Experts do not treat Yuri Bitsuev as successor of Robert Zankishiev
Yuri Bitsuev killed in the special operation in Nalchik was neither the leader of Kabardino-Balkarian militants, nor the successor of Robert Zankishiev. This opinion was expressed by human rights defender Valery Khatazhukov and Forbes reporter Orkhan Djemal interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot". Yet in 2011, Yuri Bitsuev had nothing in common with militants, advocate Elena Bairamkulova reports.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 22, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) legal regime was twice introduced in Nalchik. According to the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC), in total, 14 militants were killed, and all of them were members of a local unit of the "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia and recognized as a terrorist organization.
The number of killed men included Yuri Bitsuev, who led militants in Kabardino-Balkaria after the death of Robert Zankishiev. This was reported by a source from the law enforcement bodies. According to him, one of three killed militants has been preliminary identified as "Yuri Bitsuev, the new leader of the local unit of the ISIL."
According to human rights defender Valery Khatazhukov, most of the militants, killed on November 22, had joined the armed underground relatively recently.
Orkhan Djemal, a Forbes reporter, has noted that Yuri Bitsuev really sworn allegiance to the "Islamic State"; however, "the militant received no specific assistance from the IS."
According to Akhmet Yarlykapov, Senior Researcher of the Centre for Ethno-Political Studies of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the absence of the militants' reaction to Yuri Bitsuev's swear to the "Islamic State" suggests that the armed underground is busy with solving its own local problems.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.