Dagestan's Football Dreams Our World

Dagestan, where a billionaire is trying to bring stability by

pouring his money into the Republic's football team. Young

people from Dagestan have got a new swagger in their step. Something is

restoring pride and hope to these downtrodden part of Russia. It is

football. The local team, and see, is being plucked from obscurity and

thrust into the international spotlight. -- Anzhi. Global stars

line the streets, inspiring people to dream. Pakistan is now the

epicentre of an Islamist insurgency. -- dagger star. Militants fight for

an Islamic state across the North Caucasus. In 1999, Vladimir Putin

bound to suppress the rebellion in the Muslim south. The pugnacious

prime minister was in Russia's President. Next week Vladimir Putin

is standing once more for the presidency. But with bombings and

assassinations here virtually every day, and attacks reaching as far as

Moscow, it seems that he is strong armed policy has failed. Clearly a

new approach is needed. Can soft power working said? -- instead.

Good football stars bring peace to this war-torn land? -- can football

Most Russians are too terrified to come to Pakistan, but tonight, the

premier mosque our club is in town, to play the resurgent star-studded

home side. -- Moscow club. Samuel Eto'o has signed to and see for a

reported 20 milk -- $20 million a year, making him the world's best

paid player. Roberto Carlos is the manager. -- Anzhi. The fans cheer

on the team. And four minutes in, Samuel Eto'o scores. It is just the

kind of morale booster that is needed in these volatile and very

violent Republic. Those that have poured millions into the team will

hope it is money well spent. But who is paying for all of this? It

is a local boy turned billionaire. He is called Suleiman Kerimov, and

he is the one bankrolling this football fantasy. The reclusive

oligarch is rumoured to have had his appeal Fenny when his Ferrari

crashed in 2006. -- his idea when his. He decided to invest in his

homeland. But what the fans think of the global shopping spree? It is

a place where most people are lucky enough to earn $300 a month.

TRANSLATION: It is his money. He can do what he likes with it.

Everything he is doing is for Dagestan, to support the Republic.

This helps to distract people from terrorism. It is not just about

football. Everything is connected. The Ecstasy wears off. The Moscow

side equalise and then score another four goals. As the mood

sours, I discover that the project is not without its critics. I see

eight banner berating fans for ignoring Islamic principles. The

men at next to it says that -- Subscribe to a growing Islam here.

TRANSLATION: Good footballers are coming to the Republic and that is

night. But we do not want football to be some kind of new religion. --

that is nice. TRANSLATION: The Republic is the poorest part of the

Russian Federation, but 20 million is spent per year on one player. It

is like watching the Gladiators in ancient Rome when the people were

starving. People are hungry year. They are being killed and we're in

the middle of a civil war and yet they sit and watch these spectacles.

Dagestan is in Russia's most troubled region, the largely Muslim

north Caucasus mountains. Since Russia's first checks men wore in

the mid-90s the violence has spread outwards. -- Chechnya. With

different ethnic groups, Dagestan is the largest and now the most

volatile republic in the Caucasus. For more than one decade it has

been torn between his there must rebels and those loyal to Moscow. -

- Islamist. You don't have to stray far from the football to see signs

of this escalating civil war. Just around the corner from the stadium,

I am being shown the site of the latest bomb blast. First a device

exploded outside a shop selling alcohol. Then what -- then there

was a second much more powerful last time it to coincide with the

arrival of the emergency services. One policeman and a child were

killed. 60 were injured. My guide is a counter-terrorist officer I

met at the match but he does not want to show his face. Government

officials and police are the main targets of the militants.

TRANSLATION: Many of our colleagues die on duty. Many mothers have lost

sons and wives have lost husbands. Children have lost their fathers.

What can we do? We have to fight this battle to the end. This

building is the centre of the fight against extremism. It is

extraordinary that we are being given the chance to coincide and

talk to the people who work here about their job. -- to go inside. I

asked my guide whether things are improving. TRANSLATION:

Unfortunately, it is not getting any better. They have become more

brittle and more cynical. They're just people who will do anything. -

- brutal. They have been sucked into the swamp and cannot get out.

