The withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya in 1996 created a power vacuum in the region, leading to the rise of various militant groups with separatist and Islamist agendas.

[7][8][9] Yarmuk was founded as a unit of around 30 Balkars and Kabardinians led by Muslim Atayev (Emir Sayfullah), which trained at the Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev's camp in Pankisi Gorge, Georgia.

Radical Chechen commander Shamil Basayev maintained close ties with the local Salafis, living in the town of Baksan for more than a month in 2003, before narrowly escaping a police raid.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Muslim communities in the region turned to religious identity for guidance, leading to the rise of groups like the Karachay Jamaat.

other key figures: By the late 1990s, the Karachay Jamaat had become a militant organization focused on resisting Russian rule and establishing Sharia law in the region.

A turning point came in December 2004, when Yarmuk members conducted a raid on the office of the federal drug control agency in Nalchik, during which they seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition.

The group went on to perpetrate two high-profile bombings: a blast at the Nalchik hippodrome that injured two ministers during May Day festivities and a sabotage attack on the Baksan hydroelectric power station that inflicted significant economic damage in July.

[23][24] Ruslan Baryrbekov (also using the Nom de guerre Amir Khamza) briefly became leader before being killed in September 2012 when Khasanbi Fakov became emir.

• The Karachay Battalion played a direct role in combat during the Second Chechen War (1999-2009), launching attacks on Russian troops and government installations.

The attacks were a pivotal moment, as they contributed to the start of the Second Chechen War and greatly intensified the Russian government’s response to the North Caucasus insurgencies.

The violence shocked the Russian public and demonstrated the far-reaching capabilities of North Caucasus insurgents to carry out mass-casualty attacks far beyond their home regions.

This bombing showed the Jamaat’s reach beyond the North Caucasus, striking at the heart of Russia’s capital and causing mass civilian casualties.

• Local businesses and officials who refused to comply with the Jamaat’s demands for protection money or support were often attacked, with bombings or arson targeting their properties.

For example, Russian forces frequently targeted militants hiding in the mountainous regions, leading to heavy firefights and casualties on both sides.

Despite the decline in violence, the insurgency left a lasting impact on the region, fueled by radical ideology and involvement with foreign jihadist networks.

[36] In September 1999, Gochiyaev and his accomplices Adam Dekkushev, Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, Denis Saytakov and others organized a series of explosions of residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk .

This series of terrorist attacks was organized and financed by the leaders of the illegal armed group " Islamic Institute "Caucasus"" – Khattab and Abu Umar.

[37][38] The terrorist attacks were aimed at massive loss of life and disruption of public safety, intimidation of the population and influencing the decision-making of authorities to eliminate the consequences of the militant invasion of Dagestan in August 1999.

[37] On July 12, 2002, the Stavropol Regional Court found Arasul Khubiev guilty of committing terrorist attacks and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Some were caught in June 2001 by police from Kabardino-Balkaria, when militants tried to cross the Russian- Georgian border to get into the Pankisi Gorge to the location of the bandit group of field commander Ruslan Gelayev.

On September 26, 2002, the visiting session of the Stavropol Regional Court in Pyatigorsk issued a verdict against Khyzyr Salpagarov, Ramazan Gochiyaev and Eduard Kharatokov, who were the leaders of the jamaat.

[44] An explosive device with a capacity of 2.9 to 6.6 kg in TNT equivalent was detonated by a 20-year-old resident of the village of Uchkeken in Karachay-Cherkessia, Anzor Izhaev;[45] the bomb was in his backpack.

[47] At about 8 pm on August 31, 2004, a suicide bomber tried to enter the Rizhskaya metro station in Moscow, but after she saw the police officers on duty at the entrance, she turned around, walked a few meters and detonated an explosive device in a crowd of people.

[48][49] The organizers of the terrorist attacks, Tambiy Khubiev, Murat Shavaev and Maxim Panaryin, who made explosive devices in rented apartments in Moscow, were arrested in May 2005.

The insurgency in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia officially ended in 2017, following a series of successful counterinsurgency operations by Russian security forces.

However, sporadic incidents of violence and unrest continue to occur in the region, highlighting the ongoing challenges of maintaining stability in the North Caucasus.