The Kavkaz
Center and the Jihadist Threat
The center
of Caucasian jihadist media propaganda is located in Europe
and it is under the eyes of several European governments who seem to be fully
aware of it.
The Kavzkaz Center (Кавказ-центр) is a private
website that has been active on the scene for almost two decades. According to
its mission the objective of the site is to report events related
to Chechnya and to provide
international news agencies with news-letters, background information and
assistance in making independent journalistic work in Caucasus.
How
Western medias define the Kavkaz
Center
Western
institutes and media such as the Jamestown Foundation and the Guardian have
often referred to the Kavkaz
Center as “a Chechen
separatist website” or “a pro-independence website”.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
In August
2009, after the Nazran terror attack, the Italian newspaper “La Repubblica”
refered to it in the following way:
“….the site
already used by the Chechen secessionists to claim responsibility for the
takeover of the Dubrovka theater in Moscow
and the Beslan school”. [6]
In March
2014, when the Kavkaz Center had reported the death of Caucasian jihadist
terror boss Doku Umarov (Доку Хаматович Умаров) , defining him a “martyr”, Fox
News and the BBC were still careful to define the
center as “the website of Islamic militant groups in Russia's North Caucasus”,
while the Los Angeles times preferred the term “insurgent website”. [7] [8]
In these
specific last cases related to 2014 the facts are particularly interesting
since by this time the Volgograd bombings and
the Boston
marathon attack, all carried out by the so called “Chechen separatist”, had
already occurred.
The
Volgograd attacks that took place on December 29th and 30th 2013 clearly targeted
civilians and caused 32 death and about 100 injuries. At the time the Kavkaz Center
defined the event as “martyrdom attack”.[9]
In the case
of the Boston Marathon bombing, the Kavkaz center did not celebrate the attack,
no relations to “martyrdom” but rather about a potential inside job
orchestrated by the FBI. [10]
Even though
there is still no universally accepted definition of terrorism, it is still
possible to agree that an attack that has the clear and direct objective of
murdering civilians can be defined as a “terror attack” and consequently those
who take an active part in it or who support the attack can be defined as
“terrorists”, so it is more than legitimate to ponder why some Western medias
are so reluctant in using such term.
Origin
and development of the Kavkaz Center
The Kavkaz
Center website was created and headed in March 1999 in the city of Grozny,
Checnhya, by Movladi Udugov (Мовлади Саидарбиевич Удугов), a skilled
propagandist, former Minister of Information of Chechnya, leader of the national
information service. The website now publishes in four languages: Russian,
English, Turkish and Arabic, which gives a clear idea of its audience. It is
possible to divide the ideological development of the Kavkaz Center
in three phases.
A first
phase began when
the site initially supported the independence of the Chechen Republic of
Ichkeria from the Russian
Federation. In such phase the religious
element was not so evident but rather “masked” behind separatist tasks.
In the
second phase the
site moved to jihadist propaganda, becoming the news portal of the Caucasian
Emirate (Кавказский Эмират), a jihadist group that partially succeeded the
secessionist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Officially
announced in October 2007, the Emirate has the objective of establishing an
Islamic emirate in the Caucasus region, independent from the Russian Federation.
Former president of Ichkeria, Doku Umarov, became its first emir and was
killed, probably due to poisoning, in September 2013; he was replaced by Ali
Abu Muhammad al-Dagestani, real name Aliaskhab Alibulatovich Kebekov (Али
Абу-Мухаммад). [11] [12]
The
Caucasus Emirate and its militants were responsible for numerous attacks that
targeted non-Muslims but also moderate Muslims who were considered enemies by
the jihadists, such as the Sufis.
With the
breakout of the war in Ukraine
and the spread of ISIL (Islamic state of Iraq
and the Levant) in Iraq the Kavkaz Center
entered a third phase and took interesting positions on such issues.
In June
2014 the hostilities between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
and Syrian brigades have emphasized an already existing friction between rival
North Caucasian factions in Syria, specifically Umar al-Chechen’s (Омар
Чеченский) faction in ISIL and his former brigade Jaish al-Muhajireen
wal-Ansar, which considers itself aligned to the Caucasus Emirate.
