Authorities claimed to have killed four members of an Islamist militant cell, including leader Arsen Khandokhov, during a raid near Mount Elberus in Kabardino-Balkaria. Four security force members were killed in a shootout with militants in Dagestan. Apti Alaudinov, Chechnya’s First Deputy Interior Minister, told municipal authorities that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has given him virtually unbridled powers, including the use of summary executions and planted evidence, to crack down on Islamist extremists. Russia deployed short-range ballistic Iskander missiles in the western Kaliningrad area.
