That's Avar militia duiing Chehhen invasion of 1999.
Posted on 09/15/2019 12:01:05 AM PDT by NorseViking
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the Russian Republic of Dagestan on Thursday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of repelling the invasion of terrorists in the republic.
The Russian leader arrived in the airport of Makhachkala and traveled to the village of Botlikh, where he talked with the local population and laid flowers at the memorial dedicated to the servicemen and members of popular militia who fought off the violent invasion of terrorists from Chechnya in the republic in 1999.
On August 7, 1999, several groups of Chechan terrorists, led by Shamil Basayev, invaded Dagestan with a proclaimed aim "to free" Muslims. The fierce fighting claimed the lives of over 280 people, including military and security servicemen, as well as civilians.
More than 800 others were injured.
After the attack was repelled, Putin, who was Russia's acting prime minster at the time, arrived in late August in Botlikh to meet with military commanders and popular militia members to thank them for their bravery.
During the annual "Direct Line" Q&A session with Putin in July 2019, the men from the Botlikh village, who fought off the invasion of terrorists together with the Russian military, asked the Russian leader to ascribe them the status of Russian veterans.
On August 20, Putin signed a law that granted veteran status to the residents of Dagestan who participated in military action against the invaders.
(Excerpt) Read more at urdupoint.com ...
I hope the Russians killed a lot of the Islamic terrorists.
Even more “Hero” medals.
Militia, I hope they had military weapons at their disposal.
Border guards handed locals several thousands SKSs at the time. Then they captured AKs and RPGs from the terrorists.
I’d take a free Soviet SKS.
It doesn’t cost much anyway. I got mine for around $60.
That's Avar militia duiing Chehhen invasion of 1999.
For Xmas I would like a PKM converted to 7.62.
Isn’t PKM originally 7.62?
Lots and lots...
Dagestan is where the Boston Marathon bombers - “Caucasians” - originated.
Bombers are coming from a mixed Chechen-Dagestani family. Their father worker for the Soviet AG office and traveled a lot. They fled Russia for some reason before their youngest son was born. He was born in Kyrgyzstan.
Thanks for the additional detail. So little information about that part of the world reaches a general American reader. I’m reading a book about the hinterlands of China ... the Uighurs, Tibet, Yunnan, Dongba ... and it’s almost all new information.
For instance, the author says that Kazakhstan has at least 131 identified ethnic groups, in addition to Kazakhs. Each of those groups must have a distinctive culture and dialect (if not language) and a unique history going back hundreds of not thousands of years.
Yes, Central Asia is a very interesting place.
Works for me.
This is off the top of my head accuracy not guaranteed but I believe the Bulgarians went from Soviet rimmed to Nato 7.62 with a PKM. A man can dream, regardless of what Tweaker Beto says.
Doesn’t sound like a complicated conversion.
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