In another indication that Russia’s North Caucasus insurgency is spreading to Tatarstan, a Tatar separatist leader has claimed responsibility for a November rocket attack on a petrochemical plant in Nizhnekamsk in Tatarstan, and has threatened to carry out further attacks against Russian petrochemical interests.

The claim of responsibility for the attack came in a video message sent to Russian-language pro-jihad sites including Kavkaz Center.

Russian media sources said that rocket attack took place on November 16. Security authorities in Tatarstan reported that they had opened a criminal investigation into the discovery of an improvised explosive device in Nizhnekamsk’s Industrial Zone in Nizhnekamsk. The authorities said that unidentified assailants had launched a rocket toward the Nizhnekamskneftekhim petrochemical company. The rocket did not reach the company building, however, but landed on penal colony number 4, where it did not explode. rocket explosion happened. During the investigation, a rocket launcher was found in the Industrial Zone.

In his video message, the Amir of Bulgaristan, Abdullah, says that the rocket attack was planned well in advance and that his group of Mujahideen had plotted attacks on Russian territory for over a year. The group wanted to attack petrochemical interests as well as infidels.

The Russian security authorities, Abdullah says, cannot fight against the group who are “active on all Russian territory”.

Abdullah then addresses the “infidels”, saying that the group will attack them as they are attacking “innocent Muslims”, and threatens to carry out fresh attacks including against the petrochemical pipelines, and against the oil and petrochemical industry.

“We see you, but you don’t see us, because we operate in the shadows and in dead of night. There’s nothing you can do against us. You don’t have that kind of strength,” he adds.

Map showing the location of Nizhnekamsk:


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There is increasing concern in Moscow over the growth of radical Salafist thought in Tatarstan. The Russian Spiritual Administration of Muslims has said that Nizhekamsk, along with the city of Almetyevsk are “the first and the second capitals of Tatarstan Wahhabism”.

Earlier this year, the Central Asia Caucasus Analyst noted that, over the past decade, “local and federal authorities have increasingly reinforced their control over Muslim mosques and communities, pushing Tatar and Bashkir Salafis out of the public space into little cells on the periphery of towns. Instead of open gatherings in the mosques in Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, Naberezhnie Chelny and elsewhere, which was the case in the 1990s and partially also in the 2000s, the adherents of Salafism now usually meet for prayers and social activities in local private prayer rooms, dozens of which are scattered across Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. This, in turn, has somewhat complicated the control over Salafi communities in these republics.”

Also contributing to radicalization has been the “inflow of militant Salafis from Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, as well as some Central Asian republics (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan)”, which has “recently boosted local Salafi communities.”