The New Great Game Round-Up #33
The Great Game Round-Up brings you the latest newsworthy developments regarding Central Asia and the Caucasus region. We document the struggle for influence, power, hegemony and profits between a U.S.-dominated NATO, its GCC proxies, 
Russia, China and other regional players.
After several members of a Central Asian criminal group supposedly financing Hizb ut-Tahrir were recently arrested in Russia, the Russian authorities stepped up their activities against the terrorist organization. In the Republic of Dagestan, Russia’s epicenter of Islamist insurgency, a large special operation was carried out. Police conducted raids on 47 apartments of suspected Hizb ut-Tahrir members and detained dozens of people:
Police Arrest Dozens in Operation Against Banned Group in Dagestan
Three leaders of the local Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Party of Islamic Liberation) movement were among 52 people detained in the special operation, the ministry said in a statement. The international Islamist group was banned as a “terrorist organization” by Russia’s Supreme Court in 2003.
Among those detained was Kazimzhan Sheraliyev, a citizen of Kyrgyzstan who is alleged to be an international representative of the organization. Others were being investigated for possible involvement in crimes in the North Caucasus, the ministry said.
No Sharia Law In Russia
Two grenades, a home-made bomb, electric shock devices and extremist literature were seized during the raids. As indicated by the arrest of a Kyrgyz Hizb ut-Tahrir member in Dagestan, the group not only enjoys a strong presence in Kyrgyzstan but also tries to expand its activites across the rest of Central Asia and Russia in pursuit of its goal to establish a caliphate. Since the Russian Supreme Court put Hizb ut-Tahrir on a list of banned terrorist organizations in 2003, the group has kept Russia’s law enforcers busy:
Five Hizb-ut-Tahrir members convicted in Chelyabinsk
The Hizb-ut-Tahrir activists were recruiting people who belonged to social and religious groups in 2009-2011. The recruits were introduced to extremist printed and video materials and urged to engage in extremist activities and to develop a negative attitude towards contemporary states, their constitutional systems and state borders at weekly religious meetings.
The allegedly peaceful pan-Islamic political organization, which specializes in radicalizing Muslims, does not have a lot of friends in the Kremlin. Nobody in Moscow favors the establishmet of a caliphate ruled by Islamic law and even the idea of regulating only a part of legal relations by Sharia law is vehemently opposed:
No place for Sharia law in Russia – senior MP
The head of the State Duma’s Constitutional Legislation Committee has blasted as “extremely dangerous” the suggestion to regulate some relations in certain regions by adhering to the norms of Sharia law.
Despite the fact that several regions in the South and Central Russia are predominantly Muslim, calls to bring secular laws into line with religious ones are extremely rare. One such occasion, followed by a nationwide controversy, took place in April 2012 when Dagestani lawyer Dagir Khasavov called for the introduction of Sharia courts in an interview with the Russian channel REN-TV, threatening that if they weren’t Russia would “drown in blood.”
In response to Khasavov’s statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office started a criminal case over suspected incitement of religious hatred prompting the Dagestani lawyer to flee the country. Moscow does not want to encourage any radical sects of Islam because extremism is already a huge in problem in Russia. In recent months, thousands of websites have been blacklisted in an ongoing anti-extremism campaign and President Vladimir Putin once again called on law enforcement agencies to intensify their efforts. According to the Anti-Terrorism Center of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russia’s extremism problem is linked to the large number of Muslim migrants:
Muslim migrants coming to Russia often support extremist unities – CIS Anti-Terrorism Center
About 40% migrants staying in Russia are natives of Muslim countries, CIS Anti-Terrorism Center head Andrey Novikov said.
“Up to 40% of migrants come to Russia from Muslim countries. And many of them support extremist organizations which promote overthrowing secular authorities in their countries,” Novikov said in Minsk on Friday at the CIS migration services chiefs’ council meeting.
# # # # Christoph Germann- BFP Contributing Author & Analyst
Christoph Germann is an independent analyst and researcher based in Germany, where he is currently studying political science. His work focuses on the New Great Game in Central Asia and the Caucasus region. You can visit his website here