One cannot be surprised that it would happen.
For generations the area has experienced conflicts between the Karachay, who are in the majority, and the minority Balkars. Often young men from Kabardino-Balkaria have been involved in terrorist incidents in recent years. The extremist organization "Jaruk" in the Balkars homeland is considered the inner core of recent terrorist conflict. The Chechen gang leader Ruslan Gelajev, who was later killed, supposedly founded this clandestine group in 2002. These terrorist fighters want to introduce the Islamic sharia law in the Northern Caucasus.