On June 24th
2014 the site posted a video where the new leader of the Caucasus Emirate, Abu
Muhammad al-Dagestani discussed the role of Chechen-led faction Jaish
al-Muhajireen wal Ansar (Army of Emigrants and Supporters, AES), which called
itself the Imarat Kavkaz (Caucasus Emirate) in Syria. He expressed the opinion
that, rather than setting up an independent group in Syria, North Caucasian fighters
should have joined the oldest and most legitimate group, which is Jabhat
an-Nusra (Victory Front).
Regarding
the decision by Umar al-Chechen of joining ISIL, Abu Muhammad al-Dagestani said
that even though he is a “sincere brother”, it was clearly a mistake for him to
cross over to ISIL. He also added that Umar al-Chechen should not be blamed for
the choice in order not to cause fitna among the ummah (discord
among the community). Abu Muhammad advised Umar al-Chechen to return to AES and
take the same position as the Caucasus Emirate in Syria. [13] [14]
On the
Ukranian scenario, it is obvious how Kavkaz Center took position in favor of
the new Ukrainian government and in an article posted on April 30th
2014 it even claimed to have warned the Ukrainian government of a potential
invasion by Russian troops, with the title: “Ukraine reacted to Kavkaz Center
warning and put army on full alert”:
“Ukrainian
armed forces were put on full alert due to a threat of a Russian attack, acting
president Alexander Turchinov said on Wednesday at a meeting with the heads of
regional state administrations in Kiev, reports the news agency UNIAN. According
to Turchynov, as reported by the agency, now there is a real danger of
"continental war" by Russia
against Ukraine”.
A few
paragraphs underneath it emphasized:
“It is to
be mentioned in this context that the Turchinov’s statement appeared in less
than a day after the Kavkaz Center
sources in the Command of the Mujahideen of the Caucasus Emirate reported
intelligence data on possible Kremlin's plans to occupy Kiev”. [15]
In other
occasions Kavkaz Center
has posted articles where European and American government staff take strong
positions against Russia,
with evident extreme tones, such as this one:
“Lithuanian
President Dalia Grybauskaite said on arrival at an EU summit that Russia was waging war against Ukraine, in which Ukraine
was "fighting for the whole Europe".
She believes that more reaction is to be expected from the NATO. "It is
necessary to provide military support and as much as possible sanctions against
Russia...
Ukraine is fighting for the
whole Europe, so Lithuania
is ready to help Ukraine to
fight this war, to defend against Russia", Grybauskaite said”. [16]
In another article
published on September
2nd 2014 the website
quoted Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former adviser to President Jimmy Carter in an
interview with CNN: “The Russian tanks crossing the border. There's Russian
artillery firing across the border. And there they are pro-Russian militants
who are being armed by the Russians. It is a serious threat”. [17]
In general
it is easy to notice how articles in favor of Ukraine have progressively
increased in the last months. On September 2nd 2014 the main article
on the homepage of Kavkaz Center was the one on Brzezinski’s interview on a
Polish television channel and two more dealt with support for Ukraine and strong attacks on Russia; quite
an interesting development for a website that initially advocated Chechen
separatism.
Movladi
Udugov, the mastermind of the Kavkaz Center
Movladi
Saidarbievich Udugov (Мовлади Саидарбиевич Удугов), born in 1962 in Chechnya, after an
unsuccessful ran for president of Chechnya in the 1997 elections, he became the
first Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as well as Minister of
Information under the government of Aslan Maskhadov.
In August
1997, Udugov founded the Islamic Umma party, uniting a number of political
movements in Chechnya and
neighbouring Dagestan. In 1998, together with
Shamil Basayev (Шамиль Салманович Басаев) and several other radical Chechen and
Dagestani figures, Udugov created the Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan. In March 1999, Udugov helped to create Kavkaz Center.[18]
Russian
authorities accused him of being one of the main organizers of the Chechen
rebel-led attack on Dagestan in August 1999,
and Udugov is wanted by the Russian federal government since March 20, 2000,
accused of having violated Article 279 of Russia's Criminal Code, which outlaws
"armed uprisings. [19]
When the
Second Chechen War started in 1999, Udugov fled Chechnya
and might have travelled to Afghanistan,
Scandinavia, Turkey
and the Persian Gulf.
