CTO in Makhachkala highlights change of format of Dagestani underground

The regime of the counter-terrorist operation (CTO) in Makhachkala has been lifted, the Russian FSB has reported. The CTO conducted in the capital of Dagestan has confirmed analysts' conclusions about the transition of the local armed underground to the tactics of clandestine cells.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 18, the CTO regime was introduced in the Leninsky District of Makhachkala, in which two people were killed. The Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) announced the prevention of a terror act against some power facility.

This CTO was the first in Dagestan in eight months, after the special operation held on September 10, 2021, in the Buynaksk District.

Members of the armed underground can purposefully stay in shadow for a long time, Alexei Malashenko, a Caucasian expert, told the "Caucasian Knot" in October 2020.

"Hundreds of people are returning from Syria, many of them to Dagestan. They basically don't show themselves in any way in order to avoid problems ... But their activation is possible if there is some kind of instability in Russia," the expert has explained.

In Dagestan, the armed underground has changed the format of its existence and came to the form of conspiratorial cells, Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, the director of the Centre for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, said in March 2019.

In March 2019, Magomed Baachilov, the head of the Dagestani branch of the "Rosgvardiya" (Russian National Guard), announced that there were no active members of the armed underground in the republic. However, the "base of accomplices" and the threat of the return of militants from Syria remain.