Islamist rebel leader Doku Umarov gestures in this still image taken from undated video footage.
On Jan. 15, Russia's state news channel reported the death of Doku Umarov, the country's most wanted terrorist. It didn't say how he died, nor did it seem to care that the only source of this information was a rumor spreading through a village in Chechnya. The news was just too good not to broadcast. But it turned out to be very wrong. In the past three days, Umarov has released two of his trademark videos, claiming to be the mastermind behind the suicide blast that killed 36 people in Moscow's largest airport last month. His propaganda war — and possibly his wider insurgency against the Russian state — looks to be more alive than ever.
Compared to his previous videos — short, monotonous clips that follow almost every bombing in the Russian heartland, even if he had no connection to the incident — Umarov's latest offerings suggest a much more quick-witted approach to information warfare. In the first, undated video, which was posted on the Islamist website Kavkazcenter.com on Feb. 5, he shifts away from his usual tack of defending the Muslims in Russia's North Caucasus region. Instead Umarov tries to play on the fears of Russia's broader Muslim community, which in December became the target of a massive race riot in Moscow. "[Russians] have turned on the Muslims who have no choice but to live in Russia, to live in Moscow...and have started attacking them in huge numbers," he says, from inside what looks like a concrete bunker. "Today we are forced to answer this lawlessness."
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2047079,00.html#ixzz1DQwWyDaJ
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