Through June 2010, the levels of violence in Russia’s North Caucasus mirror the amount of attacks that occurred in the region during 2009. Despite policy changes by the Kremlin, such as the official end of the counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya and the establishment of the North Caucasus Federal District, attacks against state security organs continue unabated. In fact, members of the Islamic militancy have displayed signs of becoming bolder, not only in their attacks against the state, but also in their attempts to control civilian activities and enforce their own moral standards. According to data compiled by the Georgetown University Emerging Threats Project, there have been approximately 30 “religiously motivated” attacks in the North Caucasus Federal District from the beginning of 2010 to the end of June. The majority of the attacks have taken place in Dagestan and it seems that the assaults are on the rise. There were two assaults in April, five attacks in May, and the number jumped to nineteen such “religiously motivated” violent incidents in June.

The increase follows an announcement from Shariat Dzhamaat, a Dagestan-based Islamic militant group, on May 17, 2010. The threat was aimed against businesses that sold alcohol and narcotics, allowed gambling and housed banyas. In particular, the group declared that, “the Mujahedeen of Shariat Dzhamaat have declared war against you and your shaitan [satanic] businesses”. The group gave proprietors three days to shut down their services before they would “burn your dens and blow up [your] harams, destroy your property and shoot up your shops and casinos, detonate and fire upon the saunas, where you are engaged in adultery”. Shariat Dzhamaat also warned residents not to patronize any business where “sins are committed,” because they would destroy them at any time. The message included a brazen youtube video that allegedly shows one of the group’s attacks against a store that sold alcohol.

Shariat Dzhamaat followed through on its promises by attacking a bar in Makhachkala on June 4. One day later, local media noted that ‘unknown assailants’ burned down several liquor stores in Untsukul, Dagestan. The following week saw three more attacks against alcohol serving bars and cafes in Makhachkala. Later in the month, unidentified assailants set fire to liquor stores in Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria. One group of militants even rigged a liquor store in Ingushetia with explosives, detonating them in front of a crowd of people and wounding several dozen civilians and police officers.

In light of the recent attacks by Shariat Dzhamaat, it is important to note that bans on alcohol and vice in Russia’s North Caucasus are not the explicit domain of Islamic militant groups. In January 2006, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov gradually began requiring women to wear headscarves in public (notably contravening Russia’s Constitution), and banned alcohol and gambling within his republic. As he poured money into constructing mosques and ordered a revival of Sufi Islam, the regulations became part of an effort to fall in line with Islamic standards of governance and use religion as an instrument of policy. Yet now there is evidence that unknown individuals are trying to punish violators extra-judicially. Since the beginning of June, unidentified figures in camouflage uniforms often worn by security forces have shot paintball bullets at women who were not wearing headscarves in Grozny. In addition to the approximately dozen incidents of paintball attacks that have occurred over the past few weeks, an unknown group distributed leaflets listing the addresses of women who did not follow the traditional dress code.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs was quick to deny police involvement in these attacks, but President Kadyrov issued a statement saying that though the government does not know who these vigilantes are, “when we find them, I will express my gratitude towards them” for fulfilling their Islamic duties. Ingush and Chechen leaders repeatedly offered amnesty for fighters willing to surrender, even going so far as to establish 24-hour telephone “hot lines” that militants can use to get in contact with state prosecutors and the Ombudsman’s office.

Even when local Russian officials adopt Islamic values in order to gain legitimacy among the restive populace, the efforts appear hollow when confronted with reality. A reporter from the French newspaper Le Figaro traveled to Chechnya in April 2010 and reported that “women cover their face everywhere, a television program shows a live pilgrimage to Mecca, and alcohol for the most part is prohibited, but that does not interfere with the Chechen leaders getting drunk on cognac and vodka”. Besides the dissonance of a hypocritical elite preaching to the masses, the recent string of attacks against women, liquor stores, bars and restaurants show that forceful moral governance, whether by Islamic militants or local governments, is a dangerous game.