German ambassador: Obama agreed not to send arms to Ukraine | NATO Leaders Say Russia 'Still In Ukraine' | U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Pro-Russian Separatists in Ukraine | Suspect in Nemtsov Killing Was Most Likely Forced to Confess, Rights Activist Says | FSB-Kadyrov Power Struggle Eclipsing Nemtsov Murder Probe, Media Says | News
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WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions against a handful of pro-Russian separatists and others blamed for disrupting Ukraine, as the United States and its allies watched to see if a fragile cease-fire would take hold.
The sanctions were modest and did not target major Russian figures or companies. They were applied to eight leaders of the pro-Russian separatist movement in eastern Ukraine and three officials, including former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, in the pro-Russian Ukrainian government that was ousted last year. Those former officials were accused of misappropriating state assets.
The penalties were also imposed on two Russian organizations. The Obama administration said that one of them, the Eurasian Youth Union, had recruited Russians with combat experience to fight on behalf of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine. The other, the Russian National Commercial Bank, was targeted because it has been operating in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia.
The Treasury Department, which manages sanctions for the government, said the moves were in keeping with similar actions taken last month by the European Union and Canada. “We continue to work to remain in lock step with our international partners in our efforts to incentivize a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine,” the department said in a statement.
It is unclear how much these moves will affect the targets, however. Under the Treasury order, any assets in the United States will be frozen, and Americans will be barred from doing business with them.
The United States and Europe have imposed a wide array of broader sanctions over the last year but have held off on further escalating the penalties while waiting to see if a cease-fire that was agreed to last month in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, takes hold.
Violence in eastern Ukraine has fallen sharply, and some heavy weapons have been withdrawn, but the United States government reported on Tuesday that more Russian tanks, armored vehicles, heavy artillery and rocket equipment had been sent over the border to the separatists in eastern Ukraine.
How Russia aims to achieve its goal of keeping Ukraine isolated from the West.
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MOSCOW — A member of the Kremlin’s advisory council on human rights said on Wednesday that the main suspect in the shooting death of a high-profile opposition figure was most likely forced to confess under duress, and that his two cousins in detention had been tortured.
After visiting the three Chechens, who were among five suspects imprisoned on Sunday in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, Andrei Babushkin, a rights activist, said that the men had suffered multiple injuries after their arrest.
In a summary of the visit posted on the council’s website, Mr. Babushkin also reported that another man arrested at the same time as Zaur S. Dadayev, the main suspect, had disappeared and said that he had asked Russia’s top law enforcement agency to account for his whereabouts.
The report caused an immediate stir in the Russian government. The Investigative Committee, which is responsible for looking into the Feb. 27 killing of the opposition figure, Boris Y. Nemtsov, near the Kremlin, accused Mr. Babushkin and Eva Merkacheva, another rights official, of violating the law.
The statement issued by the committee questioned the motives of Mr. Babushkin and Ms. Merkacheva, hinting that they could face charges of trying to hinder the investigation of a crime, which carries a possible jail sentence of up to six months.
Mr. Dadayev, who is suspected of being the assassin according to Russian news reports, has “numerous wounds on his body,” Mr. Babushkin said. He added that Mr. Dadayev’s cousin, Anzor Gubashev, who is suspected of being the driver of the getaway vehicle, had cuts on his nose, wrists and legs.
Mr. Babushkin said Mr. Dadayev had told him that, after he was arrested on March 5, he was starved, given only sips of water three or four times a day and left hooded until he was transferred to Moscow for his court appearance on Sunday.
Mr. Gubashev had no complaints about his treatment, the report said, but his younger brother Shagid Gubashev, also in jail, told the two activists that his older brother had been beaten and pressured to confess. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Dadayev and the Gubashevs were tortured,” Mr. Babushkin wrote.
According to the report, Mr. Dadayev said that another man detained with him, Yusupov Rustam, had later disappeared.
According to Mr. Babushkin, Mr. Dadayev, previously a lieutenant in the Interior Ministry’s forces in Chechnya and decorated for bravery, said that Mr. Rustam was his former subordinate and that he had confessed to killing Mr. Nemtsov because he was told Mr. Rustam would be released unharmed if he did.
It is Mr. Rustam’s whereabouts that the members of the rights council asked of the F.S.B., the Russian abbreviation for the Federal Security Service, previously the K.G.B.
