Islamists even managed to establish their own system of government, as, for example, in the Karamakhin villages of the Buinak district of the republic, where the so-called "Wahhabi" enclave existed from the summer of 1998 to the fall of 1999. A number of other rural communities of Karabudakhkent, Kizilyurt, Untsukul, Tsumadinsky and other districts of Daghestan drifted in the same direction.
And in Ingushetia, North Ossetia-Alania, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Circassia, in the process of re-Islamization, adherents of radical views in Islam began to appear among local youth.
In the summer of 1999, representatives of the radical wing of the Islamists in Daghestan went over to an open armed confrontation with the state. Attempts to forcibly seize power in a number of villages in the Tsumadinsky district of Daghestan, undertaken by the Islamists in July-August 1999, were unsuccessful for them. Then, in order to provide them with support, a large detachment of militants invaded from the territory of Chechnya. After they were defeated by the Russian army on the territory of Daghestan in the fall of 1999, hostilities resumed in Chechnya itself. Large-scale hostilities in this republic ended in the early 2000s with a complete military defeat of the Islamists and separatists. With the end of the active phase of hostilities in Chechnya, many detachments of separatist militants, who had already adopted the ideology of radical Islamism, embarked on the path of a terrorist war with the state, expanding the zone of instability to the scale of the entire North Caucasus.
Since the mid-2000s, there has been an increase in the activity of the terrorist underground not only in Chechnya, but also in Daghestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria. Large groups of gangs attacked Nazran (June 2004), Grozny (August 2004), Beslan (September 2004), Nalchik (October 2005). Subsequently, the Islamist fighters, apparently as a result of the reduction in their capabilities, abandoned direct large-scale clashes with the security forces and increasingly used the tactics of sudden shelling and explosions. Representatives of law enforcement agencies became the main target of the militants.
In November 2007, the leader of the Chechen radical Islamists D. Umarov proclaimed the creation of the so-called. "Caucasian Emirate" (banned in the Russian Federation), and this was the last step towards the transformation of the Chechen separatist movement into a North Caucasian radical Islamist
project, which is part of the "global jihad" [6, 14]. From that moment on, the main centers of the spread of terrorism in the North Caucasus, according to the observations of researchers, remain Daghestan and Ingushetia. In addition to sudden armed attacks on security officials, cases of double explosions have become more frequent in Daghestan (when representatives of relevant services and departments arrived at the site of the first explosion, terrorists carried out a second, more powerful explosion), as well as the use of suicide bombers.4 The statistics of terrorist attacks in these years (2008-2012) increased so much that it prompted the sociologist S.Ya. Sushchi to characterize the North Caucasian terrorist underground with the word self-reproducibility - the ability to fully restore the incurred personnel, organizational, infrastructural and other losses [9, p. 285]. Indeed, representatives of law enforcement agencies annually reported on the elimination of hundreds of militants in the North Caucasus, the prevention of dozens of terrorist attacks, but the operational situation in the region continued to be extremely difficult.
Only since 2013 has the activity of the terrorist underground in the North Caucasus begun to fade away. Some researchers attribute these changes to the onset of the so-called "Arab spring" and the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, where radical Islamists from all over the world, including from the regions of Russia, rushed to wage "true jihad" there [7, p. 308]. Islamists from the North Caucasus in 2013-2016 went en masse to the Middle East, where they became members of various terrorist groups, mainly the "Islamic State" (banned in the Russian Federation), which in 2014-2016 controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq. The massive outflow of Islamists to the Middle East, of course, affected the general situation in the republics of the North Caucasus. First of all, this accelerated the process of normalizing the operational situation in the region, because due to the emigration of the so-called "jihadists", perhaps several hundred potential counter-terrorist operations were not carried
out there to neutralize them. But "after that" does not mean "because of this," and the main reason for the improvement in the overall security situation in the North Caucasus, in our opinion, is that the state has gradually learned to effectively counter terrorism. After all, it was the state policy of total antiterror that forced the radical Islamists to look for other territories to build their "caliphate", and not their outflow became the root cause of the stabilization of the situation in the North Caucasus.
