by Scott Humor for the Saker Blog

WHO WAS ARRESTED AND WHY

It all started on February 5, 2018, with the simultaneous arrests of four high profile government officials in Mahachkala. The formal charges against them included theft of federal funds earmarked for the republic’s social services.

What is most remarkable is how brazen these people were at first. They even tried to intimidate the arresting officers asking them: “Do you even know who I am?” and threatening them with “consequences.”

To prevent pressure on the arresting and investigating officers, Dagestan has been divided into three areas of operation, with three teams of investigators assembled from different regions of Russia. According to an insider, the investigative officers are all young, energetic professionals, who simultaneously despise the perpetrators and are eager for promotions.

On February 5, the FSB detained Magomed Dzhelilov, the head of the Derbent district of Dagestan on suspicion of fraud with agricultural land. He is accused in illegal redistribution of 923 hectares of the Gedzhuh state farm. The state farm land was owned by people from the entourage of ex-Head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov. LINK

Video of the search

Skins of some large animals, could be polar bears and tigers, also a stuffed tiger.

Several AK-47 assault rifles and a gold handgun.

 

The head of Derbent Forestry and a deputy of the city assembly of Derbent Zulfedin Dzhelilov, a brother of Magomed Dzhelilov, was detained on suspicion of drug possession. Derbent is one of the oldest cities in Russia and the region is home to the oldest surviving Samur liana forest in Eurasia preserved from the Tertiary period. It is also called the Caucasian Garden of Eden. LINK

In August 2017, the Radio Svoboda published a report asking “Will Putin Intervene To Save Daghestan’s Unique Liana Forest? ” RFE/RL emphasized that it was the local leadership in southeastern Dagestan, where Russia’s only liana forest is located, that was behind a controversial hydrological project that endangers the ancient woodland.

It looks like the American state-funded online publication got its answer.

Local media also reported that the Dzhelilov brothers could commit kidnapping and murder of two businessmen from Azerbaijan. The kidnappers demanded ransom from the entrepreneurs’ family, but they could not reach an agreement and killed the abducted. The Media asserted that since the Dzhelilovs brothers had ties to the republic’s law enforcement and higher official circles, the case went unsolved and was closed.

On Monday February 5, everyone resized that the scoop of the purge was far larger than appeared at first with the arrests of the former acting prime minister of the republic Abdusamad Hamidov, his deputies Shamil Isayev and Rajudin Yusгfov, as well as former Education Minister Shahabas Shahov, who had already been arrested.

Officials of all levels down to the heads of the towns and districts administrations were told to stay put and banned from leaving the region unless given permission. Several of them were detained and returned back while trying to escape via the neighboring Stavropol region.

The next day February 6, RT posted an overview of the events titled “Dagestan government dissolved amid major corruption investigation.” LINK

RT reported that it already was known that Vladimir Vasilyev, the acting head of the southern Russian republic of Dagestan since September 2017, ordered the dismissal of the whole regional cabinet, after its former chairman and his deputies were held on charges of embezzling millions of rubles of state funds.

As the arrests were taking place, Vasilyev started appointing new people, the first of which being Anatoly Karibov as the republic’s new prime minister. He ordered ministers to continue to work as normal until the new cabinet was formed. Karibov already held the position of the first vice-premier since 2013. Anatoly Karibov, the First Deputy Prime Minister Dagestan, has been appointed to be the Acting Prime Minister after the Acting Head of the Republic Ramazan Abdulatipov dismissed in 2013. LINK

All the governing and law enforcement structures of Dagestan are managed by the illegal criminal groups. This groups form their affiliations and recruit their members from the half a dozen families ensure loyalty of their members, easy transfer of wealth from one member to another in case of legal troubles, and impossibility to penetrate this organizations from outside. One of the families, the most powerful of them, has the direct family connection to a member of the Russian federal government, and another members of the same family have friendship and business deals with some members of Russia’s government and also with their superior. While this is still unfolding, it looks like this scandal might go as far as to be connected to the anti-Trump scandals in the US. It also could be the reason for the trip of the Russian heads of the intelligence agencies to Washington. I will write about this aspect of the purge in my next Dagestan SITREP.

