Experts say that the mayor’s dramatic arrest in connection with a 2011 murder is part of a larger Kremlin crackdown on the anarchic Caucasus region ahead of the Sochi Olympic Winter Games.
By Fred Weir
Article Reprint
An elite commando squad from Russia’s FSB security service staged a military-style assault in downtown Makhachkala Saturday, using helicopters and armored vehicles to corner and arrest the strife-torn Caspian city’s powerful mayor, Said Amirov, and about a dozen of his men.