Mr. Dadayev and Mr. Gubashev, both charged in the murder, were ordered on Sunday to be jailed until April 28. The other three suspects, including Mr. Gubashev’s younger brother, were not formally charged but were jailed pending further investigation.
Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, has said he knew Mr. Dadayev personally as a faithful Muslim. Mr. Kadyrov has suggested that the motive for the killing was Mr. Dadayev’s anger about Mr. Nemtsov’s defending the right of a French satirical weekly to publish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
That motive was widely rejected by others who have linked the killing to Mr. Nemtsov’s criticism of Russia’s role in the war in Ukraine.
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Sergei Karpukhin / ReutersA visitor holds a photo at the site where Boris Nemtsov was recently murdered, in central Moscow, Feb. 28, 2015.
Russian media has reported that the investigation into the murder of Boris Nemtsov is suffering under a power struggle between President Vladimir Putin's protege Ramzan Kadyrov and the FSB.
The claim that Nemtsov was shot dead by a devout Muslim who reportedly felt insulted by the politician's support for French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, has been denounced in some Russian media as an attempt to disguise the roots — and reverberations — of the Feb. 27 gunning.
Prosecutors have charged two men, Zaur Dadayev and Anzor Gubashev, with involvement in Nemtsov's killing, and are holding three others as suspects. Officials say Dadayev, who used to be a commander in the Chechen police's "Sever" battalion, has admitted involvement.
Pro-Kremlin tabloid MK reported on Tuesday that footage from surveillance cameras showed the suspects had been tailing Nemtsov since last autumn, before the January attack against Charlie Hebdo even took place.
The report did not cite any sources, but some pundits have suggested the Kremlin-loyal tabloid is reflecting the stance of specific forces within law enforcement or the Federal Security Service, the FSB.
"Conspiracies, of course. But looks like some FSB guys don't want the investigation to fizzle out," opposition leader Alexei Navalny, currently under house arrest, said on Twitter, linking to the MK report.
Navalny echoed suggestions that some forces within the FSB have discarded the theory that Islamic extremists acted on their own accord and are trying to point to higher-level involvement in the murder.
The Islamist motive has been approached with skepticism from the very beginning — while Nemtsov had been a vocal critic of the Kremlin, he was hardly known for criticizing Islam.
Power Struggle
Some Russian media and social network commenters see an alternative explanation for the Charlie Hebdo murder theory, suggesting the FSB is seeking to link the Nemtsov killing to Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov — a man who has been bestowed with broad powers to rule the Northern Caucasus republic in exchange for staunch loyalty to Putin.
Russian journalist Orkhan Dzhemal, the founder of a Muslim journalist association, said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy liberal radio station this week that FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov had supposedly sought to erode Kadyrov's close ties with Putin when he identified the former Chechen policeman, Dadayev, as one of the main murder suspects.
"Bortnikov dealt a blow against Kadyrov," Dzhemal said. "We understand only one thing, that now the FSB is pointing at [Kadyrov]. This what is happening is all pointing towards him."
Dzhemal said the emergence of Kadyrov in the investigation signals a power struggle between two Kremlin beacons.
"There's a battle going on. The Spasskaya [Tower] is fighting against Borovitskaya," he added, metaphorically referring to two of Red Square's landmarks, not far from where Nemtsov was gunned down.
More Speculation
On a different side of the political and journalistic spectrum from the MK tabloid, independent Novaya Gazeta weekly reported Wednesday that the organizers of Nemtsov's murder allegedly included high-ranking Chechen security officials.
The report, which did not cite any sources, identified one of the alleged organizers as Ruslan, adding that the man was a major and that his last name was known to "dozens, if not hundreds" of Russian security officials.
The FSB may have a reason to see Kadyrov's powers diminished — the security agency's clout in the North Caucasus has reportedly shrunk, even as the Chechen leader's control has increased.
"Law enforcement and the secret services have been repeatedly humiliated for the sake of 'political stability' in the Caucasus," Novaya Gazeta said in its article.
The Blame Game
Chechnya's leader, Kadyrov, meanwhile, seemed to moderate his version of events as new information about the brutal killing emerged.
Before the FSB had identified any suspects, Kadyrov said the killing was clearly the work of "Western secret services."
When Dadayev, the Chechen suspect, was detained, Kadyrov responded with another online post, praising the man as a "true Russian patriot" and as a devout Muslim, who had felt insulted by the Charlie Hebdo publications.
