Borozdinovskaya operation
Encyclopedia
The Borozdinovskaya operation was an infamous cleansing raid (zachiska) by the pro-Moscow ethnic Chechen
unit Battalion Vostok
of the Spetsnaz
of GRU
(i.e., officially loyal to Russia) on the ethnic minority village of Borozdinovskaya in Chechnya
near the border with the republic of Dagestan
on June 4, 2005.
Borozdinovskaya is a predominantly ethnic-Avar
(a Dagestani ethnic group) village in Shelkovsky District of Chechnya. Its population in early 2005 was over 1,000 people. The 'sweep operation' took place after "a series of murders and armed attacks" in and around the village in May–June 2005, including a June 3 incident in which the father of a Vostok serviceman was shot and killed. The raid prompted a mass exodus
of almost the entire population of the village and contributed to a political standoff in both Chechnya and Dagestan. As a result, even some representatives of the Russian federal authorities—usually reluctant to denounce abuses by their forces—expressed outrage over the incident.
, the Avars tried to conquer the Chechens, meeting fierce resistance. More recently, in the 19th Century, the ethnic Avar Imam Shamil
forcefully added Chechnya to his Caucasian Imamate. The Chechens tolerated this for a time because he was viewed as a lesser evil; the Avars and the Chechens had a common foe in Russia. Shamil's strict interpretation of Islam, however, led to conflicts not only with the Avar elite but with the Chechens as a whole. On the other hand, there has been considerable cross-cultural fertilization between Avars and Chechens; historically, they have been allies against Russians and, earlier, Mongols and Turkic peoples.
According to the residents of Borozdinovskaya, the ethnic conflict in the area began in the mid-1990s, during the time when many Dagestanis and ethnic Russians
were being forcibly evicted from the Chechen republic, or otherwise pressured to leave by the poor economic conditions and destruction resulting from the First Chechen War
. A local Avar strongman named Shapi Mikatov created an armed militia
that effectively protected the village from what they called the 'Chechen gangs,' including the men of Sulim Yamadayev
, by then the most powerful separatist warlord in eastern Chechnya. According to Hussein Nutayev, the pro-Russian head of Shelkovsky District in 2004, Mikatov's militia was rather "a criminal group we call the Avar jamaat
... headed by the infamous warlord Mitabov, who is accused of numerous murders and kidnappings."
Mikatov was killed in 1998. The next year, the Yamadayev brothers changed sides in the conflict (as did Kadyrov) to lead the Vostok battalion for Russian military intelligence. Since then, the residents allegedly began to be targeted by pro-Moscow
Chechen forces and the inter-ethnic tensions have escalated further since Chechen authorities began resettling displaced persons from the Nozhay-Yurtovsky District in the village.
Between 3:30 PM and 8:00 PM, the soldiers detained 11 people "suspected of having committed crimes": Abakar Aliyev, Magomed Isayev, Ahmed Kurbanaliyev, Magomed Kurbanaliyev, Eduard Lachkov (an ethnic Russian), Ahmed Magomedov, Ahmed Magomedov, Kamil Magomedov, Said Magomedov, Shakhban Magomedov, and Martukh Umarov. All of them have not been seen since.
A 77-year old man was killed, later found either gunned down or burnt alive, and about 200 men were also rounded up and herded into the local school's sports hall, where many were severely beaten. Four private homesteads were burnt down and cars, money, and other valuables were stolen from the village.Chechnya: Does Outrage Over Borozdinovskaya Sweep Presage Change Of Russian Tactics?, RFE/RL, June 24, 2005.
to which Yamadayev’s militia belonged, said the allegations were “groundless and aimed at destabilizing the political situation and staining the honor and name of the honest career officer and Hero of Russia, Sulim Yamadayev.”
Most of the residents quickly packed up and crossed the border to Dagestan, where they set up a tent city near the town of Kizlyar
. There, they received support from the local Avar opposition and resisted attempts by the Dagestani OMON
riot police to foce them back into Chechnya. The refugees eventually agreed to return after the Chechen government of Ramzan Kadyrov
promised to search for the abducted villagers and pay compensation for the damage caused by the attackers. Dmitri Kozak, the Russian presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District
, met with the villagers and spoke about "an act of sabotage
against the Russian state by extremists," promising an objective investigation to punish those responsible.