Dagestan was forged into a sort of an Ukrep- Rayon, or a reinforcement area for a few federal government officials. I will explain, latter, who those people are.

The bottom line, it wasn’t possible for the federal law enforcement to take these criminal structures down and to free people in Dagestan from near slavery, without first weakening the power of those people in the federal government.

That’s why in 2013 dismissal of several Dagestani government officials was razvedka boem or an aggressive reconnaissance operation. It couldn’t, however, bring relief for people living there, who were forced to suffer for another five years in deteriorating conditions.

Those of you, interested in the history of the USSR, can recognize the general scheme in which an ethnic mafia holds main distribution channels, and gradually starving and strangling the population, while loudly blaming the center for the tragedy. I am talking about a manmade famine of the 1932- 1933 that affected the areas of Volga and the South of Russia, the Northern Kazakhstan and the Western parts of the Soviet Union including Ukraine. To some degree, the same scheme was used to create severe lack of food and basic goods in 1980s and 1090s.

The scheme worked when the financial and humanitarian aid channels, roads and railroads in the areas were controlled by the Trotskists followers, who were blocking food deliveries, and redirecting freight trains with grains from the affected by famine areas to the non-affected areas. At some point, I will publish my research with the list of names of those involved and the detailed description of the main schemes of this operation.

This also proved to be true for Dagestan. A retired general Leonid Ivashov published his opinion piece last week, in which he recalls conversations with a former lieutenant who served under his command in Germany. Now, he lives in Dagestan and survives by attending a small flock of sheep. He describes the situation in republic as following: “People have lost all hope. There is no law, no justice, and no truth. The only thing that makes people to feel better is owning an AK-47.” LINK

He recalls how once a local police chief, a member of the ruling family, stopped by and said to bring him several sheep for his daughter’s wedding. The former lieutenant told him that he needed to feed his family, and that he couldn’t afford to give away his sheep. And the policeman said, “If you won’t load your sheep into my truck, I will load you there, instead.”

Another important issue that came up just now is the fate of Russian population that needs to be reestablished there. Historically, this area had large Russian population since Cossacks settled there centuries ago. Over the past hundred years Russians were either killed or left. Now, Cossacks want to return, but the local authorities have been refusing to give them land to build. Even the land where the Russian villages were historically located, was taken over by ethnic minorities or abandoned altogether.

There was an official decree of the federal government about the return of Russian language  population,  Cossacks in particular, on their permanent places of residence. But for the past several years not one square meter of land was given to people. The local authorities are reporting back that this federal program is very important for them, but “unfortunately, money that the federal government dedicated for this program, all those money had vanished without a trace and no one knows where money went.”

Leonid Ivashov also mentions an illegal arms trade is a big business there, multiple terror groups, that claim different identities, but in reality all closely connected to the corrupt government officials and have their cover back in Moscow.

Leonid Ivashov writes that from his understanding of the situation in the republic Dagestan has been on a verge of a social explosion and an armed civil conflict. LINK

This is a general landscape of political Dagestan by February 8th, when the Chairman of the SK Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, visited the republic to personally supervise the investigation. In the SK official report of his visit posted on February 8th Vasilyev said to Bastyrkin that people have faith in  justice and law and that Bastyrkin’s visit gives hope for all those who sincerely want to establish the rule of law and order. The video of their meeting is under the LINK.

The same day the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin held an operational meeting in Makhachkala,  which was attended by his deputies Igor Krasnov and Boris Karnaukhov, a head of the national investigation Department Sergey Dubrovin, the staff of the Central office of the Investigative Committee, the Main investigatory management SK of Russia across North Caucasus Federal district, as well as divisions of the office of the investigation Department. LINK

In his speech, Alexander Bastrykin announced the main results of the Agency’s work for 2017, identified priorities for 2018 and identified problematic issues that should be addressed in the first place.

