The last two issues of Threatologist Eurasia have covered insurgency-related developments in Ingushetia. To recap, on 28 March there was a shootout at a border post on the Ingushetian-North Ossetian border. On 3 April, Ingushetian security services declared a counterterrorism operation (KTO) in pursuit of the alleged rebels who escaped from that incident. On 5 April, there was an operation on a farm, to which these rebels had been tracked; security services suffered casualties, but some of the rebels again managed to escape. The latest development in this series of events occurred in Chechnya on 12 April (although this newsletter is released on Thursday, it is usually compiled on Tuesday — which is why these details were not covered last week). Chechen security services conducted a special operation in Gvardeyskoye, Nadterechnyy Rayon. According to Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov, the operation was intended to “neutralise a participant of the bandit underground” who had crossed over from a neighbouring region. Kadyrov denied that a larger group of insurgents was involved (Caucasian Knot, 12 April). The presumption was that this neighbouring region was Ingushetia, and that the alleged militant was one of those who had evaded the security services there. The individual in question was detained during the operation and was subsequently identified as Ingushetian resident Ramazan Babuyev. He is accused of helping those involved in the 28 March incident, rather than directly participating in it, and then seeking refuge with a relative after being wounded in the 5 April clash (Caucasian Knot, 12 April). Ingushetian security services reported that they had discovered a grenade in the home of one of Babuyev’s relatives in Aki-Yurt, and an improvised explosive device in the house of another resident of the village (Caucasian Knot, 14 April). Ingushetian Head Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov claimed that four militants had been killed and two arrested in total as a result of the KTO in Malgobekskiy Rayon, while three security services had been killed and 15 wounded across the incidents. He also claimed that the militants had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, and his press service reported that nine accomplices who were residents of Ingushetia and Chechnya had been detained (Caucasian Knot, 15 April). Kalimatov’s figures and claims did not align with reporting elsewhere. Caucasian Knot cited a couple of experts as urging caution in accepting at face value the claims that Babuyev is an insurgent. As Oyub Titiyev noted, the only information available comes from the Chechen authorities (Caucasian Knot, 12 April). Such caution is warranted, and echoes points I made in an interview given to OC Media's Caucasus Digest podcast on 12 April. Not only is available information on the group involved in this series of events limited, but there has been no organised insurgency — by which I mean an infrastructure and recognised leadership —in the region since the very end of 2016. Another incident occurred in Ingushetia on 12 April, although no information has yet emerged to suggest that it is connected to the aforementioned series of events. Unknown individuals opened fire on a car travelling along the Kavkaz federal highway in Sunzhenskiy Rayon. Two civilians were wounded in the attack (Caucasian Knot, 13 April). | 
