Chechen armed underground is growing, but getting younger

The "Caucasian Knot" has gathered information about victims of conflict in Chechnya from among alleged militants – about those, who were killed or wounded in clashes with law enforcers and in committing terror acts in 2015 and 2016.

We managed to clear out that among the 10 alleged militants killed or wounded during clashes in Grozny on December 16-18, 2016, there was not a single person over 20 years old. The youngest of those killed in the shootout, Said-Ibragim Ismailov, was 17 years old.

Another clash involving militants under 35 occurred at night on October 9, 2016. Then, in the skirmish with the police in the Gudermes District of Chechnya, eight alleged militants were killed. Ali Demilkhanov, a native of the Kurchaloi District, who was declared the leader of the grouping, was 33 years old. Since usually the oldest is appointed to be the leader, the sources of the "Caucasian Knot" in Chechnya suggested that the rest of the killed members of the grouping were even younger.

On May 9, 2016, Shamil Djanaraliev, a 28-year-old resident of the Kirov settlement of the Zavodskoy District of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, committed a self-explosion at the checkpoint on the Grozny-Alkhan-Kala highway. His 25-year-old accomplice, Akhmed Inalov, was shot dead.

The only episode in 2016, when the alleged militants over 35 years of age suffered during a clash, was a shootout at the road-and-post service (DPS) post on the Kavkaz Highway on June 3, 2016. Two attackers, Yusup Chugaev, 40, and Aslambek Bersanukaev, 43, were wounded and detained after they opened fire at an attempt to inspect their car.

As for 2015, the age of the alleged militants who died in Chechnya during that year, did not exceed 38 years. Thus, for example, Zelimkhan Bashanaev, Magomed Mazaev and Shamil Chergizov, killedduring a counterterrorist operation (CTO) in the Staropromyslovsky District of Grozny on October 8, 2015, were no more than 26 years old. According to power agents, all of them had been trained in the camps of the "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia.

On February 24, 2015, an explosion at a dam near the Chernorechensky reservoir killed three alleged militants, presumably, when they tried to plant a land mine. The oldest of them, Dokka Khachukaev, was 30 years old; he worked as school deputy director in the village of Gardeiskoe.

On January 1, 2015, in a shootout with power agents, in one of the houses in the outskirt of the village of Mekenskaya, Musa Zavgaev, a 36-year-old Amir of the Nadterechny and Naur Districts, who held this post since 2000, was killed. Bashir Omarov, who, as the sources of the "Caucasian Knot" suggested, was probably younger than Zavgaev was killed along with him.