State Honor
Even amid the supposed attempts to undermine Kadyrov's position, Putin this week awarded the Chechen leader one of the nation's highest awards, the Order of Honor, citing his "professional accomplishments, social activities and many years of diligent work."
Many in Russia saw the award as an indication of Putin's intention to stand by his Chechen protege.
While the awards list would have been finalized far in advance, before the murder, "if the question of [Kadyrov's position] remained open, and not closed, the announcement of that award would have been held back," Dzhemal, the journalist, told Ekho Moskvy.
The appeal to "patriotism" could prove to be a decisive factor in the outcome of the supposed FSB-Kadyrov power struggle, Novaya Gazeta said.
"Two buttresses of the Kremlin have clashed head on, forcing the Russian leadership to decide who is a true patriot and who is not, and who to rely on in the context of the ongoing complicated political situation," Novaya Gazeta wrote.
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A chief suspect in the killing of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has reportedly retracted his confession, suggesting it was made under duress, and a rights activist said there are signs he was tortured.
The Russian daily Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) quoted former Chechen police officer Zaur Dadayev as saying he confessed to killing Nemtsov because law enforcement agents promised to release a former colleague who was being held with him after his arrest.
Dadayev also suggested he feared he would be killed if he did not confess to killing Nemtsov, who was shot dead near the Kremlin on February 27 in the highest-profile slaying of a foe of President Vladimir Putin in years.
"They kept shouting, 'Did you kill Nemtsov?' I answered that I did not," MK quoted Dadayev as saying.
Dadayev, who until recently was a deputy commander of an Interior Ministry unit in the volatile North Caucasus province of Chechnya, said he had been detained along with a former subordinate, Ruslan Yusupov.
"They said if I confess, they will free him. I agreed. I thought, 'I'll save him, and they'll bring me to Moscow alive,'" Dadayev was quoted as saying.
MK said its correspondent visited Dadayev and two other suspects in pretrial detention along with members of a public commission that monitors conditions for inmates.
AFP news agency quoted Andrei Babushkin, a member of the Kremlin human rights council who visited Dadayev in his cell, as saying there were "reasons that lead us to believe Zaur Dadayev confessed under torture."
He said he had seen "numerous wounds" on Dadayev's body.
AP quoted Babushkin as saying that Dadayev had been "tortured by those who detained him" and later taken to the federal Investigative Committee, where "he was forced to confess."
Dadayev is one of two suspects charged in Nemtsov's killing. Three other suspects, also from Chechnya or neighboring Ingushetia, are in custody but have not been charged.
At an arraignment hearing on March 8 in Moscow, the judge said that Dadayev had confessed to involvement in Nemtsov's slaying, but he did not admit guilt in the courtroom.
The Investigative Committee said on February 28 that one possible motive for Nemtsov's killing could have been anger over his position on the deadly Islamist militant attack in January on Charlie Hebdo, a French magazine that published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Kremlin-backed head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, defended Dadayev in a statement posted on Instagram on March 8, calling him a "true patriot" and a deeply pious Muslim who was shocked by the cartoons.
Lawyers, relatives, and allies of Nemtsov have said they do not believe that anger over Charlie Hebdo or Nemtsov's position on the issue was the motive in his killing, and several Kremlin critics have pointed the finger at Putin and his government.
Putin and the Kremlin have denied any involvement, calling the killing a "provocation" and suggesting it could have been carried out to blacken the reputation of the president and government.
Dadayev told the activists he had no complaints about his treatment in pretrial detention at the Lefortovo jail in Moscow, according to MK, but showed his visitors marks from handcuffs and ankle chains and said he had a cloth sack over his head for two days following his detention.
The newspaper quoted two other suspects, brothers Shagid and Anzor Gubashev, as saying they had been abused before being brought to Lefortovo, after being detained in the North Caucasus.
The newspaper quoted Shagid Gubashev as saying law enforcement officers who did not identify themselves "beat and tortured me" and "beat my brother."
He said they had "demanded that I say we killed Nemtsov."
"We are innocent," Shagid
"We are innocent," Gubashev, who said he and his brother are second cousins of Dadayev, was quoted as saying.
The Investigative Committee said later on March 11 that Babushkin and a journalist accompanying him had been allowed to visit Dadayev's cell only to see the conditions under which he was being held, and had broken the law by publicizing details about the case.
