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SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS   Strongman Ramzan Kadyrov was installed by Putin to squelch Chechnya's Islamist insurrection. But Kadyrov's adoption of sharia and political Islam in the region are challenging Russia's secular constitutional order. MOSCOW—Russia fought two bloody wars in its Caucasus republic of Chechnya, ostensibly to crush an emerging threat of Islamist extremism on its own soil. So it is with no small irony that the strongman Moscow installed to run a pacified Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, is increasingly posing a similar challenge to Russia's secular constitutional order. Mr. Kadyrov is imposing sharia (Islamic law) on his population – and lately,...

The radical Islamist group Isis (now known as Islamic State) has released a new video threatening Russian President Vladimir Putin that it plans to come to Russia and "free Chechnya".The video footage, believed to be filmed in the Taqba airbase captured from Syrian government forces in Raqqa, shows an IS fighter in a military jet. "This message is for you, Vladimir Putin! These are the aircraft you sent to Bashar [Assad], and we're going to send them to you. Remember that!" he said."This is Russian technology," said a militant with a Russian voice, according to The Moscow Times."We will with...

Members of the Islamic State, a violent group of extremists presently terrorizing Iraq and Syria, have released a video threatening President Vladimir Putin and vowing to wage war in Russia's restive North Caucasus. A Message to Putin A video released by Al Arabiya and reportedly filmed in a seized airport in the Syrian province of Raqqa features an Islamic State fighter seated in a military jet, saying: "This message is for you, Vladimir Putin! These are the aircraft you sent to Bashar [Assad], and we're going to send them to you. Remember that!"

Russian security officials are hunting for three more young Muslim women — so-called “black widow” terror suspects — who they believe are planning to target the final stages of the Olympic torch relay with suicide bomb attacks. Wanted posters distributed by police say that the women have been dispatched by underground groups to attack between Tuesday and Thursday in Rostov-on-Don, where the torch is expected to arrive Wednesday on its way to the Olympic city of Sochi.

Russia faces a New Year security nightmare after the second devastating suicide bomb explosion within 24 hours, this time on a rush hour trolley bus in Volgograd. The latest blast killed at least 14 with 28 wounded, some severely. A day earlier, an explosion reported as being detonated by a female "black widow" suicide bomber saw 17 killed and dozens wounded in the city's main railway station. The latest explosion was said by law enforcement officials to have been caused by a man detonating a bomb in a crowded trolley bus packed with early morning commuters. At least 14 people...

Vladimir Putin has vowed to pursue terrorists to “total annihilation”, in his first public comments since the Volgograd suicide bombings. In his traditional New Year's Eve address, which was broadcast at midnight from the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, (5pm in Moscow), he praised Russia’s unity in the face of both terrorism and natural disasters and promised to continue an unrelenting fight against the bombers. “In the past year we have faced problems and serious challenges including the inhuman terror attacks in Volgograd and unprecedented disasters in the Far East,” he said. “Dear friends, we bow our heads in memory...

At least 10 people have been killed and 10 others injured in an explosion on a trolleybus in the Russian city of Volgograd, Russian media report. The blast comes a day after 17 people died in a suicide bomb attack at the central station in the city. Security has been tightened at railway stations and airports across Russia. Moscow is concerned militant groups could be ramping up violence in the run-up to the 2014 winter Olympic Games in the city of Sochi. The Olympic venue is close to Russia's volatile north Caucasus region. Volgograd lies about 900km (560 miles) south...

At least 14 people were killed and scores were wounded Sunday by a female suicide bomber at a railway station in southern Russia, officials said, heightening concern about terrorism ahead of February's Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack in Volgograd, but it came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for new attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Sochi Games.

A suspected "Black Widow" female suicide bomber attacked a bus in the southern Russia city of Volgograd today, not far from Sochi, the site of the February 2014 Winter Olympics. The attack is the first such incident in the region in over a year. According to Russia's Federal Investigative Committee, a 30-year-old Dagestani woman named Naida Asiyalova boarded the bus at a stop, then detonated shortly afterward in an explosion that killed at least six people and wounded 32 others. There are thought to have been about 40 people on the bus. Identity documents found near the blast site indicated...

