Developing a knowledge hub for Russian security professionals
The world of sub-state security in Russia is reasonably quiet at the moment. So I wanted to take advantage of the lull to explain what I’m currently developing — and why it will hopefully be of interest to you!
The core idea is this: To create a knowledge hub for professionals working on sub-state security issues (i.e. terrorism & insurgency, private military companies (PMCs), and state-linked security services) in Russia.
Before I explain what this might consist of, let me say: If you have ideas for what it should contain, hit reply and let me know. The whole point is for it to be useful to you!
I’m early in the design, but I have loads (I think the technical metric is ‘shit ton’) of data on every conceivable aspect of Russian security. And it has always bugged me that it just sits there, slowly accumulating, when it could be useful to so many people.
The solution that I’m envisioning is a knowledge hub, with all sorts of different data collated and organised in such a way that it’s easy to access and use — whether you want to know about a particular issue, find data to answer a question, or kick-start a new project. There will be an emphasis on the practical (I have a tendency to overcomplicate and overthink things — keeping that tendency in check is very much on the agenda!). If you’re familiar with Thiago Forte’s ‘second brain’ concept, think of a second brain for Russian security professionals.
What would it contain? Here are some of my current ideas:
- Data on insurgent and terrorist violence in the North Caucasus, so you can see what the trends and patterns are.
- Key information on individuals and organisations in the security sector, so you can understand who they are and where they fit in the wider system.
- Backgrounders on major events and topics, so you can quickly get an overview of historical and current issues.
- A catalogue of media reporting on key issues, tagged so you can quickly access quality reporting on a topic and spot trends.
- Details on the key scholarly and grey literature around a topic.
- Analysis and emerging ideas on particular issues.
The knowledge hub would ultimately be a place you could go to when something happens or you want to start working on a new project, where you could quickly access high-quality information that suits your needs.
The real power of the hub, however, would come from the way all this information is interconnected. Data on people will link to the organisations they are involved in, which in turn will link to the incidents they have participated in. Information will not only have intrinsic value, but it’ll also be easy to use it as a building block for something bigger. It’ll also hopefully be easy to ‘walk around’ the data, so you can get inspiration for new topics.
This will take a while to build. There are two sides to the development: Technical and content. Technically, I think I have the solution, which will be built around Notion. It won’t be simple to set up, but it should be simple to use. I’ve already started building it and I know the back-end will be fine; it’s the front-end that needs figuring out, but I have a plan there, so fingers crossed.
Content, however, is where the heavy-lifting is required: I already have a lot of the data I want to bring together, but I need to restructure it within the hub. As such, I plan to launch the project in phases:
- Phase one: North Caucasus security hub. This will focus on terrorism and counterterrorism in the North Caucasus.
- Phase two: Sub-state security hub. This will expand the material to include information on PMCs and other sub-state actors beyond the North Caucasus. This is further down the line because much of the data I have requires a lot more processing to be hub-ready.
- Phase three: World domination. I jest, of course…But eventually I’d like to bring in more from the wider world of Russian security, such as pure state actors.
I don’t have dates for when this will all be ready. Indeed, the hub will never be truly completed, because the aim is to continually update it with new information. But I’m hoping phase one will be ready to launch by the end of the year. I also haven’t decided on pricing yet, but there will be a much-lower ‘founder’ price for those who join at phase one.
Excited? Then let me know! Ideas? Ditto :)
In the news
💣 Terrorism & insurgency
A man in Ingushetia attacked a security service post in Magas with a screwdriver. One policeman was wounded, while the attacker was killed in the incident. It is the first violent incident reported in the republic since a counterterrorism operation (KTO) was introduced in Karabulak in March of this year, and the first attack in the region involving a melee weapon for two years. Melee weapon attacks were much more common in the first few years following the collapse of organised insurgency in 2017, which testified to jihadism’s ongoing appeal but limited resources.
The Southern District Military Court sentenced a resident of Mineralnyye Vody, Stavropol Kray to 18 years on terrorism charges. Prosecutors accused the man of preparing a terrorist attack on a cinema and of supporting an unspecified international terrorist organisation. Components for an improvised explosive device were found during a search of his residence.
A court in Maykop, Adygea has ordered the arrest of a local resident who is accused of recruiting people to the Islamic State (IS). The man was detained at the end of August and will remain in detention for at least two months.
Security services in Stavropol Kray detained three men on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. The men were identified as two brothers, 21-year-old Dmitry Masenko and 18-year-old Pavel Masenko from Lysogorskaya, and Sergey Chikishov from Georgiyevsk. The relatives of the men deny their guilt.
🪖 Private military companies (PMCs)
A court in Omsk sentenced former Wagner fighter Sergey Kozlov to 19 years in prison on charges of murdering a pregnant woman. According to prosecutors, Kozlov beat the would-be mother of his child to death while drunk in October 2023. Kozlov was previously convicted of grievous bodily harm in July 2021, but was recruited from prison to fight with Wagner in Ukraine.
A military court in Khakassia sentenced 39-year-old former Wagner fighter Andrey Ashcheulov to eight years for murder. He reportedly shot a man in the head for commenting on his poor parking. Ashcheulov was sentenced in 2019 to 18 years two months for 11 instances of extortion, robbery, fighting, car-jacking, and threatening a local journalist. He was recruited from prison to fight in Ukraine.
🚔 State-linked security services
Zelimkhan Batukayev, a commander with the Spetsnaz Akhmat “volunteer” unit fighting in Ukraine, has threatened to seize the home of a Chechen opposition activist. Batukayev posted to Telegram a video of himself standing outside the activist’s house in Chechnya — which is currently unoccupied — and making the threats. Batukayev is a former convict and Wagner fighter.
In a sign of how the war in Ukraine has boosted his profile, Rossiyskaya Gazeta gave an interview with Spetsnaz Akhmat commander Apty Alaudinov the full front-page treatment. The prominence was probably more interesting than the content of the less-than-hard-hitting interview: Alaudinov, who has become a prominent spokesperson for the war, focused mainly on common themes from previous statements. Thus, he appealed to Russian national unity and patriotism; accused NATO of planning Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk Oblast; and portrayed himself as a good Muslim. Alaudinov also claimed his war “began in October 1994, on the day when [forces loyal to Chechen separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev] killed my father.” He blamed the United States for that too, rather than the Kadyrov family — which at the time was fighting on Dudayev’s side, not Russia’s.
SOS Severnyy Kavkaz has reported that the Chechen security services have forcefully deployed to Ukraine at least seven men who were detained for being homosexual. The security services threaten to fabricate criminal cases against them, send them to pre-trial detention centres, and make their sexual orientation known to their fellow prisoners — unless they agree to fight in Russia’s “special military operation.” SOS Severnyy Kavkaz has thus far documented the death of one of the men.