"Such actions may be regarded as interference in the investigation," it said in a statement, adding that both Babushkin and the journalist would be questioned by investigators.
The committee did not confirm or deny Babushkin's claims that Dadayev was mistreated.
With reporting by Moskovsky Komsomolets, AP, and AFP
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The father of Muhammad Musallam, the East Jerusalem teenager apparently killed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group after being accused of spying for Israel, has said that his son went missingafter a trip to Turkey and that he must have been brainwashed by the militants.
A shocking 13-minute video released by Islamic State militants on the evening of March 10 shows 19-year-old Musallam being taken to a field by a French-speaking militant. There, the young man is made to kneel before he is shot in the forehead at close range by a child dressed in a military uniform. The child then chants "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great.)
The authenticity of the footage has yet to be verified.
Before the footage of the shooting, Musallam is shown sitting in a room wearing an orange jumpsuit. He says that he had been a trained operative of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and that his brother Ismail and his father had encouraged him in this endeavor.
Musallam, whose family lives in East Jerusalem in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov, had Israeli citizenship. Musallam's Israeli identity card is shown in the Islamic State video of his killing, evidence that he had not taken steps to destroy it to conceal his identity from the militant group.
Musallam's father, Said Musallam, told Israeli Army Radio on March 11 that he did not know how the Islamic State group had brainwashed his son.
"I don't know what they did to him. He says he was told, 'Paradise, girls, villas, money.' They promised him all sorts of stuff," his father says.
Said Musallam told Israeli Army Radio that he did not understand what had been missing in his son's life.
"I work, his brothers work, his mom also works," he says.
Musallam had undertaken voluntary national service at a fire station in Jerusalem, his father says. Although Palestinians under Israeli rule in East Jerusalem are, of course, exempt from mandatory army service, a small number do undertake voluntary national service -- a sign of the contrasting trends in the city, where alongside reports of neglect and discrimination fueling increased violence are claims that a growing number of Palestinians have reportedly been applying for Israeli ID cards and enrolling in Israeli academic institutions.
Four months ago, after he completed his national service, Musallam enrolled in a firefighting course in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion, his father says.
However, instead of going there, the young man flew to Turkey and then on to Syria.
For a while, Musallam stayed in touch with his family. He even told them that he did not like the Islamic State group, his father says.
"Actually, he was against Daesh. Because of the images he saw on TV, and what Daesh was doing in the world, he opposed them," Said Musallam told Israeli Army Radio, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Musallam's father says that his son had probably tried to come home to East Jerusalem and that is why the militants killed him.
"When he tried to come back, for sure they wouldn't let him return. They had to do something like that. If Muhammad had come here and been interrogated, he'd tell them everything he saw there. It's obvious," he says.
The theory that Musallam had been detained by Islamic State militants after he tried to leave Syria is reinforced by a phone call that the young man's family received.
Two months after his son disappeared, Said Musallam says the family received a call from an overseas number. A man that he did not know told him that Muhammad was under arrest.
"Your son gave me your phone number. I saw your son inside a prison in Tell Abyad [in Raqqa Province in Syria]. He's been detained. He tried to run away, and the authorities of that Daesh grabbed him and put him under arrest. I don't know what will happen to him, but if he gets out, I'll help him. I'll bring him home," the man said, according to Said Musallam.
Muhammad Musallam had been "a guy who held his head high the whole time. Everyone loved him," his father says, while expressing doubt that the Mossad would recruit a young man of 19 "who doesn't know about life."
Said Musallam says he has not watched the video of his son. He has a heart condition and his other sons stopped him, he told Israeli Army Radio.
The video of Musallam came after the 19-year-old had been featured in the latest issue of the Islamic State group's magazine, Dabiq, in February.
Since that time, Musallam's father says that the Israeli authorities have not questioned him.
"Since it was announced about a month ago that Daesh caught a Mossad spy, no one called me. Not the Shabak (the Israel Security Agency, Israel's domestic intelligence service), not the Mossad, and not the police. Not anyone," Said Musallam says.
Child 'Executioners'
The child militant who shot Musallam was described as a "cub of the caliphate," a term used by the Islamic State group to refer to its youngest recruits. The nickname comes from the term used by the militants to describe themselves -- "lions" -- and is a sign of the pride taken by the extremist group in training and using children as militants.
The March 10 video showing Musallam's apparent killing is believed to be the second recorded case of the Islamic State group using a child militant to carry out an execution-style killing.
