SUMMARY
The Caucasus Emirate is also referred to as Caucasian Emirate or IEC (Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus) or IK (Imarat Kavkaz).
The group is based in the North Caucasus, which is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in Russia. About 40 ethnic groups of Turkic, Iranian and Caucasian origin inhabit the Russian republics of Adygeia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan. The majority of them are Sunni Muslims.
The roots of the group date back to the armed conflict over Chechnya that erupted after the end of the Soviet Union. During the era of the Soviet Union, several of the ethnic groups in the North Caucasus had their own autonomous republics. Among them were the Chechens. When several former Soviet republics became independent upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, local political leaders in Chechnya also started promoting independence. They proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) in 1991 and seized key government buildings. However, this proclamation failed to win international recognition and Chechnya became part of the Russian Federation. The Russian government regarded the separatists as a challenge to the territorial integrity of the country and launched a large-scale military offensive in Chechnya in 1994 (see Russia (Chechnya)).
As the armed conflict escalated again in 1999 and continued into the 21st century, Islamist tendencies in the Chechen pro-independence movement became stronger. At the same time, the resistance movement expanded to large parts of the North Caucasus and leading figures among the Chechen rebels, such as Shamil Basayev, developed ties to Islamic communities based in neighbouring Russian republics.
These trends became more pronounced in the mid-2000s and the Islamic communities, called Jamaats, became locally based centres of Islamist opposition to the Russian authorities. Many young people joined their ranks because they had bleak economic prospects, lacked systematic education and were suffering from war traumas from the deaths of relatives and peers. The heavy-handed tactics of the Russian security forces against alleged militants and repression against practicing Muslims further spurred the growth of radical Islamism in the North Caucasus. The proclamation of the Caucasus Emirate by ChRI-President Doku Umarov, on 7 October 2007 marked the movements final departure from Chechen nationalism. Umarov abandoned the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and declared himself Emir Abu Usman of the Caucasus Emirate. According to Umarov, the Russian Republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Ossetia, Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria were provinces of the Caucasus Emirate.
The establishment of the Caucasus Emirate by Umarov was endorsed by the Jamaats, which were responsible for a large share of the violence in the North Caucasus. Prominent examples were the Dagestani Shariat Jamaat that pledged allegiance to Umarov in 2007 and the Islamic Jamaats in Ingushetia. The establishment of the Caucasus Emirate became their unifying goal and the Caucasus Emirate can be regarded as an umbrella for the armed groups in the North Caucasus.
Umarov's death in 2013 marked a turning-point for the group. While a relatively orderly succession followed, Russian forces stepped up their operations against the group, managing to eliminate a series of rebel leaders at both central and local leaders.
Further weakening the group were influences from Syria and Iraq, where the Caucasus Emirate was significantly involved as an ally of al-Nusra, seeing significant contestation from the more powerful Islamic State. This led to IS's ideology being imported to the Caucasus, with many jamaats deserting the Caucasus Emirate in favor of IS.
By 2015 the group was basically in disarray, with nearly all of the most powerful leaders and members pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. Further, the Russian government managed to kill the top leadership of the group on two occasions, in April and August 2015, leading to a scramble for power, further desertions to IS and further reduction in the resources and power of the group.
Practically, by September 2015, the Caucasus Emirate was described to exist only as a small scattering of militants in Dagestan, missing both leadership or a functioning organization.
The Caucasus Emirate has been involved in the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