The downward trend in the activity of the North Caucasian terrorist underground, observed since 2013, continues to the present. According to the director of the FSB of Russia A. Bortnikov, over the past 10 years, about two hundred terrorist attacks have not been allowed, and the number of violent terrorist crimes committed in Russia, i.e. explosions, hostage-taking, murders, decreased during this time by 260 times (from 779 in 2010 to 3 in 2020).5 All this is the result of the consistent and systematic work of all bodies and levels of government, as well as non-state actors involved in the prevention of terrorism.
Organizational bases of prevention of terrorism in Russia
The modern system of countering terrorism in Russia, which, in our opinion, is still coping with its main task, began to form up after the bloody terrorist attack in Beslan (September 2004), which killed more than three hundred people, including 186 children. This terrorist attack forced the country's leadership to rethink the entire strategy of countering terrorism. From a narrow-profile task of law enforcement agencies and special services, countering terrorism is now becoming a national matter. With the adoption in 2006 of the relevant legal acts,6 a qualitatively new system of countering terrorism was created under the auspices of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee. It is based on the idea that all state bodies and all levels of government, as well as society itself, should participate in countering terrorism.
The NAC is a collegiate body coordinating and organizing the anti-terrorist (including preventive) activities of public authorities at the federal level, at the level of subjects of the Russian Federation and LSG bodies. After the adoption in 2009 of the "Concept of Combating Terrorism in the Russian Federation", the priority direction in this area of activity is increasingly becoming the prevention (i.e. prophylaxis) of terrorism, to which the NAC constantly draws the attention of participants in the anti-terrorist struggle [2, p. 5]. Since 2014, the decisions of the NAC have been binding on authorities, organizations and citizens, and their failure to comply entails administrative liability.
At the federal level, with the coordinating role of the NAC, civilian departments have also joined in countering terrorism, along with law enforcement agencies and special services. For example, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, Rosmolodezh and other departments participate in the implementation of mass events among young people to counter the ideology of terrorism and extremism; Rosfinmonitoring is engaged in blocking the financing of terrorism; the Ministry of Justice draws up a federal list of extremist materials on the basis of court decisions; Roskomnadzor helps restrict access to extremist content in the media and the Internet.
In the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, antiterrorist commissions (ATC), headed by the heads of the respective constituent entities of the Russian Federation, coordinate the activities for the prevention of terrorism of the territorial bodies of the federal executive authorities (TB FEPB), executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and LSG bodies. By now, the obligatory execution of decisions of regional ATCs has been fixed, and the responsibility of officials for violation of this requirement has also been introduced. ATC apparatuses in the subjects of the Russian Federation coordinate the work on the prevention of terrorism on
the territory of the entire subject, within which municipal ATCs operate at the level of urban districts and rural areas. To date, the powers of LSG bodies to participate in the prevention of terrorism and minimize its consequences have been specified. Thus, the terrorism prevention system in Russia covers all levels of government and all administrative-territorial units within the country. The NAC develops five-year comprehensive action plans in the field of combating the ideology of terrorism. At the current stage, the "Comprehensive plan to counter the ideology of terrorism in the Russian Federation for 2019-2023" (Comprehensive plan) is being implemented, the purpose of which is to protect the population from the propaganda impact of international terrorist organizations (ITO), communities and individuals7. Among the priority areas of work provided for in the Comprehensive Plan, the following stand out: 1) preventive work with persons exposed to the ideology of terrorism, as well as those who fell under its influence; 2) measures to form an antiterrorist consciousness among the population of the country; 3) protection of the information space of the Russian Federation from the ideology of terrorism.
Experience in the prevention of terrorism
in the North Caucasian republics
On the basis of the provisions of the Federal Comprehensive Plan and taking into account the specifics of the republics themselves, the subjects of anti-terror develop and implement regional action plans to counter the ideology of terrorism. All TB FEPBs, executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and LSG bodies, within the framework of their functions, participate in the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan and regional plans; include measures to counter the ideology of terrorism and extremism in their departmental annual work plans.