On October 27, 2005, Mukhadi Aziyev, company commander of the Vostok battalion, was convicted by Grozny Garrison Military Court of "exceeding official authority" and given a three-year suspended sentence
. The fate of the abducted people was not established, and a legal demand for compensation brought by villagers against the Russian Ministry of Defence
was rejected. In June 2007, the villagers held a 300-strong protest action in Dagestan.
Colonel Sulim Yamadayev, commander of the Vostok battalion, had at first denied that his subordinates were involved in the raid. Later, he admitted his servicemen's guilt, but said that the operation had been conducted without his knowledge. In 2006 and again in 2008, during the conflict between Ramzan Kadyrov and the Yamadayev clan, Kadyrov used the case as an example of the crimes of the Vostok unit in his attacks on the Yamadayev brothers.
Chechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
unit Battalion Vostok
Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad
Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad were two Spetznaz units of Russian military intelligence based in Chechnya. The overwhelming majority of personnel were ethnic Chechens, while the command personnel were mixed Russian and Chechens....
of the Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz, Specnaz tr: Voyska specialnogo naznacheniya; ) is an umbrella term for any special forces in Russian, literally "force of special purpose"...
of GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
(i.e., officially loyal to Russia) on the ethnic minority village of Borozdinovskaya in Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
near the border with the republic of Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
on June 4, 2005.
Borozdinovskaya is a predominantly ethnic-Avar
Caucasian Avars
Avars or Caucasian Avars are a modern people of Caucasus, mainly of Dagestan, in which they are the predominant group. The Caucasian Avar language belongs to the Northeast Caucasian language family ....
(a Dagestani ethnic group) village in Shelkovsky District of Chechnya. Its population in early 2005 was over 1,000 people. The 'sweep operation' took place after "a series of murders and armed attacks" in and around the village in May–June 2005, including a June 3 incident in which the father of a Vostok serviceman was shot and killed. The raid prompted a mass exodus
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
of almost the entire population of the village and contributed to a political standoff in both Chechnya and Dagestan. As a result, even some representatives of the Russian federal authorities—usually reluctant to denounce abuses by their forces—expressed outrage over the incident.
Historical background
Historical relations between Avars and Chechens have been inconsistent. On one hand, conflict between Avars and Chechens is not just a recent phenomenon. Twice during the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the Avars tried to conquer the Chechens, meeting fierce resistance. More recently, in the 19th Century, the ethnic Avar Imam Shamil
Imam Shamil
Imam Shamil also spelled Shamyl, Schamil, Schamyl or Shameel was an Avar political and religious leader of the Muslim tribes of the Northern Caucasus...
forcefully added Chechnya to his Caucasian Imamate. The Chechens tolerated this for a time because he was viewed as a lesser evil; the Avars and the Chechens had a common foe in Russia. Shamil's strict interpretation of Islam, however, led to conflicts not only with the Avar elite but with the Chechens as a whole. On the other hand, there has been considerable cross-cultural fertilization between Avars and Chechens; historically, they have been allies against Russians and, earlier, Mongols and Turkic peoples.
According to the residents of Borozdinovskaya, the ethnic conflict in the area began in the mid-1990s, during the time when many Dagestanis and ethnic Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
were being forcibly evicted from the Chechen republic, or otherwise pressured to leave by the poor economic conditions and destruction resulting from the First Chechen War
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
. A local Avar strongman named Shapi Mikatov created an armed militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
that effectively protected the village from what they called the 'Chechen gangs,' including the men of Sulim Yamadayev
Sulim Yamadayev
Sulim Bekmirzayevich Yamadayev was a Chechen rebel commander from the First Chechen War who had switched sides together with his brothers Dzhabrail, Badrudi, Isa and Ruslan in 1999 during the outbreak of the Second Chechen War. He was de facto commander of the Russian military Special Battalion...
, by then the most powerful separatist warlord in eastern Chechnya. According to Hussein Nutayev, the pro-Russian head of Shelkovsky District in 2004, Mikatov's militia was rather "a criminal group we call the Avar jamaat
Jamaat
The term Jamaat can apply to the following:*Jamia - a gathering or congregatation; place of gathering.*Jamaat-e-Islami - a South Asian Islamic movement based in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India .*Jamaat-ul-Muslimeen - a Muslim organization in Indo-Pak.*Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind - an Islamic group in...
... headed by the infamous warlord Mitabov, who is accused of numerous murders and kidnappings."
