Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia–Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.
Ali Musaevich Taziev, also known as Akhmed Yevloev, Magomet Yevloyev, and Emir Magas; born 19 August 1974) is the former leader of both the Ingushetia-based Ingush Jamaat and as the military wing of the Caucasus Emirate. On 30 September 2006, Taziev was appointed to the post of commander of the Caucasian Front by the orders of Dokka Umarov. In July 2007, one year after Shamil Basayev’s death, Taziev became his official successor as the most high-ranking military commander in the rebel forces. He is believed to be personally responsible for the death of several local high-ranking security officials.
Abdul-Halim Abusalamovich Sadulayev was the fourth President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Sadulayev served little more than a full year as President before being killed in a gun battle with FSB and pro-Russian Chechen forces.
Rasul Makasharipov, nicknamed Muslim and also known as Emir Rasul, was a Dagestani Islamist leader in southern Russia. He was the founder of the militant group Dzhennet and later created the rebel group Shariat Jamaat, which sought to unite Caucasian Muslims under Islamic rule and later became part of the Caucasian Front.
Doku Khamatovich Umarov, also known as Dokka Umarov as well as by his Arabized name of Dokka Abu Umar, was a Chechen mujahid in the North Caucasus. Umarov was a major military figure in both wars in Chechnya during the 1990s and 2000s, before becoming the leader of the greater insurgency in the North Caucasus. He was active mostly in south-western Chechnya, near and across the borders with Ingushetia and Georgia.
The Caucasian Front, also known as Caucasus Front or the Caucasian Mujahideen, established in May 2005 as an Islamic structural unit of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria's armed forces by the decree of the fourth president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Abdul-Halim Sadulayev. In September 2006, Ali Taziev was appointed as the emir and commander-in-chief of the Caucasian Front by Dokka Umarov. The group eventually reorganized as "Vilayat Nokhchicho" in 2007 and became a part of the Caucasus Emirate.
Vilayat Dagestan, formerly known as Shariat Jamaat, was an Islamist Jihadist group based in the Russian republic of Dagestan and is part of the Caucasus Emirate. The group is closely associated with the separatist conflicts in the nearby Russian republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia, and was created during the Second Chechen War in favor of Dagestan's independence as an Islamic state.
Akhmad Avdorkhanov was a former head of security for Ichkerian President Aslan Maskhadov.
Supyan Abdullaev was the vice president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was appointed to this position on 19 March 2007, by the President of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Dokka Umarov. He was considered the most senior figure after Umarov in the ranks of the Caucasian Emirate and a possible successor.
The United Vilayat of Kabarda-Balkaria-Karachay, also known as Vilayat KBK, was a militant Islamist Jihadist organization connected to numerous attacks against the local and federal security forces in the Russian republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia in the North Caucasus. Vilayet KBK has been a member of the Caucasus Emirate group since 2007.
The Caucasus Emirate, also known as the Caucasian Emirate, Emirate of Caucasus, or Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus, was a jihadist organisation active in rebel-held parts of Syria and previously in the North Caucasus region of Russia. Its intention was to expel the Russian presence from the North Caucasus and to establish an independent Islamic emirate in the region. The Caucasus Emirate also referred to the state that the group sought to establish. The creation of Caucasus Emirate was announced on 7 October 2007, by Chechen warlord Dokka Umarov, who became its first self-declared "emir".
Kataib al-Khoul, also known as the Ossetian Jamaat and Vilayat Iriston, was a militant Islamist organization connected to numerous attacks against the local and federal security forces in the Russian region of North Ossetia–Alania in the North Caucasus. It was part of the Caucasian Front of the Second Chechen War. Its existence inside a republic which is largely Russian Orthodox had led to denial by officials who refused to recognise that an Islamic insurgency group existed in Ossetia, and instead blamed the attacks on the Ingush Jamaat.
The Insurgency in Ingushetia began in 2007 as an escalation of an insurgency in Ingushetia connected to the separatist conflict in Chechnya. The conflict has been described as a civil war by local human rights activists and opposition politicians; others have referred to it as an uprising. By mid-2009 Ingushetia had surpassed Chechnya as the most violent of the North Caucasus republics. However, by 2015 the insurgency in the Republic had greatly weakened, and the casualty toll declined substantially in the intervening years.
The insurgency in the North Caucasus was a low-level armed conflict between Russia and militants associated with the Caucasus Emirate and, from June 2015, the Islamic State, in the North Caucasus. It followed the (Russian-proclaimed) official end of the decade-long Second Chechen War on 16 April 2009. It attracted volunteers from the MENA region, Western Europe, and Central Asia. The Russian legislation considers the Second Chechen War and the insurgency described in this article as the same "counter-terrorist operations on the territory of the North Caucasus region".
Aslan Avgazarovich Byutukayev, also known as Emir Khamzat and Abubakar, was a Chechen field commander in the Islamic State (IS) Wilayah al-Qawqaz, the commander of the Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade of Martyrs and a close associate of the deceased Caucasus Emirate leader Dokka Umarov. Byutukayev was listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States on 13 July 2016. He was killed by Russian special operatives in January 2021.
Arthur Getagazhev, also known as Emir Abdullah or Ubaydullakh, was an Islamist militant leader in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia.
The Province of Nokhchicho was the Chechen-based wing of the Caucasus Emirate organisation. It was created in 2007 as one of the Emirate's six vilayats, replacing the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Ingush nationalism is the belief that the Ingush people should constitute a nation. Ingush nationalism has been variously utilised as both a secular and Islamist concept at various times, and has become particularly important since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 1992 East Prigorodny conflict with North Ossetia.
The Insurgency in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia was a protracted conflict between Russian security forces and militant groups operating in the regions of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, located in the North Caucasus region of Russia. The conflict was part of the broader insurgency in the North Caucasus, which emerged following the end of the First Chechen War in 1996.