The republican Comprehensive plans, programs and subprograms to counter the ideology of extremism and terrorism include the following activities: 1) individual preventive work with the population; 2) the creation and distribution of antiterrorist content (outdoor advertising, videos, etc.); 3) improving the skills of specialists in the field of countering the ideology of extremism and terrorism (courses and seminars); 4) educational activities with the participation of young people (forums, festivals, rallies, courage lessons, sports competitions, summer schools); 5) research activities (opinion polls, conferences, round tables); 6) support for the activities of citizens, public organizations, journalists and the media in the field of countering the ideology of terrorism and extremism (grants, subsidies, competitions).
A review of the lists of specific items prescribed in the republican action plans shows that among them there are original and, of course, useful preventive measures. Professor Dobaev notes among the drawbacks of many regional plans and rograms that these measures, as a rule, "are addressed to ordinary law-abiding citizens who are far from the ideology and practice of terrorism. At the same time, there is a clear shortage of proposals regarding vulnerable categories of young people and bearers of the ideology of religious and political extremism" [2, p. 6]. Indeed, as the researcher notes, the country has launched large-scale information and propaganda activities: thousands of conferences and round tables are held; collections of materials, books and brochures are published; a lot of thematic articles and videos are being promoted in the media; a lot of outdoor advertising is produced; films and videos on anti-terrorist themes are being shot. However, in various regions of Russia (including the North Caucasus), facts of public justification and incitement to terrorism are still being revealed (mainly through the Internet); financing of various YTOs, as well as the recruitment of new supporters by their participants, both among Russian youth and among migrants (mainly from the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus). Thus, it is
clear that the effect of some anti-terrorist outreach activities is not as impressive as the developers of programs and plans describe in the "expected results" section.
At the same time, according to the estimates of the experts we interviewed, in the republics of the North Caucasus in recent years it has been possible to significantly increase the effectiveness of interdepartmental interaction between subjects of terrorism prevention; improve control over the implementation of decisions and recommendations made by the NAC and regional ATCs; to organize the work of ATK in municipalities, to provide for their employees refresher courses; organize targeted preventive work in relation to persons most exposed to the influence of the ideology of terrorism.
The main subjects of countering the ideology of terrorism and extremism at the regional level are the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation authorized in the following areas: education; information and press; national policy, interaction with NCOs and the implementation of state-confessional relations; youth policy; culture; sports; labor and social protection. All of them participate in the implementation of federal and republican Comprehensive plans to counter the ideology of terrorism. Along with them, representatives of various public organizations, the scientific community, the media and the clergy are directly involved in the preventive activities of an anti-terrorist nature.
At the municipal level, taking into account the recommendations of the NAC of Russia, the ATC apparatuses in the regions, as well as the characteristics of the territories themselves, municipal programs are adopted to prevent terrorist and extremist manifestations. In those municipalities where a stable operational situation has been maintained for many years and there are almost no categories of persons who are objects of preventive impact, the corresponding programs, as a rule, are aimed at maintaining the anti-terrorist protection of objects with a mass stay of citizens and general propaganda among the
population of interethnic and interfaith tolerance, rejection extremist ideologies. In other municipalities, in addition to the above, thematic programs include the entire set of preventive (including targeted) measures.
Federal legislation obliges municipal authorities to take part in the prevention of terrorism and extremism. According to an expert from North Ossetia-Alania, LSG bodies and educational institutions today are the main subjects of countering the ideology of terrorism, since they are closest to the people, interact with authorities, as well as with public and religious associations, and therefore have a serious potential to counter terrorist and extremist activity [12, p. 70]. Accordingly, in all municipalities in the North Caucasian republics, ATCs have been created and thematic municipal programs have been adopted.
