Radical Islamists in the publications of the central press during the Dagestan campaign of 1999

The article examines the image of radical Islamists, which was created in the publications of the largest domestic periodicals during the military operations in Dagestan in August–September 1999. The author analyses front-line reports and interviews with high-ranking military leaders published in such central newspapers and magazines as Nezavisimaya gazeta, Trud, Izvestiya, Kommersant, Echo planety, Novoe vremya and some others. Among the sources, there are both serious analytical broadsheets and tabloids. The author also pays attention to the regional press, for example, the Yaroslavl periodicals Karavan-Ros and Yaroslavskie novosti. These publications delivered valuable information on the ideology of the enemy, their weapons and equipment, and the war crimes they committed, and also reflected the attitude to the militants of the Russian soldiers and policemen who opposed them. The detachments of militants who opposed the federal forces and the Dagestani law enforcement officers appeared in these reports as cruel religious fanatics, intolerant of the bearers of any other ideology, ready to impose it on other people by force. At the same time, following military and law enforcement officials, Russian journalists were forced to recognize high combat qualities of the enemy, their perseverance and steadfastness in battle. Most of the pieces mentioned the fact that the rebels possessed a large number of modern weapons, both domestic and foreign-made, and also said that they had developed professionally competent in-depth defense. The author draws a conclusion about the antipathy of Russian reporters to the rebel combat units and identifies the reasons for the change in the attitude of the media towards them in comparison with the First Chechen War of 1994–96. In those years, journalists condemned military actions of the federal forces in the Caucasus, but in 1999 they supported the operation in Dagestan and considered Islamic radicals as ordinary bandits.