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A tense standoff between Russian authorities and attackers who seized at least 100 hostages -- possibly as many as 400 -- at a school in southern Russia continued Thursday with little progress reported. Four people were killed in the initial attack. Hundreds of armed troops have surrounded the school in the town of Beslan, near the troubled Russian republic of Chechnya where rebels and Russian forces have battled each other for a decade.

If Chechen extremist groups were in any way associated with last week's Boston Marathon bombing, investigators will, in hindsight, see a path littered with warning signs -- which could lead them to the doorstep of one particular extremist group.

Chechen Group Behind Beslan Claims Attack Kadyrov Vows To Wipe Out Islamic Militants June 29, 2009 MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Chechen rebel group behind the 2004 Beslan school massacre has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing last week that badly wounded the president of Russia's southern region of Ingushetia.

MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) - A court in south Russia has banned as “extremist” a book entitled “How to Accept Islam,” officials said on Tuesday. The Krasnoyarsk district court ordered all copies of the book to be confiscated and destroyed. Investigators, citing linguistic experts, said the book, by Muhammad Suleiman Ashkara, encouraged religious hatred. The court said the book was discovered during a May 2011 raid at the Krasnoyarsk home of a man suspected of links to an extremist Islamic organization.

Moscow, March 12, Interfax - The Russia`s Council of Muftis has asked General Director of the Russian Public Television, Anatoly Lysenko, to reserve at least 15% of air time for Islamic-themed programs. "Muslims currently account for at least 15% of the country's population. And we think that at least 15% of the air time of the Russian Public Television, which is being created, should be dedicated to programs and films on various aspects of the Muslim community's life," the Izvestia newspaper said on Tuesday citing a letter of Ravil Gainutdin, chief of the Council of Muftis, to Lysenko. Otherwise, the...

Until recently traditional Muslims and Salafists lived harmoniously side-by-side in Tatarstan. No longerFOR years Tatarstan was held up as a model of stability and tranquillity as the Muslim-majority republics of the Russian north Caucasus became embroiled in a separatist conflict that spawned a still-continuing civil war along religious lines. More than half of Tatarstan’s 4m people are Sunni Muslims who have long enjoyed friendly relations with the rest of Russia. Kazan, the regional capital on the Volga river 450 miles (724km) east of Moscow, is a prosperous and attractive city. That sense of calm has changed since July, when assassins...

A "Black Widow" suicide bomber planned a terrorist attack in central Moscow on New Year's Eve but was killed when an unexpected text message set off her bomb too early, according to Russian security sources.

Blast in Moscow Metro Kills at Least 25 Reuters At least 25 people were killed in an explosion that rocked the Lubyanka metro station in central Moscow on Monday, Itar-Tass news agency reported. MOSCOW -- At least 25 people were killed in an explosion that rocked the Lubyanka metro station in central Moscow on Monday, Itar-Tass news agency reported. At least 10 people were wounded in the blast, it said, quoting the Emergencies Ministry.

Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Russian investigators combing two subway stations attacked by female suicide bombers think Chechen rebels may have been behind the rush-hour strike that killed dozens of people.

MOSCOW — Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow's subway system as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers Monday, killing at least 37 people and wounding 102, officials said. The head of Russia's main security agency said preliminary investigation places the blame on rebels from the restive Caucasus region that includes Chechnya, where separatists have fought Russian forces since the mid-1990s. The first explosion took place just before 8 a.m. at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB's main...

Two female suicide bombers have blown themselves up aboard packed underground trains at the height of the rush hour in Moscow this morning, killing 38 people and leaving an estimated 65 injured, according to the Russian security service. President Dimitri Medvedev is due to reassure the nation in a television address later today, pledging no let up in the war against terrorism and promising a security crackdown on public transport. The first blast came at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow at around 8am (0400 GMT), killing 24 people. The station is deep below the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security...