ANKARA
The restless region of North Caucasus, ravaged by years-long rebel fighting, assassinations and a crippling economy, does not bode well for peace and stability in a foreseeable future as violence escalates in the region.
In January alone, 18 rebel fighters and two security forces were killed across the region as the death toll from clashes in the past two years reached nearly 1,200 people with 741 rebels and 411 security personnel dead, according to the Russian Interior Ministry, and deadly attacks on journalists and religious figures continued.
The most striking development was the killing by Russian forces of brothers Hussein and Muslim Gakayev, two prominent rebel commanders, in the mountainous southeastern region of Vedeno in Chechnya along with nine other fighters.
In Dagestan, a police officer and a rebel fighter were killed and a senior judge of the Supreme Court, Magomed Magomedov, was gunned down by an unknown assailant as journalist and analyst Ahmednabi Ahmednabiyev survived an assassination attempt.
Six rebels were killed in Kabardino Balkaria and unknown gunmen with automatic rifles attacked house of a member of the Russian Muftis Council, Saleh Hamhoyev, in Ingushetia.
A journalist, a lawmaker and two religious clerics were assassinated in the region last December.
In a bid to find a settlement to the conflicts in the region, Russia has drawn up a plan to reduce unemployment and boost economic growth in the region where jobless rates ran as high as 50 percent in Chechnya and Dagestan.