Mikatov was killed in 1998. The next year, the Yamadayev brothers changed sides in the conflict (as did Kadyrov) to lead the Vostok battalion for Russian military intelligence. Since then, the residents allegedly began to be targeted by pro-Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
Chechen forces and the inter-ethnic tensions have escalated further since Chechen authorities began resettling displaced persons from the Nozhay-Yurtovsky District in the village.
The cleansing operation
According to the official investigation, on June 4, 2005, around 80 pro-Russian Chechen soldiers of the special battalion Vostok (East), in two armored personnel carriers, several trucks, and cars, arrived in the village at 3:00 PM to perform a 'large-scale clean-up.' According to eyewitnesses, the operation was led by Khamzat (Hamzat) Gairbekov, also known as 'Beard,' who was the Vostok unit's intelligence chief.Between 3:30 PM and 8:00 PM, the soldiers detained 11 people "suspected of having committed crimes": Abakar Aliyev, Magomed Isayev, Ahmed Kurbanaliyev, Magomed Kurbanaliyev, Eduard Lachkov (an ethnic Russian), Ahmed Magomedov, Ahmed Magomedov, Kamil Magomedov, Said Magomedov, Shakhban Magomedov, and Martukh Umarov. All of them have not been seen since.
A 77-year old man was killed, later found either gunned down or burnt alive, and about 200 men were also rounded up and herded into the local school's sports hall, where many were severely beaten. Four private homesteads were burnt down and cars, money, and other valuables were stolen from the village.Chechnya: Does Outrage Over Borozdinovskaya Sweep Presage Change Of Russian Tactics?, RFE/RL, June 24, 2005.
Aftermath
At first, the pro-Moscow Chechen police officials said 11 guerrilla 'sympathizers' were detained and two insurgents killed in fighting. Later, the Russian military claimed the killings and abductions of civilians were committed by rebels later (after the Vostok troops had left the settlement), and Sergei Surovikin, the commander of the 42nd Motor Rifle Division42nd Motor Rifle Division
The 42 Guards Motor Rifle Division was formed originally as the 111th Rifle Division in Vologda in 1940, and became 24th Guards Rifle Division in March 1942 Based in the North Caucasus following World War II, it seems to have become 42nd Guards MRD in 1957, while at Grozny.In 1987 it became 173...
to which Yamadayev’s militia belonged, said the allegations were “groundless and aimed at destabilizing the political situation and staining the honor and name of the honest career officer and Hero of Russia, Sulim Yamadayev.”
Most of the residents quickly packed up and crossed the border to Dagestan, where they set up a tent city near the town of Kizlyar
Kizlyar
Kizlyar is a town in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, located in the delta of the Terek River northwest of Makhachkala. Population: 30,000 ....
. There, they received support from the local Avar opposition and resisted attempts by the Dagestani OMON
OMON
OMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...
riot police to foce them back into Chechnya. The refugees eventually agreed to return after the Chechen government of Ramzan Kadyrov
Ramzan Kadyrov
Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov is the President of Chechnya and a former Chechen rebel.Ramzan is a son of former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, assassinated in May 2004. In February 2007 Kadyrov replaced Alu Alkhanov as President, shortly after he had turned 30, which is the minimum age for the post...
promised to search for the abducted villagers and pay compensation for the damage caused by the attackers. Dmitri Kozak, the Russian presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District
Southern Federal District
Southern Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. Its territory lies mostly on the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Its population was 13,856,700 according to the 2010 Census, living on an area of...
, met with the villagers and spoke about "an act of sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
against the Russian state by extremists," promising an objective investigation to punish those responsible.
On October 27, 2005, Mukhadi Aziyev, company commander of the Vostok battalion, was convicted by Grozny Garrison Military Court of "exceeding official authority" and given a three-year suspended sentence
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
. The fate of the abducted people was not established, and a legal demand for compensation brought by villagers against the Russian Ministry of Defence
Russian Ministry of Defence
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation exercises operational leadership of the armed forces of Russia.The Russian Minister of Defence is the nominal commander of all the armed forces, serving under the president of the Russian Federation, in whom executive authority over the military is...
was rejected. In June 2007, the villagers held a 300-strong protest action in Dagestan.
Colonel Sulim Yamadayev, commander of the Vostok battalion, had at first denied that his subordinates were involved in the raid. Later, he admitted his servicemen's guilt, but said that the operation had been conducted without his knowledge. In 2006 and again in 2008, during the conflict between Ramzan Kadyrov and the Yamadayev clan, Kadyrov used the case as an example of the crimes of the Vostok unit in his attacks on the Yamadayev brothers.