In January, the Islamic State group released a video showing a child militant apparently shooting dead two men accused of being Russian FSB spies.
The militant group is openly training children as fighters. A video released in February shows young children being drilled in a military training camp in the Islamic State's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.
-- Joanna Paraszczuk
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MONS, Belgium -- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that "Russia is still in Ukraine" and urged Moscow to withdraw all its forces and to end its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Stoltenberg said on March 11 that NATO "has seen and still sees a strong Russian presence and strong support for separatist forces in eastern Ukraine."
U.S. General Philip Breedlove, the supreme allied commander of NATO troops, said at the same press conference in Mons, Belgium, that the alliance has "seen some success" with a cease-fire deal agreed in Minsk last month that has greatly reduced fighting and led to the withdrawal of some heavy weapons.
But Breedlove said it was "difficult to know" where the heavy weapons moved from the front line have been taken.
He added that the border between Russia and much of eastern Ukraine was wide open, making it difficult to monitor and hard to determine how many Russian troops are in Ukraine.
Breedlove said it was imperative that monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) be given full access and freedom of movement in eastern Ukraine to verify the withdrawal of heavy weapons.
Stoltenberg said that the "monitoring of the cease-fire is in no way sufficient today."
More than 6,000 people have been killed since April in fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists who have seized control of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.
The conflict followed Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, a move Kyiv and the West say was illegal.
'Disappointment' On Treaty Pullout
Stoltenberg also expressed disappointment at Russia's decision to suspend its its participation in the Joint Consultative Group (JCG) on the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
The decision was announced of Russia's Foreign Ministry website on March 10.
"We are disappointed by Russia's decision," Stoltenberg said on March 11.
Aleksandr Mazur, the head of the Russian delegation to Vienna talks about military security and arms control, said in the March 10 statement that Russia's participation in the advisory group was "meaningless from a political and practical point of view and an unjustifiable waste from a financial-economic [point of view]."
The statement noted Russia already suspended its participation the Treaty on Conventional Military Forces in Europe in 2007 saying NATO's expansion plans made it impossible to realize the terms of the treaty.
The statement noted Russia already suspended its participation the Treaty on Conventional Military Forces in Europe in 2007 saying NATO's expansion plans made it impossible to realize the terms of the treaty.
The statement said that with the decision to suspend its role in the JCG "the suspension of the CFE treaty announced by Russia in 2007 becomes complete."
'Posture' Changes
Speaking more broadly, Stoltenberg said NATO was in the process of adapting its "defense posture" to new challenges caused by Russia in the east and along its southern flank due to "turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa."
Breedlove called the changes by NATO -- which include moving troops and military equipment to bases in Eastern Europe -- the "greatest change in our approach to collective defense since the Cold War."
In Kyiv, Ukrainian military officials said one soldier was killed and four wounded in the past 24 hours in fighting in eastern Ukraine.
A military spokesman said the casualties occurred near the rebel-held Donetsk airport and in the village of Shyrokyne, near the southeastern port of Mariupol, which is controlled by the government.
In Brussels, European Union diplomats told RFE/RL on March 10 that EU leaders may decide at a March 19 summit to keep economic sanctions against Russia in place though December in hopes of bolstering the implementation of the Ukraine peace deal.
The February 12 deal, brokered in Minsk by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, calls for Ukraine's control over its border with Russia to be restored by the end of 2015 if other aspects of the agreement are implemented.
EU sanctions targeting the Russian energy and financial services sectors were agreed in June and July 2014 and will be up for renewal one year after they entered into force.
The sanctions, imposed over Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine, will expire without a unanimous decision to extend them.
With reporting by Rikard Jozwiak and AFP
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9 March 2015 Last updated at 12:51 ET By Laurence Peter BBC News
President Putin relies on Mr Kadyrov (right) to bolster Russian power in Chechnya
Ramzan Kadyrov has made strict adherence to Islam a feature of his presidency
Pragmatic alliance
Ramzan Kadyrov speaking on Russian Youth Day in 2012
Grozny's new central mosque is a major landmark
President Putin relies on Mr Kadyrov (right) to bolster Russian power in Chechnya
Once again the name of the Chechen leader - Ramzan Kadyrov - has cropped up in connection with a high-profile murder in Russia.
President Kadyrov, the authoritarian president of Chechnya, has spoken out about the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, defending one of the Chechens now charged over the shooting.