According
to sources, Udugov has been hiding in Turkey,
where he is said to have often changed home address in the Istanbul
area and to have used different mobile phone numbers, including three
registered in Turkey, one
registered in the United Kingdom
and one in the United Arab
Emirates. Always according to sources he is
known to have established a company in the Emirates that deals with aircraft
spare parts.
Northern
Europe, the safe haven for Kavkaz Center
The
whereabouts of the Kavkaz
Center servers and
central offices are still very controversial. In 2003 the Estonian police
closed its server and in September 2004 a server hosting the website, located in
Lithuania, was shut down by local authorities, under pressure from Russia, on
hate speech charges, after a letter from the Chechen rebel commander Shamil
Basayev claiming responsibility for the Beslan school massacre and a series of
photos from the preparations for the attack were published on the site.
The website
later re-opened on a webserver at the Internet service provider PRQ, in Sweden, and then
in April 2008 it moved to an Estonian server, supplied by the AS Starman.
Shortly
after that the Kavkaz Center again surfaced in Finland, with the support of the
local businessman Michael Sturshe. After that the Finnish authorities closed
down the so-called “business project”, in 2012 the Kavkaz
Center website popped up in Sweden again
but the current location is not certain.
It is not
easy to keep an exact track of the Kavkaz
Center hosting history because several
European countries granted refuge to the Kavkaz Center
at different times. Kavkaz
Center portal was put on
the sanctions list of the UN Security Council in July of 2011. Despite that,
the Kavkaz Center website continued its work. In
December 2012 Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, asked Sweden to ban the
Kavkaz Center website and handover a member of the radical Islamist group Hizb
ut-Tahrir, Eldar Zamzin, to Russia.[20] [21]
According
to sources, today the main offices of the Kavkaz
Center are located in Finland; Janus
Putkonen, editor in chief of “Verkkomedia”, claimed in June 2013:
“Until now,
the radical terrorist website "Kavkaz-Center" is located in Finland under
the special political and even governmental protection. I think that soon it
will stop. Given the many victims of the terrorist attack in the U.S., hardly
anyone dare to call "Kavkaz-Center" human rights organization. It
should be noted that this site has been closed for many years. However, our
government does not want to recognize the obvious: operating in Chechnya rebels
and their foreign accomplices linked to international terrorists”. [22]
According
to the Strategic Culture Foundation (SCF), a think-tank specialized in Eurasian
affairs, Chechen jihadist Aslambek Khunchukayev, is now under protection of the
Finnish government. He is on the Interpol’s wanted list for dozens of committed
crimes, including terrorism, fraud, human trade, but he is also free to move
around as he wishes. He was recently
pictured giving an interview to Georgian PiK TV-channel on the rooftop of the Kavkaz Center’s
Helsinki
office. [23] [24] [25]
The Kavkaz Center
is organized in two areas of activities, an external and an internal. The
internal area deals with an anti-Russian project and has two sectors: southern
and northern.
The
southern sector
focuses on partnership with Turkey.
It is not a case that Islam Matsiev, the website’s administrator, came to Finland from Turkey.
Turkey is also home to the IHH
(Humanitarian Relief Foundation) which, according to sources, has collected
funds in Turkey, Dubai, United States,
United Kingdom and France in favor
of the Chechen jihadists.
The IHH
website itself clearly describes how in 2006 a funeral prayer was organized at the
Fatih mosque in Istanbul
to remember Shamil Basayev and for the occasion IHH chairman Bülent Yıldırım
addressed to the attendees saying:
“Sinister
Putin called Turkey after
the death of Basayev and asked what they could do for Palestine. We know that his real intention is
to suppress the reaction of Muslims against Russia over the death of Basayev.
The whole world united and helped Russia to kill Basayev as they did
to exterminate Dudayev in the past. Israel
is advising Russia to build
a fence in Chechnya to
eliminate Chechen threat as it did in Palestine.