To describe the practice of preventing terrorism at the municipal level, it is interesting, in particular, the experience of the ATC of the city of Khasavyurt (Daghestan). The city commission works in accordance with the Action Plan for the implementation of the "Comprehensive plan to counter the ideology of terrorism in the Russian Federation for 2019-2023", the republican Comprehensive plan and the corresponding municipal program, approved at the beginning of each year. An interdepartmental lecturer working group of reputable specialists has been created at the city ATC, which regularly holds meetings with young people in secular educational institutions and madrassahs. In the form of a discussion, lecturers discuss with young people acute socio-political, religious and moral problems. At these classes, representatives of the Khasavyurt youth, who do not have serious life experience, receive detailed answers to their complex worldview questions. This, according to the workers of the ATC of Khasavyurt, contributes to the formation of social immunity among young people to aggressive extremist propaganda.8 An interdepartmental working group also works under the ATC of Khasavyurt, which checks the state of antiterrorist protection of social facilities located within the city.
At the initiative of the ATC, the city is conditionally divided into 20 micro districts, where public councils have been created from among the deputies of the city Assembly, imams of mosques, district police officers, deputy directors of schools and other authoritative representatives of the authorities and the local community. These councils are called upon to participate in solving socially significant issues and ensuring law and order in the assigned territories.
Since religion plays a significant role in the lives of citizens, at one of the meetings of the municipal ATC a course was developed to unite all Islamic religious associations in the prevention of extremism and terrorism, which was supported by the imams of all 44 mosques in the city. As a result, a dialogue between representatives of different movements of Islam became possible here. In addition, in Khasavyurt, on the recommendation of the ATC apparatus in Daghestan, a Council of religious figures who graduated from Islamic educational institutions abroad was established. Currently, several hundred such graduates live in Khasavyurt. The main task of the Council is to assist in the social, cultural and professional adaptation of the mentioned category of citizens to life in their small homeland. With the participation of representatives of this Council, seminars are regularly held in the city for people who have received a religious education outside the Russian Federation and who intend to engage in religious activities on the territory of the republic in order to explain to them the norms of the country's legislation. These events are being implemented with the participation of specialists from municipal institutions, law enforcement officers, as well as representatives of the Muftiate of Daghestan.
In Khasavyurt and the border rural areas of Daghestan, there were many facts of involving local youth in the terrorist underground, not only out of conviction, but due to difficult life circumstances or out of frivolity. To help them return to a normal life, the Commission to assist in the return and adaptation to civilian life of persons who have decided to stop terrorist and
extremist activities was set up in Khasavyurt on the recommendation of the ATC in Daghestan. Professionals of various profiles working in this Commission on a voluntary basis (lawyers, psychologists, theologians) help young men and women who have given up extremist activities, as well as their relatives, to go through the process of social adaptation to the life new for them. [10, p. 54]. In general, it should be noted that the activities of the ATK in Khasavyurt have been repeatedly recognized as one of the best in Daghestan, so the experience of preventing terrorism accumulated in this municipality deserves serious consideration.
The subjects of the prevention of terrorism and extremism in the field (ATC in the MR) with a certain frequency send to the offices of the regional ATC reports on the progress of the implementation of the measures of the Comprehensive Plan, reflecting in them the following data: a general description of the situation in the field of countering the ideology of terrorism; organizational measures taken during the reporting period; information on the implementation of preventive measures and the results achieved; problems identified during the implementation of these activities and measures taken to overcome them; proposals to improve the efficiency of measures (by the points of the Comprehensive Plan); statistical information about the elements of the operational environment; additional materials that may be relevant for the evaluation of activities in the reporting period. Subsequently, the summary information is sent by the regional ATCs to the apparatus of the NAC of Russia, where the reporting materials are carefully analyzed, the best regional and municipal practices are identified, and on the basis of this, methodological recommendations are developed to further improve the effectiveness of preventive work on the ground.
