Former Caucasian insurgents reintegrate into society
The Republic of Ingushetia is the smallest and youngest of the southern Russian republics. It’s seen several conflicts, anti-terror operations and retaliation in the past 20 years. Terrorists have been fighting to create an Islamic state in the North Caucasus, and young men increasingly find the cause attractive.
Some of them follow friends or relatives they look up to; others become radicalised through jihadi videos on social media and the internet. Recruits join the insurgents in their forest hideouts, or how locals call it, ‘going to the woods’. Meanwhile, families pray their sons will stay alive and soon come back.
RTD goes to Ingushetia to meet former terrorists and their families, who share their stories of separating and reuniting again. We also hear from those who lost children to ‘the woods’ or in counterinsurgency missions on the side of law enforcement.
