Caucasiologists doubt Ramzan Kadyrov's statement about militants' plans to attack Khankala

The experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have expressed their doubts concerning the statements voiced by the leader of Chechnya about the militants' plans to capture a tank unit and to attack Khankala. According to the experts, members of the armed underground have no resources to organize such large-scale attacks.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in the evening of January 11, an armed clash occurred in the village of Tsotsi-Yurt of the Kurchaloi District. As a result, four suspected militants and two soldiers of the Russian Guard were killed. One of the suspected militants managed to flee. However, on January 14, wanted Imran Datsaev was detained in Grozny. Ramzan Kadyrov stated that the militants killed on January 11 were plotting to capture a tank unit and to attack the village of Khankala.

According to Orkhan Djemal, an observer of the "Snob", the militants killed and detained in Chechnya "would not have enough people to capture a tank unit."

Orkhan Djemal believes that 60 people detained during a special operation in Chechnya "are not members of a combat grouping, but people detected for relations with the suspects."

"They are their acquaintances, friends, and sources. They are different people, who are suspected of aiding and abetting militants, but they are not a core of a combat grouping. However, even in case if the groupings, allegedly plotting the attack, joined to form a single grouping, the capture of a tank unit would still have not been possible," said Orkhan Djemal.

The experts have also expressed their doubts about the statement that "the militants allegedly wanted to attack Khankala." "To attack Khankala, a district of Grozny, militants would need fighters of two special forces unit. The statement is nonsense. It is not clear why Ramzan Kadyrov has said that, since any sane person will laugh about that," noted Alexei Malashenko, a member of the Scientific Council of the Moscow Carnegie Centre.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.