Zaur Dadayev was a Russian Interior Ministry officer who served with distinction, Mr Kadyrov wrote on Instagram.
He was "sincerely devoted to Russia, ready to give his life for the motherland," Mr Kadyrov said, vowing to find out why Mr Dadayev had been dismissed from the ministry forces.
The suspect was also a devout Muslim who had been angered by the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, he said.
Mr Nemtsov was among the many liberals who defended Charlie Hebdo's cartoons, following an attack on the magazine's offices by Islamist gunmen in Paris in January which left 12 people dead.
A day after Mr Kadyrov's praise for Zaur Dadayev, the Chechen leader was given a top award by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Kadyrov got the Order of Honour on Monday for "work achievements, strenuous social activities and long conscientious service".
Ramzan Kadyrov has made strict adherence to Islam a feature of his presidency
The award could help to quash any rumours of a split between Mr Putin and Mr Kadyrov after the brazen murder of Mr Nemtsov, says the BBC's Murad Batal Shishani, a Chechen political analyst.
Mr Nemtsov was killed on 27 February near the Kremlin walls. In the swirl of conspiracy theories some speculate that it was a bold attempt to show Mr Putin that he can no longer control Russian ultra-nationalists who hate his liberal opponents.
Mr Kadyrov has voiced strong support for the pro-Putin rebels in eastern Ukraine and for Russia's annexation of Crimea. He is on the EU sanctions list.
His alliance with Mr Putin goes back a long way.
In 2007, Mr Putin appointed him Chechen president. His father, Akhmad, had been assassinated in a bomb blast.
Ramzan Kadyrov already had a powerful, much-feared private militia called the "Kadyrovtsy". Human rights groups accuse them of torture, kidnappings and assassinations in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic in the North Caucasus left devastated by war in the 1990s.
So why did Mr Kadyrov become a protege of the Kremlin?
His ruthless methods against armed Islamists were useful for Russia as it tried to pacify the whole North Caucasus region, Shishani argues.
Islamist militancy became more acute in republics near Chechnya just as Mr Putin was trying to consolidate his presidency in Moscow.
Ramzan Kadyrov speaking on Russian Youth Day in 2012
Anna Munster, an expert on the troubled region, says the "Caucasus Emirate" declared by North Caucasus militants "tops the threat list for the Russian government".
It has spread its influence beyond the region to Tatarstan and other parts of Russia, and carried out bombings in Moscow in 2010 and 2011, she wrote in a research paper.
Working with Islam
Ramzan Kadyrov also continued his father's successful work in co-opting Chechnya's main Sufi Muslim brotherhood, the Qadiriya.
"The brotherhood had always been hostile to Russia, but for the first time in history it had been turned into an ally against Islamists," according to Shishani.
Grozny's new central mosque is a major landmark
Mr Kadyrov developed a direct relationship with the Kremlin, bypassing Russia's bureaucratic state institutions - another convenient arrangement for both sides.
It paid off for Mr Kadyrov, as Russia funded the reconstruction of infrastructure in Chechnya, including new roads and a giant mosque in the republic's capital, Grozny.
Such projects are good public relations for Mr Kadyrov, but do little to create much-needed local jobs, Shishani says.
Previous killings
Cerwyn Moore, a North Caucasus expert at the UK's Birmingham University, says Mr Kadyrov's links to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) go back at least to 2000, when Mr Putin became president.
Critics have linked Ramzan Kadyrov to several assassinations - but he strenuously denies involvement.
A top investigative journalist who condemned his methods - Anna Politkovskaya - was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment in 2006. Two men were jailed for life, though investigators failed to determine who had ordered the killing.
In 2009, Russian human rights campaigner Natalia Estemirova was shot dead in the North Caucasus - another prominent critic of Mr Kadyrov's harsh crackdown.
In Chechnya, Mr Kadyrov "has become a sort of cult leader - like some other post-Soviet leaders in Central Asia", Mr Moore told the BBC.
"The outcome is you get ex-servicemen affiliated to him who do things that benefit him, much of which is very murky."
There have also been killings abroad of former Kadyrov associates who fell foul of him, such as former bodyguard Umar Israilov in Vienna and Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai.
Such assassinations are nothing new in Chechen politics.
Russia's war against Chechen separatists killed thousands of civilians and soldiers, and rebel leaders were removed in targeted killings, including Dzhokhar Dudayev, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and Shamil Basayev.