Advisory and consultant bodies play an important role in raising the effectiveness of preventive anti-terrorist activities in the North Caucasian republics. Thus, Expert Councils for the development of information policy in the field of prevention of terrorism and extremism work under the ATC apparatuses in the
republics of the North Caucasus Federal District of the Russian Federation. The members of these councils (scientists in the humanities, theologians, psychologists, teachers, lawyers, etc.) preliminarily discuss and evaluate all materials (educational, methodological, informational, advertising, etc.) prepared by the subjects of anti-terror for replication. Sometimes the prepared materials, for example, thematic videos or banners, are rejected by Council members as ineffective, incorrect or completely useless.
In addition, Expert commissions/councils operate in the republics to evaluate literature, video, audio and other materials of religious content for the presence of elements of propaganda of extremism and / or terrorism in them. Members of such a council under the government of Ingushetia, with a certain frequency, audit the products of bookstores in the republic, and also conduct explanatory conversations with sellers and owners of these stores about the need for a thorough check of the products sold. Information is brought to the attention of merchants about the availability of a search page on the website of the Ministry of Justice of Russia, which contains a complete federal list of prohibited extremist materials. And in Daghestan, a similar commission, which includes representatives of the Muftiate of the republic, periodically checks religious literature in stores, libraries, including the libraries of correctional institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia located in Daghestan, for the presence of publications included in the federal list of extremist materials.
In the context of a significant decrease in terrorist activity in the North Caucasus, the primary task is targeted preventive work with the categories of people most susceptible to the influence of the ideology of extremism and terrorism. As the experts interviewed in the North Caucasus explained, these are, first of all: persons who have already been convicted (serving their sentences) for crimes of a terrorist nature; former (pardoned) members of the terrorist underground; family members of persons who have traveled to the Middle East to participate in the activities of the WTO; persons who have been trained in
foreign Islamic educational institutions; immediate relatives (widows, children) of neutralized, active or convicted members of illegal armed groups (IAG) and their accomplices; migrants from countries with increased terrorist activity.
Upon receipt of information about the residence in the territory of a particular municipality of persons from the listed categories, the subjects of prevention of terrorism on the ground develop schedules of preventive measures with these persons and members of their families; the forms and methods of the forthcoming work are determined and responsible executors are appointed. As experts from Kabardino-Balkaria note, "each prevented person is a kind of independent project that requires continuous support from inducing a person to abandon illegal activities to his ffull adaptation to civilian life" [4, p. 26]. At the same time, the main directions of this work are: social adaptation of these categories of persons; preventing the resumption of criminal activity; involvement of sincerely repentant former members of the terrorist underground and their accomplices in preventive work to counter the ideology of terrorism.
Particular attention is paid to the organization of targeted work with persons from among those previously convicted, who have served and are serving sentences for committing terrorist crimes, since this category of persons poses the greatest danger in terms of the possibility of resuming criminal activity. Thus, representatives of the ATC in Ingushetia, in the course of a research interview, spoke about cooperation with the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, where people from the republic convicted of extremist and terrorist crimes are serving their sentences. According to the cooperation agreement, representatives of the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia notify the apparatus of the ATC in Ingushetia about immigrants from the region who are serving sentences under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation a year before the expiration of their terms of imprisonment. During the remaining time, representatives of the
ATC come to these institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia; an individual preventive conversation is held with each of the convicts registered in Ingushetia, during which the issues of their adaptation to civilian life after release are discussed, and the responsibility for participating in extremist and terrorist activities is explained.
Similarly, according to the Comprehensive Plan, cooperation with the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia by has been established subjects of terrorism prevention in all other republics of the North Caucasus. At the preparatory stage, those serving sentences are provided with information about the measures taken in the republics for social adaptation and the provision of assistance in solving various issues to sincerely repentant ones: employment, additional professional education, financial assistance, medical examination and treatment, consultations of lawyers, psychologists, Moslem theologians, etc. It is assumed that as a result of all these activities, convicts should form motives for refusing to resume criminal activity.
