Posted on 06/24/2009 1:27:59 AM PDT by Schnucki
Tensions in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus mounted after Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen president, said he had been authorized by the Kremlin to begin a campaign of "torture" against rebels in neighbouring Ingushetia.
Russian troops appeared to be preparing to launch a major counterterrorism operation a day after Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the Ingush president, was seriously wounded in a suicide bombing.
Mr Yevkurov, a close ally of Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, was on life-support in a Moscow hospital yesterday after sustaining serious injuries to his skull, ribs and vital organs, doctors said.
Speaking from the hospital, Mr Medvedev ordered a "direct and ruthless" response to the attack, which the Kremlin said was carried out by Islamist rebels who have gradually shifted their focus from Chechnya to Ingushetia.
In an unprecedented move, Mr Kadyrov said he had been instructed by the Russian president to extend his remit beyond Chechnya's borders by taking control of operations against the insurgents in Ingushetia.
Despite facing regular accusations of human rights abuses, Mr Kadyrov has largely subdued a decade long rebellion in Chechnya since Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, appointed him to run the republic in 2007.
Mr Kadyrov claimed that Ingushetia had failed to crush a related rebellion because its leaders had been insufficiently robust in tackling the insurgents -- a mistake he said he had no intention of repeating.
"If they had used torture and detentions, there wouldn't be any Wahabbism or terrorism," he said.
The threat comes amid growing signs that the North Caucasus is in the grip of its worst instability for at least four years. Four senior officials have been shot dead in Ingushetia and Dagestan, another quasi-autonomous republic in the Russian Caucasus, over the past three weeks.
Other rebel attacks have been reported on an almost daily basis.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
What was that about the world “hating” us because of Gitmo?
YEOW
"We will conduct our investigation in line with the law of the mountains and our revenge for Yunus-Bek Yevkurov will be ruthless," Kadyrov was quoted as saying in the local capital, Magas, where he met acting Ingush president Rashid Gaisanov. The statement indicated Kadyrov was referring to the region's ancient tradition of blood feuds.
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