03 February 2012, 22:30
Umarov orders militants in Caucasus to avoid attacks on civilian objects
Dokku Umarov, the leader of the "Imarat Kavkaz", claimed changing the status of the civilian people of Russia, whom he earlier treated as his enemies for their non-resistance to the policy of the current authorities, and ordered his subordinates to avoid attacks on civilian targets.
Dokku Umarov announced the new change in his tactics in his video message posted on one of the websites supporting militants.
In his video message the leader of the "Imarat Kavkaz" explains that Russia has started the processes of civil protest, and, according to him, the population no longer accept the Putin's policy, and that may mean that it does not support the methods of conducting the war in the Caucasus, which were authorized by Putin.
At the same time, Dokku Umarov claims that, opposing the current government of the Russian Federation, the citizens will protect themselves from militants' attack.
The militants' leader also ordered his subordinates to attack the territory of Russia in single points and select targets by objects of power bodies, army, secret services and political leadership of the country.
If the militants from the "Imarat Kavkaz" really stop their terror activities against the civilian population in the central Russia, it could mean a radical change in the course of the terrorist and guerrilla war that they conduct against the government of the Russian Federation. This was written by Rabbi Abraham Shmulevich, the well-known Israeli political scientist, the head of the Institute of Eastern Partnership, in his blog in the "Livejournal".
According to him, terror acts committed by the Islamists only contributed to the growth of anti-Caucasian and anti-Muslim sentiments among the Russians and the substantial increase in support of the policy conducted by Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister and current candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation, who "had presented himself as the people's defender from terror." Abraham Shmulevich believes that change in the strategy will not only open the way for the militants to build relations with the Western politicians, but will also deprive the Kremlin's of one of the main pillars of its legitimacy in the people's eyes.