Practice shows that cases of recidivism, as well as involvement in terrorist communities of persons convicted under other articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, pose a serious danger. For example, on August 30, 2021, the TASS news agency reported that the Southern District Military Court sentenced to 5.5 years in a special regime colony a native of Daghestan who took part in the activities of a terrorist organization operating in a correctional institution. Earlier it was reported that the security forces uncovered a terrorist organization consisting of those serving sentences in one of the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia on the territory of Kalmykia. During a search in the premises of the colony, extremist literature and symbols of the ITO "Islamic State" (banned in the Russian Federation) were found and seized. A criminal case was initiated against 22 persons under Parts 1 and 2 of Art. 205.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Creation of a terrorist community and participation in it").9
In order to prevent the spread of the ideology of terrorism in the institutions of the penitentiary system, the subjects of the prevention of terrorism develop plans for educational activities jointly with the administrations of the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia; information arrays (libraries, collections of video films and audio programs) of an antiterrorist orientation are created and they are brought to the attention of "prophylactic" persons; work is carried out to identify persons spreading terrorist ideology, and their illegal activities are suppressed.
After the release of the objects of prevention from the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, contacts with them are not lost. In the future, ATC employees in the regions study their social and domestic problems, issues of employment and life support, as well as plans for the future. In the process of resocialization of persons convicted and served sentences for crimes of a terrorist nature, much attention is paid to their involvement in mass cultural, sports, patriotic and other public events.
Similarly, in the North Caucasian republics, work is being carried out with persons who voluntarily refused to participate in the activities of terrorist and extremist organizations and aid illegal armed formations. Persons of this category, their relatives, as well as relatives of active, convicted or killed members of illegal armed formations are involved in the creation of information materials (video clips, interviews with a story of personal tragic experience) in the field of countering the ideology of terrorism. In order to protect the population (primarily young people) from the ideological influence of terrorists, cooperation between the apparatuses of regional and municipal ATCs and the local Moslem clergy is practiced in the North Caucasian republics. The Muftiates of the North Caucasian republics are doing a great job in countering the ideology of terrorism; explain to young people the basics of religion, its incompatibility with the ideology and practice of terrorism. As a specialist from North Ossetia-Alania notes, the clergy play an important role in
countering the ideology of terrorism, and the Moslem communities of the republic implement more and more significant and socially oriented actions every year, take an active part in holding educational meetings with believing youth [13, p. 20]. This is carried out most systematically in Daghestan, where the Muftiate of the Republic has a specialized unit (education department), whose employees are directly involved in activities in the field of countering the ideology of terrorism; run a YouTube channel and the Muftiate's social media accounts. The imams of rural and urban mosques, affiliated with the clergy of the republic, not only participate in thematic events held by the executive authorities of the republic and ATCs in municipalities, but also independently work in this direction with the coordinating role of the education department of the Muftiate of Daghestan.
Recently, the Muftiate of Daghestan, whose leadership is represented mainly by the Sufi orders (tarikats) of Nakshbandiya, Kadiri and Shazili, has significantly expanded the geography of its influence within the republic, and by now there are representatives of this centralized religious organization in all municipal districts of Daghestan. At the same time, Islam in Daghestan (as in other republics of the North Caucasus) is very mosaic and is not limited only to Sufism, and the black-and-white approach to building state-confessional relations, based on the division of Moslems into "traditionalists" and "non-traditionalists", does not quite correspond to the spirit of the times. As the Islamic scholar I.P. Dobaev notes: "The growth of religious and political extremism in the North Caucasus is facilitated not only by the deep crisis of all secular ideologies of the current period, but also by the ideological foundations of Islam, traditional in the region, in need of radical modernization" [2, p. 8]. In the 1990s, the country's leadership, the author notes, placed great hopes on the authority of representatives of traditional, official Islam, but the social alienation and political passivity of "official Islam", with its theoretical weakness, actually increased the chances of the Islamists in the ideological battle for Moslem youth. In general,
I.P. Dobaev believes, the preaching of "official Islam" turned out to be ineffective in confronting the misanthropic ideology of radical Islamists. However, only representatives of the official clergy are still involved in the activities of the authorities to counter the ideology of extremism and terrorism in Daghestan (with the rare exception of individual municipalities). Accordingly, the resource of imams and other Islamic religious authorities who are not Sufis is almost never used in Daghestan to protect the Moslem population from terrorist propaganda. At the same time, for example, in Ingushetia, as a representative of the republican ATC said during the conversation, imams of all mosques registered in the republic, regardless of their belonging to one or another religious movement in Islam, participate in preventive measures to counter the ideology of terrorism. In general, in the North Caucasus, even taking into account the above problems, the Moslem clergy carry out a huge daily work aimed at protecting local youth from the propaganda impact of terrorists, which the administrations of educational institutions, the apparatuses of republican and municipal ATCs cannot perform.
