An Olympic crackdown? Dagestan’s mayor snatched in Russian military raid

“Everything that’s going on now is connected with the upcoming Sochi Olympics. The Kremlin needs some semblance of calm and order in the north Caucasus region so that nothing disrupts the Olympics, and so is changing the way it deals with Dagestan,” says Nikolai Petrov, a political science professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

“Previously, there was a complicated formula for buying off various ethnic clans. But in replacing Magomedov with someone who’s not connected with any strong clans, the Kremlin signaled that it’s going to put much more stress on the federal security forces in its efforts to impose order…. Amirov was the strongest man left in Dagestan – he could mobilize 200 armed supporters at virtually a moment’s notice – and he has relatives in influential positions all around. With his arrest his clan is seriously weakened. The goal is to change the balance among the clans, and give more scope for the security services to act,” Mr. Petrov says.

Dagestan was a peaceful place in Soviet times, not only because the KGB kept a tight grip, but also thanks to an elaborate quota system that ensured each ethnic group a place at every official table. The Russian language, taught in an admirable mass education system, served as lingua franca – and still does – in a place that’s a Tower of Babel. The entire local elite was integrated, and disciplined, in the ranks of the Communist Party.

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