Unknown gunmen attacked a troop-carrying Ural truck with personnel from Rosgvardia, Russia’s National Guard, near the village of Petropavlovskaya in the Groznensky District in Russia’s Chechen Republic at around noon on Oct. 24.
“Unknown people attacked a military convoy in the Grozny suburbs,” reported Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti, citing a spokesperson for the National Guard unit.
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“One serviceman was killed and a second was wounded. Measures are being taken to find and detain the attackers,” the statement added.
A local resident, speaking anonymously to RIA Novosti, described the attack as being rapid and well-coordinated with the attackers leaving before security forces responding to the incident arrived. Although the witness was unable to describe the gunmen or confirm the number involved, they indicated that there was more than one attacker.
After the series of bloody wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s that effectively wiped out rebel forces attempting to secede from Russia. Ramzan Kadyrov succeeded his father after the latter’s assassination in 2004 and became the leader of the country and has ruled for almost two decades.
Independent rights groups say that he effectively rules the region as his personal empire, securing huge financial giveaways from Moscow in exchange for his unwavering loyalty to President Vladimir Putin, which included providing troops to support the war in Ukraine.
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Rosgvardia has been heading internal security operations within the North Caucasus region, in the face of long-standing insurgencies and separatist activities – much centered on Chechnya.
Tensions in the region have been running even higher than usual after Kadyrov declared a blood feud on three politicians whom he said were responsible for plotting his assassination – Senator Suleiman Kerimov and State Duma Deputy Rizvan Kurbanov from Dagestan, and Duma Deputy Bekkhan Barakhoev from Ingushetia.
Kadyrov also accused the three of being involved in the September shooting in Moscow at the office of Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer. Vladislav Bakalchuk, husband of the company’s owner and a friend of Kadyrov, was held responsible for the attack during which two ethnic Ingush security guards were killed and seven other employees were wounded.
Chechen security forces have yet to identify who was responsible for Thursday’s ambush, but the Rosgvardia spokesperson said investigations are underway to determine if it is linked to ongoing security challenges in the region. They said that the region’s leadership had increased patrols and set up checkpoints in response to the incident.
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