Conclusion
The practices of prevention of terrorism studied by us in the republics of the North Caucasus make it possible, on the whole, to positively assess the whole range of work being carried out today by the subjects of prevention of terrorism. To date, there has been a significant decrease in terrorist activity, a nationwide system of countering terrorism has been formed, antiterrorist regulations and documents of conceptual content adequate to the existing threats and challenges have been adopted. The successes of the recent years in the prevention of terrorism are obviously associated with an increase in the effectiveness of interdepartmental interaction between federal executive bodies under the auspices of the NAC of Russia; the coherence of the work of all subjects of anti-terror at the level of the regions of the
Russian Federation, where the relevant work in the municipalities is analyzed in the ATC apparatuses in the republics, errors are promptly identified and eliminated, and best practices are studied. This is also the result of more active participation in the prevention of terrorism by representatives of the scientific community, public and religious organizations. The targeted preventive measures implemented within the framework of the Comprehensive Plan, aimed at certain categories of people most exposed to the ideology of terrorism, obviously help prevent their resumption of criminal activity and, to a certain extent, prevent the involvement of new supporters in the ranks of terrorist organizations. Of course, the threats of terrorism, although significantly reduced, have not disappeared completely. Attempts to recruit Russians and migrants into terrorist activities are still observed, terrorist propaganda is actively carried out on social networks and instant messengers. Therefore, it is very important, depending on the emergence of new threats or the loss of relevance of old ones, to adequately adjust preventive antiterrorist work.
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Notes
1. There is no generally accepted definition of terrorism. In the context of the subject of our study, "terrorism" is a method of achieving political, ideological and pseudo-religious goals by violent means.
2. Islamism is a political ideology that calls for the establishment of an Islamic system of government through the direct imposition of Islamic religious law (Sharia).
3. Fifteen years against terror // "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" dated March 10, 2021 / [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: https://rg.ru/2021/03/10/direktor-fsb-za-10-let-v-rossii-udalos-predotvratit-okolo-200-teraktov.html (checked: 20.10.2021).
4 Mustafaev T. Belted with death // "Chernovik" No. 12 of 04/02/2010 / [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: https://chernovik.net/content/respublika/ opoyasannye-smertyu-0 (checked: 10.10.2021).
5 Fifteen years against terror // "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" from 10.03.2021 / [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: https://rg.ru/2021/03/10/direktor-fsb-za-10-let-v-rossii-udalos-predotvratit-okolo-200-teraktov.html (checked: 25.11.2021).
6. See: Federal Law No. 35-FZ dated 06.03.2006 "On Combating Terrorism"; Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of February 15, 2006. No. 116 "On measures to counter terrorism. / / Reference legal system "ConsultantPlus" - [Electronic resource] - Access mode: http://www.consultant.ru/ (checked: 24.11.2021).
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AZIZ NI Y AZI. UZBEKISTAN: PROBLEMS OF CURRENT MODERNIZATION OF WATER MANAGEMENT AND AGRICULTURE
Keywords: Central Asia; Uzbekistan; Water management; agriculture; water and land resources; climate change; social and environmental crisis; conflicts.
Aziz Niyazi,
PhD(History), Senior Research Associate,
Center for Central Asian, Caucasian and Volga-Urals Studies,
Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS
e-mail: [email protected]
© Niyazi A. 2022
Citation: Niyazi A. Uzbekistan: problems of current modernization of water management and agriculture // Russia