WHAT LIES BENEATH

The process that has been commenced in the region is not pre-election campaign of grabbing and jailing the most outrages lawbreakers to give people a false hope, as the liberals have immediately asserted.  This process started back in 2013 and has been a few years in the making. Vasilyev is well familiar with the region since it was him, a former Police general, who in 1998 commanded the law enforcement operation against an armed putsch of the brothers of Magomed and Nadir Khachilayev. LINK

What seemed to be a dissatisfied ethnic minority armed uprising, was in fact a well managed from outside of the country invasion of  the Islamic Caliphate. Here you can find a condensed digest of the events written from an anti-Russian point of view and reflecting an utter insanity of the process of indoctrinating of minorities on the territory of Russia in fascism, Messianic Zionism and Nazi ideology of the Third Reich masquerading as the Islamic teachings.

Unlike  during the Yeltsin’s regime in 1998, today Vasilyev got a carte blanche. His task is understood as to implement and start running a different model of management than is known on the North Caucasus. This requires decisive steps, starting with cleaning out the local ruling clans. That’s why from the day one of his appointment, Vasilyev has been trying to bring the population to his support. He knows that without the support of people he cannot accomplish a complete overall of the corrupt system, and in return people in Dagestan see him as a consolidating figure, bypassing ethnic and clan barriers.

Vasilyev has already become somewhat a legend, with some journalists calling him “Varyag” Vasilyev, a fighter against the corrupt ruing clans of Dagestan. LINK in Russian, and the same research translated in English with many interesting images and videos “The Dagestani storm. Varangian Vasilyev against ruling clans of Dagestan.”

Upon his arrival to Dagestan three months ago, Vasilyev introduced himself and said: “It’s not me who came to Dagestan, it’s an entire Russia.”

PANIC AND TREMBLING

The Russia 24 TV channel report.

Below is a translation of the Russia 24 report with my commentaries.

As the Russia24 channel first reported on the event, Dagestan is a region of record number of  languages used there. Over 100 of small ethnicities calling the region their home. Left on their own by the federal government, those ethnic groups after 25 years  of interethnic struggles organized unyielding, stillborn structures of governance, that impedes the development of the region, poisons the rest of the country, and has a terrible impact on the population.

As it’s common in this situation that without the Russians interference, stronger and richer clans tends to treat weaker and poorer ethnic minority groups as their subservient, denying them even the basic rights and opportunities that are guaranteed by the constitution and the law. When one family controls the courts, law enforcement and social services in the republic, then outsiders have problems getting pensions, disability benefits, or well paid jobs.

However, there is one extremely important political reason why this region has turned into a terror hot spot multiply by virtually unsolvable social problems and poverty. It’s has been an impenetrable circle. That’s why in the first time since 1948,Vladimir Vasilyev, who is of Russian and Kazakh origin and an Orthodox Christian, has been appointed a head of the region.

During the meeting with Vasilyev Putin said: “I want to see as a head of Dagestan someone with the experience of doing the federal level work. You will be an interim head of the republic till September of 2018. The rest depends on you and on what takes place during the next ten months.”

Asked about his family, Vasilyev said that his wife as any officer’s wife follows him everywhere he is deployed.

[At 3:46 of the Russia24 video]  Some bad memories of the 1998s, when the government was taken over by the brothers Khachilayev. Their revolt was foiled. Very few know, but  Vasilyev was appointed then as a director of the North Caucasus Department in the Security Council. he worked with Putin directly, since in July 1998, Putin was appointed director of the Federal Security Service and, as of March 1999, he combined this position with that of Secretary of the Security Council.

During his first meeting, while introducing himself Vladimir  Vasilyev said that isn’t not just him, who came to Dagestan, but entire Russia. [At 8:30] As the rest of Russia, Dagestan is very diverse and the faith plays here one of the most important roles.  Vasilyev said that he got baptized as an adult, he also thinks that sincerity and openness is one of the most valued trends. “I am going to be honest, he says to a journalist, my colleagues ask me if I was a Muslim, because my father was from Kazakhstan, but I am a Christian.”

At his first meeting he also said that one of his strong points is a fact that he doesn’t have ethnic roots in Dagestan. He said: “We should very careful not to insult anyone and to chose people not according to their ethnic quote, but according to their talent and expertise.”