Russia
has applied to become a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).
Chechens, however, are asking Muslims countries how they could accept a country
that has so far killed over 300,000 people, 46,000 of them children, to the
OIC. Basayev had previously sent letters to heads of Muslims states saying what
was happening in Chechnya
and calling on them to stop Russia.
If Muslim leaders had opposed Russia
then, so many civilians would have not been killed in Chechnya.” [26]
According
to the Meir Amit
Center for counter-terror the IHH had
direct links with operatives in the Chechen area, in their transfer of funds
and it also provided support to jihadists heading for Bosnia in the
90’s. [27]
In January
2014 the offices of the IHH were raided by Turkish police during an anti
al-Qaeda operation that took place in six different provinces and that brought
to the detention of 28 people.
The IHH
released an official press statement on the same day, with General Secretary
Yaşar Kutluay saying that the operation had the task of preventing the IHH from
sending humanitarian aid to Syria.
[28]
Always
according to SCF, the representatives for the Kavkaz
Center in Turkey are Musa Itayev and Islam
Mahauri, whose brother, Rustam, served as personal bodyguard for Doku Umarov.
The
northern sector is
located in Scandinavia, precisely in Sweden
and Finland.
The website’s activities are supported by the Finnish-Russian Civil Forum
(Finrosforum, Suomalais-venalainen kansalaisfoorumi) and Pro-Caucasus, a Sweden registered association supported by Soros
Fund, which has vast interests in Finland.
The SCF
explains how the Kavkaz
Center’s staff gets
access to Finnish special services information thanks to the support of Heidi
Hautala and Foreign Ministry’s special advisor Tarja Kantola, the head of
Finrosforum.
The
Foundation has also published photos of the presumed Kavkaz Center
administrator Islam Tumsoev, whose real
name according to their sources is Islam Matsiev, speaking at the
press-conference organized by Mikael Storsjo and Heidi Hautala, whose names
also appear in the Finrosforum registration documents.
Another
key-figure in the Kavkaz Center business is Finnish IT entrepreneur and
activist Mikael Storsjö who has hosted on his own servers the Kavkaz Center
website and who was also involved in a court case, in which he was found guilty
of arranging illegal entry into Finland of 25 Chechens. [29] [30] [31] [32]
In October
2004, when the Lithuanian government banned the Kavkaz
Center website, Storsjö moved the website
to his server in Finland
before being closed down by Finnish authorities; at that point Storsjö might
have moved the server back to Sweden.
[33]
It is not
clear where the servers are currently located but Russian authorities have no
doubt about the fact that the HQ of the Kavkaz
Center is still in Finland. The whereabouts of Movladi Udugov are also
uncertain; he might still be in Turkey,
or maybe in Scandinavia or even in western Ukraine, several options remain
open.
In general
it is interesting to notice how the Kavkaz
Center changed its ideological and
operational methodology throughout time and managed to find a strong base in Europe soon after the Second Chechen War began. It
consolidated its European links, creating a “bridge” between the Caucasus, Turkey, Sweden
and Finland.
At this point it is worth pondering about potential new connections that could
be established in Europe, especially in
relation to the Ukrainian crisis and the ISIL counter-measures.
Giovanni
Giacalone
is an Italian researcher and analyst in Islamic radicalism, lives in
Milan where he studies political Islam in Europe with a
close look at issues linked to integration, radicalism and relations
between
the various European Institutions and the Islamic organizations present
in Europe.He wrote this article in English for RIMSE.
[6] http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2009/08/22/kamikaze-minacce-sul-web-la-cecenia-ripiomba.html “La rivendicazione è apparsa in mattinata
sul sito del Kavkaz Center, già usato dagli indipendentisti ceceni per
attribuirsi la responsabilità della presa del teatro Duvrovka di Mosca o della
scuola di Beslan”.
[19] AFP: Moscow
Demands that Turkey Extradite
Udugov: MOSCOW, May 5, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse)
[32] Янгляева М.М., Хизриева Г.А., “Ненависть к Путину” или особенности финского политического постмодернизма: на материале финской прессы.