The Foreign Service Journal, April 2007

A P R I L 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 39 n August 1998, soldiers from Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs (known as the MVD) killed a group of six Muslim radicals hiding on the outskirts of Nalchik, the capital of the Russian republic of Kabardino- Balkaria. At the hideout, investigators found plans for the establishment of an Islamic state in the region. Several days after this incident, unknown attackers fired shots at the MVD building in Nalchik. In response, the MVD conducted a regionwide manhunt, including searches of several mosques. As if going out of their way to offend religious Muslims’ F O C U S O N R U S S I A R USSIA C ONFRONTS R ADICAL I SLAM C OMING TO TERMS WITH ITS M USLIM MINORITY IS LIKELY TO BECOME A LARGER AND MORE DIFFICULT PROBLEM FOR THE K REMLIN IN THE FUTURE . B Y D MITRY G ORENBURG I Ben Fishman