Despite the region’s amazing beauty, with the most ancient cities and rich ancient culture and crafts, the region remains one of the poorest in Russia with 75% of its budget paid by the federal government. It is becoming more and more clear those funds were promptly stolen by the ethnic mafia, who positioned themselves to be a distributors of the government funds. In other words, a few people took upon themselves to decide from their personal interests who in the republic would get paid pensions, and who wouldn’t. What mother of a newborn would get the government guaranteed maternal capital, and which one wouldn’t. Who would get a job, and who would be chronically unemployed. By this, not only the Dagestan clans were stealing the money, they undermined the constitutional rights and freedoms of people, and people’s trust in federal government.

This semi-feudal system of governing has been based on an “ethnic percentage quote principle” invented by the Bolsheviks. At the core of this system was a principle of “equal ethnic” representation. This principle proclaimed that every ethnic minority should have an equal to their general population number of government representatives. This rule also was used for admission to the institutions of higher education.

But don’t assume that this system was for everyone. Say, if Russians were 50% of the local population, they should have 50% of government officials in the local governments, but they didn’t, and since Russians were 90% of the general population of the USSR, the government of the USSR should be 90% Russian. We all know that this never happened.  There was a very simple reason for an abysmal low numbers of Russians being represented in governmental structures of the USSR and the reason was that this principle of the percentage based representation never included the Russians. It was, as people were told, designed to protect the rights of the minorities.

For example, there is a well known report submitted by the Moscow University to the Communist party Central Committee in 1942. Among other things it says that on the physics department, 98% of students were Jews, and 2% were Russians. The same year of 1942, during the invasion of the fascist European nations, out of twelve individuals leading the Bolshoi Theater administration ten were Jews and one was Russian. We can also recall a groundbreaking statement made by President Putin that in 1920s the government of the Bolsheviks consisted of over 85% Jews, about 15% of other minorities and with no Russians being represented in this government.

From this you can gain some understanding of how the percentage principle worked in the USSR. It worked as a tool to block Russians from getting positions in governmental bodies on all levels. The result of this is also very well known, since the country was ripped apart by the ethnic minorities elites, who delusional believed that if all of them grab and carry with them a piece of Russia’s territory, they all magically would become rich and powerful in their “own” countries.

They all failed, of cause. Some of those new “nations” immediately joined a different union, with the same as in the USSR type of central government, ruled by unelected Eurocrats. While others, mostly the Near Asian republics, immediately defaulted to the most tyrannical medieval forms of governance.

Going back for thousands of years Russians have been acting as nation forming people. Remarkable, new genetic research just has shown that it was from the Russia’s Great Plains a.k.a. the Central Russian Upland that the R1a haplogroup, a mutation known as the “white” gene, had developed about 5,800 years ago and spread from the territory of Russia to the West. Prior to this event, there were no white people on earth.

This Bolshevik policy of the percentage based representation was a polar opposite to an organizing principle of the Russian Empire, which stated that everyone living on the territory of Russia were Russians.

Coming back to Dagestan, this region had a historically large Russian population, mostly Cossacks who lived in their villages and towns and who were entrusted with protection of the southern borders.

During the 1920s and 1930s, many Russians were killed in war with the invading Basmachi groups, the British Empire organized and financed armed terror groups, who terrorized the population of the south Russia for nearly twenty years.  They were the jihadists of the time. Ironically, for those who understand this, some of them were the Kurds demanding to give them a part of Russia to form their own country. After the Great Patriotic War, the few Russians still living in the region were gradually pushed out.

What took place was predictable disorder and chaos. Without the Russians, local ethnic minorities went into a state of permanent cold civil war, that was periodically erupting into armed fights for control of the fracture of territories they manage to get, instead of living as a integral part of the Russian population and a part of the great country. We can see this process everywhere from Ukraine to Kazakhstan: Russians are being pushed out by all means, and, without the Russians, minorities go into civil wars and default to the most archaic and barbaric governing systems, literally going back to middle ages, while their own people suffering the most, losing any future and hope for better life.

That’s what had happened to Dagestan.

To be continued…

—

Scott Humor
Director of Research
author of The enemy of the State
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In case you have forgotten what happened in Ukraine, this book should refresh your memory with the incredibly precise and humorous chronicles: ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN HUMOR: FROM MAIDAN TO TRUMP