CTO in Makhachkala is the first since 2022

The counterterrorist operation (CTO) announced in Makhachkala and the neighbouring Kaspiysk was the first since May 2022, when law enforcers killed two people in a CTO introduced in the Leninsky District of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

According to law enforcers, information was received about the whereabouts of armed people involved in terrorism, and special fighters of the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) blocked them at night in apartments in Makhachkala and Kaspiysk. Residents of nearby houses were evacuated.

According to the calculations of the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own data and information from open sources, the CTO in Makhachkala became the first since May 18, 2022, when the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) reported on the prevention of a terror act at an energy facility and stated that two people were killed during the CTO. The then CTO confirmed analysts' conclusions about the transition of the armed underground in the republic to the format of secret cells.

Prior to this, a similar CTO was conducted in Dagestan on September 10, 2021. Then, in the Buynaksk District, near the village of Talgi, law enforcers killed two people; who were later identified as Urudj Ramazanov and Eiruz Abdulaev.

In its turn, the CTO in the Buynaksk District was preceded by a CTO introduced in the Sovietsky District of Makhachkala on March 11, 2021. Then, according to law enforcers, an armed man was killed after he opened fire from a house in Batyray Street. He had been planning a terror act; and a "suicide belt" was found at the venue of the shootout.

Let us recall that in March 2024, the CTO regime was already introduced in Ingushetia. There, on March 3, law enforcers killed six suspected militants during a CTO introduced in Karabulak. Investigators believe that all the six were supporters of the "Islamic State" (IS)*, a terrorist organization banned in Russia, and were involved in an attack on the road-and-patrol (DPS) post and the murder of three policemen in March 2023.

*On December 29, 2014, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the organization "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL or IS) as a terrorist international organization and banned its activities in Russia.