Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of August 19-25, 2024

Hostage-taking in a penal colony, fires in the Caucasus, persecution of pacifists and activists in Southern Russia, President Putin’s visit to the Caucasus, a ferry with diesel fuel sinks, and official data on the natives of Southern Russia who perished in Ukraine, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of August 19-25, 2024, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

Hostage-taking in penal colony No. 19

On August 23, in a penal colony No. 19 in Surovikino, prisoners took warders hostage. The attackers forced a wounded penal colony employee to record an appeal to President Putin asking him to fulfil their demands. Four natives of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan demanded a car and a submachine gun. They also demanded to release their leaders, convicted under terrorist and extremist articles.

Law enforcers assaulted the penal colony building, and all hostages were freed. Four warders were taken to hospitals, two of them in severe condition. There were 12 hostages in total, including eight warders and four convicts. Three penal colony employees were killed on the spot and one more died in the hospital, while the hostages from among the convicts were injured. Four of the prisoners who took hostages were killed.

Fires in Caucasus

A fire has been burning for a week at an oil depot in Proletarsk, where fuel caught fire in warehouses after the fall of drone fragments. The number of victims has risen to 47, and 15 of them have been hospitalized. Some residents of Proletarsk have left the city. Smoke from such s fire is dangerous to human health, ecologist Valery Brinikh notes.

On August 25, a forest fire in the area of the village of Sukko on the Black Sea coast covered 2500 square meters. The fire was not extinguished until the end of the day, as the situation was complicated by hot weather and strong wind. The preliminary version of the fire is careless handling of fire.

On August 22, a forest fire occurred in the Gonachkhir mountain gorge near the Dombay resort in Karachay-Cherkessia. The administration of the Teberda National Park has announced that the Gonachkhir gorge and Mussa-Achitarsky and Baduksky lakes are closed for tourists. Rescuers took 236 tourists out of the fire zone, and the people were evacuated to a temporary accommodation centre (TAC) in the village of Dombay.

A facility of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) caught fire as a result of the fall of drone’s fragments, the authorities of the Volgograd Region reported on August 22. According to the sources’ information, the fire occurred at the “Marinovka” military airfield. Drones were also noticed in Kalach-on-Don and the village of Oktyabrsky. Local residents reported that they also saw drones over the village of Golubinskaya. An airport in Volgograd was closed for the arrival and departure of aircrafts.

On August 19, it became known that a landfill near the village of Shashikuara had been burning for several days. Konstantin Piliya, the head of the Gali District, reported that the fire was caused by arson. It is extremely complicated to extinguish the fire with the available equipment, as the fire spots are located deep inside the landfill, the local authorities report. The smoke poses a threat to the health of villagers, an ecologist notes.

Persecution of pacifists and activists in Southern Russia

Dmitry Polyakov, a resident of Krasnodar, has been involved as a suspect in a criminal case on repeated discrediting of the Russian Army. On August 9, the police broke into the house of his relatives, and a PC was seized from a Dmitry Polyakov’s room. The man is not in Russia, human rights defenders report. The reason for the criminal proceedings against Dmitry Polyakov was his two pacifist posts on social networks.

President Putin’s visit to Caucasus

On August 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan for a two-day visit. He went to the home residence of Ilham Aliev, where an informal dinner was held with the participation of Mekhriban Alieva, a spouse of the President of Azerbaijan.

On August 8, Baku and Yerevan agreed to exclude the clause on unblocking regional communications from the draft peace treaty and postpone discussion of the issue. Armenia is seeking to achieve a peace treaty at any cost in the hope of containing the Azerbaijan’s ambitions, but excluding the communications issue from the peace agenda is a trap, Yerevan political analysts emphasize. The authorities of Armenia are sabotaging the agreement to unblock communications through the Zangezur Corridor, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov states.

The President Putin’s visit and the statements voiced by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed the allied relations between Russia and Azerbaijan and the importance for Russia of unblocking communications, Baku analysts believe. Russia is seeking to open communications through Armenia under its own control, while the President Putin’s visit may be connected with a discussion of financial issues with Azerbaijan, Yerevan political analysts suggest.

On August 20, Vladimir Putin visited Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, and Chechnya within a day. During the visit to Kabardino-Balkaria, the development of agriculture was discussed. In North Ossetia, the main topic was the 20th anniversary of the terror act in Beslan, and in Chechnya, President Putin visited, in particular, the Russian Special Forces University, which bears his name.

The President Putin’s visit to the three republics of Northern Caucasus pursued political goals, including the President demonstrating his support for the local elites, Russian political analysts believe.

Ferry with diesel fuel sinks

On August 22, a train ferry with tanks staying at the “Kavkaz” port caught fire after a drone attack. There were 30 tanks with fuel on the ferry. Seventeen crew members who left the ferry and got overboard were rescued. Four of them were hospitalized.

As a result, dozens of tanks sank at the port, which poses a significant threat to the environment. The situation is complicated by the fact that the local authorities do not disclose the type of fuel in the tanks, and therefore it is impossible to take measures to prevent the consequences for the environment, ecologists Valery Brinikh and Yevgeny Vitishko note.

Official data on natives of Southern Russia perished in Ukraine

By August 25, the authorities and the law enforcement bodies reported about at least 4769 residents of Southern Russia perished in Ukraine, including 2278 residents of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) and 2491 residents of the Southern Federal District (SFD).

In Dagestan, the authorities reported about 986 local residents perished in Ukraine, in the Volgograd Region – 906, in the Krasnodar Territory – 539, in the Rostov Region – 533, in the Stavropol Territory – 462, in the Astrakhan Region – 365, in North Ossetia – 304, in Chechnya – 207, in Kabardino-Balkaria – 159, in Kalmykia – 90, in Karachay-Cherkessia – 80, in Ingushetia – 80, and in Adygea – 58.