Want to visit Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan and Balkaria

I think you are completely nuts to try this. I've been to Pakistan recently with my 4 small kids, but I'd draw the line at Chechnya.

Over most of the NE Caucausus, there are frequent police checks and extra papers are required. You can get these for Dagestan from a recognised tour company. For Chechnya they are more or less impossible to get; you may be able to get some accreditation as a journalist and then get followed around everywhere. Dagestan is famous for kidnap risk so don't imagine you can just wander around.

The outlook gets better as you head further West. Ingushetia and N Ossetia are both visitable; a good friend of mine recently visited Vladikavkaz without major problems, but he had good local connections (he's a chess player). However there are still loads of checkpoints everywhere. The best way to get past these is to take local public transport, marshrutka, and keep your head down. If the police spot a foriegner they wiull find some reason to detain you and won't let you go until you pay a fine, often around $100 per roadblock although if you speak good Russian you can haggle this down.

On the western side, Cherkassia, Elbrus, Sochi, Mineralnye Vody etc they are used to tourists and the police are just the usual corrupt incompetent drunnks you find elsewhere in Russia, not as bad as further east.

You may feel you are well prepared visiting Pakistan and Afghanistan, but that's not the case. Russian is completely different. For a start, its almost impossible to find English speakers, so if you don't speak Russian, forget it. For a second, there are blurred boundaries between police, the army and local militias all of whom act with impunity and outside Russian law under the pretence of anti-terrorist crackdown. As a foreigner, you may not have to put up with the beatings, rapes and arbitrary abductions that the locals in Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan continually endure from the army. But its still scary - these guys are supposed to enforce the law but in fact make things worse for everybody. If you are a victim of crime, forget any chance of help from the authorities - they probably tipped off your assailant in the first place that a foriegner was in town.

Andrew - a naive question: why can't they clean up things? It's not good for anybody and in my naivity I would think, just put better people on the top, get thugs where they are supposed to be and end of story. I am Russian by myself but I don't live in the country since a while, my family is Hungarian. I know "our" people, they are not difficult to deal with... given the proper approach or what.

Otherwise I would agree, I think about an other thing: there will be as you correctly wrote a complete lack of communication. IMHO a cheaper, much safer trip - but worth to practice are in deep, rural Russia northeast of Moscow. Absolutely no problem to get there, places like Rostov Veliki are of amazing beauty, accommodation cheaper than in Moscow by a magnitude, it's probably 4 hours from Moscow by train and I am 100% sure he will be the only American in 100 km radius. Who knows, maybe he will be the only English-speaking in 100 km radius. But it's nice, cheap and very safe. OP can pretend for himself he is in Caucasus and try to communicate. If he is successful.... than go further. If not, just use hand communication and say thanks to the karma, he is not in Caucasus!

What is Dagestan and Ingushetia like?

It is my understanding that parts of Dagestan are closed to foreigners because of local militias and kidnapping of civilians.

Why would you want to put yourself in that situation?

Ruth

Hi Rutgurt.
I am living currently in the North Caucasus. I am from Europe but i am working here for some months. Im in Pyatigorsk, to be precise and here in Stavropol is ok, a bit more of police control just to prevent but nothing else really. I know that to go to Osetia and Dagestan is also ok, but I think they are right when they say the pass to Inghushetia and Chechnya are closed to public, and just open to journalist perhaps. If you want to come to the Caucasus, you can always go to Stavropol, arriving to Mineralnye Vody (the same as i did) and from there to go to Dagestan or Kabardina Balkarea. Thats completely ok and i think it can be very interesting. Good luck!

#2 the reason they clean nothing up is that the impunity of the security services is payback for their unconditional support of Putin. In Russia, appeal to the law is pointless because of corruption and political interference in the judicial system. If you complain your family get beaten up or worse. While there is some press freedom, the television is effectively goverment controlled and does not report or investigate atrocities.

While Putin and his KGB cronies (including Medvedev) remain in power, none of this will get solved. On the other hand, the alternatives may be worse - the pervasive climate of fear, corruption and nepotism was a notable feature of communism and of the tsars before that.

Just as an addendum to this, I suggest giving Azerbaijan and Georgia a visit instead.

Both are lovely, and with I imagine much the same scenery as on the other side of the Caucasus, but without the kidnapping risk, which I agree is simply unacceptable for any traveller to flirt with.

It seems that everybody gave up visiting Dagestan and Chechnya (Chechenia) because of the civil war a couple of years ago. Regarding Dagestan i dont know how dangerous are the mountains but in today's news the only 7 deads were in....Wisconsin (!!!)in USA because of massive shooting!! In Dagestan nothing happenned . The most dangerous thing is ...the road traffic between Makhachkala and Derbent. I dont underestimate the possible criminal gangs in remote mountainous areas but in the big cities nothing happens. The biggest problemm is to find a hotel. There are few and not well marked ACADEMSERVICE in Moscou can book hotel in Makhachkala . In Derbent there is Hotel EVROPA.

Chechya is the big suprpise. The best roads in Russia the best houses even in the countryside and Grozny is the most shining city in entire Russia. Futuristic architecture like mini Dubai , de lux hotels and other unbeliavable things. The war helped to get rid from all the Soviet rubish and a new country has rebuilt. So the separatist rebels have no ground now among the Chechens. Again the mountans are a different story . I love to hear from somebody who will go there.