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Maria Turchenkova / Reuters
A woman walks along a road in the settlement of Akhty in southern Dagestan, July 4, 2012. All photos made available to NBC News on August 31, 2012.
Maria Turchenkova / Reuters
Salafi preacher Abdurakhim Magomedov gives an interview at his house in the village of Novosasitli, July 13, 2012. Magomedov, a charismatic Salafi preacher whose video sermons are popular on the Internet, says that while Dagestan is not yet ready for jihad, its Muslim population must not live under secular law and Russian rule.
Reuters reports — Little girls in hijabs peek out of tin-roof houses and boys play at "cops and insurgents" in the narrow dirt streets.
At one end of the village of Gimry men are building a new, red-brick madrassa, one of many religious schools springing up across Dagestan, a region in the high Caucasus mountains on Russia's southern fringe, in the throes of an Islamic revival.
More than a dozen young men from the village have "gone to the forest" - the local euphemism for joining insurgents in their hideouts, says village administrator Aliaskhab Magomedov.
"It's a full-fledged jihad," he said. "They don't recognize my authority." Read the full story.
Maria Turchenkova / Reuters
Young men and boys pose for a picture in a street in the village of Gimry, July 9, 2012.
Maria Turchenkova / Reuters
Men build a new madrassa, a religious school, in the village of Gimry, July 9, 2012.
Maria Turchenkova / Reuters
Young Salafi women spend time at a public women's beach in downtown Makhachkala, Dagestan's capital, July 8, 2012. "Five years ago, there were no Islamic clothing shops. Now every other girl wears a hijab," said Fatima Ramzanova, 19, feet curled under her on the sand of a new women-only beach in a full, black Islamic dress she wears against her mother's wishes.
Maria Turchenkova / Reuters
A local resident shows her house, which was seriously damaged during a special antiterrorist operation conducted by the Russian military forces in a building nearby, in the town of Kaspiysk, July 10, 2012.
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With how poorly Russia treats its citizens, why is this a surprise? Look @ how Russia has handled its clashes in EVERY case to see why these folks view Russia as an oppressor.
Does anyone really think that Vlad Putis is a good guy? C'mon, he's really a meaner, crazier, most egocentric Joe Stalin. Tell him I said so too, I won't jump about to make him look tough like all his photo-ops! ;-)
I hold no brief for Stalin, Derek, but you have to be awfully young or awfully ignorant or both think Putin even begins to hold a candle to that killer. Putin's got many tens of millions of deaths to go before he even begins to crawl into Stalin's hole.
Have to agree with Vanderleun Derek, you really need to study history more, there is no comparison between those two leaders. Stalin was by far the more ruthless, even Hitler by comparison was a piker.
Russian history has always been brutal. The hard scrabble life of peasants to survive under Czars and other opressive rulers lead to the willingness to use any means to achieve their goals. Where do you think the soldiers come from? Those that were brutalized will return the favor when they have the power and means to do so. It is the only life the majority know.
Putin is an ex-KGB operator. Who in their right mind would ever trust such a human scoundrel. His consciousness is poor, obsolete, which helps to lower the collective consciousness of his homeland. Scoundrel. Russia is a divehole because of the scoundrels, the unnatural, and the inhumane. I feel terrible for those oppressed by the barbarians!!!
The only way to kill a insurgency is to be ruthless or give the population freedom, dont see Russia doing the later, unlike the US, Russia has shown it can be ruthless, and it has the resources to be ruthless. Wouldnt want to live as a Muslim in Russia today, those folks are looking at a very hard life.