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Published: March 11, 2015
Seven Marines and four National Guard soldiers were still missing at first light Wednesday after a helicopter crashed over the water on the Florida Panhandle during a routine night training exercise, and officials said heavy fog was hampering search efforts.
A military official said those aboard are presumed dead.
“We have found some human remains,” Eglin Air Force Base spokesman Andy Bourland told NBC News. He said he did not have further details on the identities or number.
A search-and-rescue team found debris at about 2 a.m. Wednesday of a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed late Tuesday with 11 onboard, Bourland said.
The military provided no indication whether anyone survived the crash, but told Fox News that it was a “very challenging situation.”
“Search-and-rescue efforts are under way at the accident site currently,” Bourland said in an emailed statement. The Coast Guard, the Air Force and civilian agencies are participating, Bourland said.
The UH-60 helicopter, assigned to the Louisiana National Guard’s 1st Assault Helicopter Battalion, 244th Aviation Regiment, was reported missing at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday while participating in a training mission at Eglin.
The helicopter and crew are based in Hammond, La., Bourland said in a news release. The Marines are assigned to Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The helicopter was one of two taking part in the exercise at Eglin’s range site A-17, east of Navarre Bridge. Bourland said it was a routine training mission involving the Marine Special Operations Regiment from Camp Lejeune. Bourland told NBC News there were “weather issues” overnight.
Bourland said the names of the aircrew and Marines on board are being withheld until families are contacted.
“The second helicopter and its personnel on board have returned and are accounted for at this time,” Bourland said.
Bourland said the names of the aircrew and Marines on board are being withheld until families are contacted.
“The second helicopter and its personnel on board have returned and are accounted for at this time,” Bourland said.
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- McCaskill wants ‘Fat Leonard’ discipline to go ‘to the very top’ March 10, 2015
- Rota hospital commander relieved March 10, 2015
- Trial of Fort Hood NCO accused of setting up prostitution ring starts Wednesday March 9, 2015
- Evicted with $15K in fines, Navy vet sues HOA to recover his home March 10, 2015
- Analysts weigh potential A-10 replacement for ground troop support March 11, 2015
- VA could prescribe pot to veterans under new bill March 10, 2015
- Islamic State fraying from within March 10, 2015
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A North Carolina blogger who became a major propagandist for al-Qaida before he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen was a subject of close FBI surveillance for years and a much bigger concern for U.S. authorities than previously known, according to records obtained by McClatchy.
In nearly a quarter-century of independence, Ukraine's military has seen so little combat that the country's defense minister estimated the nation had only 6,000 battle-ready troops a year ago. Over the past 10 months, the Ukrainian army has drafted almost 70,000 soldiers in a war against pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. And most of the fighting has been carried out by recruits and volunteers with no prior combat experience.
President Barack Obama agreed last month not to send lethal defensive aid to Ukraine, a top German diplomat said Monday.
Mysterious, middle-of-the-night drone flights by the U.S. Secret Service during the next several weeks over parts of Washington — usually off-limits as a strict no-fly zone — are part of secret government testing intended to find ways to interfere with rogue drones or knock them out of the sky, The Associated Press has learned.
U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert vowed Tuesday not to change his "open and friendly" approach to diplomacy, as he left a South Korean hospital five days after being attacked by a knife-wielding man screaming about Korean unification.
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Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatist forces have both pulled back the bulk of their artillery and rocket launchers from the front line in the east, in compliance with a cease-fire deal, Ukraine's president said.
High-level NATO leaders met this week at Ramstein to consider the future of the alliance’s ground forces in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine and events in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Philip Hammond, British foreign secretary, has said that Russia could once again pose the greatest threat to Britain's security. Speaking in London on Tuesday, he said the country's spy agencies were stepping up efforts to counter this.
National Transportation Safety Board says the Ryan PT-22 Recruit “sustained substantial damage following a loss of engine power and subsequent forced landing” after taking off from Santa Monica airport Thursday.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro responded to new U.S. sanctions against his government by promoting a general accused of repressing protesters to head the ministry responsible for national security.
The United States accused Russia of sending new weapons to separatists in eastern Ukraine, as Germany warned that the conflict is still far from a peaceful resolution despite a cease-fire agreement.
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Seven Marines and four soldiers were missing early Wednesday after an Army helicopter crashed during a night training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle.
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