Another officer shows me a recent example of the brutality. The story

of this man is particularly shocking. His father was a police

chief who was shot dead. Then when his wife, his sister and his

daughter went to put flowers on the freshly dug grave they were blown

up. The last remaining member of the family was killed as well not

The officer from the anti- extremism unit has agreed to show

me one aspect of his job, an education campaign designed to win

a young hearts and minds. The lecture hall at the university is

packed to the brim. The police officer tells them about a medical

student befriended online by rebels who later forced him to plant a car

bomb. As bait uproot Imam of lectures the students about the

Koran. -- state approved. He says it advocates peace. The students

listened dutifully. But I want to know how the conflict has affected

them. This young man witnessed a police special operation in his

neighbourhood. TRANSLATION: A close the road, told everyone to get out,

and went into a house where they killed three young men without any

warning or reason. It was very shocking to see the bodies of those

men in their early 20s. I asked why they think young people are taking

up arms. TRANSLATION: There is very little work and of course they all

need money and everyone wants freedom as well. Of course it is

not right, but... The Dean interrupts and asks the young woman

if she is a rebel sympathiser. TRANSLATION: no. Of course I do not

support them. Then it was the turn of the being hit the official

explanation. -- of the Dean of to give. TRANSLATION: There is a lack

of jobs and it is true there are not many factories left. But the

Almighty created work for everyone. You can work the land, and you can

The Dean's ideas seems at odds with the industrial landscape outside

the capital. This man is Suleiman Kerimov's right-hand man. He has

few illusions about how the system works. TRANSLATION: Clever people

finish their studies and discovered that the jobs have already been

sold, in medicine, industry, the state sector in particular. People

just cannot find work, said a leave the Republic. Pakistan has an

unemployment rate of at least 40% and terrible corruption. --

Dagestan. He tells me his boss Suleiman Kerimov wants to change

all of this. TRANSLATION: He wants the Republic to develop. He wants

there to be jobs and for talented people to succeed. He wants an end

to the war. That is what he wants. Welcome to new Caspian city. A city

of opportunity and of excellence. This is the promotion for his most

ambitious project, a brave new world near the capital. Over the

next few years the city will develop into a thriving, stable

metropolis, providing homes, jobs, education, healthcare and leisure

for hundreds of thousands of people. So far, Suleiman Kerimov's

Foundation has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in social,

health and education projects. Here on the plains, he is building a

huge factory which will export class as far as Central Asia and

Iran. The production line in this factory is deliberately low-tech to

provide more jobs for women, you may have four or five children to

support. -- who may have. Meanwhile, these young men have come for a

fitness test in the hope of getting a much coveted job as a security

He shows me the IS Stadium, another part of Suleiman Kerimov's in find

a strategy. He is finalising plans for another stadium for potential

use in Russia's 2018 World Cup. TRANSLATION: Football was just a

starting point. What that it -- what is going on is very bad. If

there were jobs there would be something. If I had no job, no food,

I may take up arms as well. I say that it seems to me that Suleiman

Kerimov is doing more than the Government. TRANSLATION: Indeed he

is. Everybody knows he is doing more than the Government. Take the

stadium, which was originally a government project. But nothing was

done. Now Suleiman Kerimov has bought it and it is being built

properly. The public funds were Sickened by entrenched corruption,

more and more people are drawn to new ideas and are rejecting the

mainstream. Football is no exception. At the league has 32

teams playing every Sunday morning. Their game is based on Islamic

inspired principles of self- discipline and restraint. Swearing

and fighting are not tolerated. There are no yellow or red cards,

and surprisingly, no referee. The league's cord and 80 is dismissive

of his money-driven model to. TRANSLATION: I do not like the

slogan. We live in the territory of Dagestan, which I would like to be,

the territory of Islam. There followed -- there followed a street

brand of Islam. He tells me that they aspire to a new social order

in Dagestan, one built on Sharia law. TRANSLATION: If we see a

brother kissing a woman or drinking, we discreetly remind him of where

he lives. I asked him how people react. TRANSLATION: Generally,

people react well. Believe me, if we had our way, you would not be

able to buy alcohol or tobacco here, and you would never find women who

walk around uncovered like you. What does he think about the people

who take up arms for the cause? These people have chosen a certain

path and will answer for what they do. If they are right, then there

awaits them of enormous prizes, hundreds of times greater than mine

for on -- than mine. Many do one of the jihadists. This man has been

killed in a shoot-out with police, and was praised on the internet as

a holy martyr. This attack took place in a supermarket selling

alcohol. After throwing everybody out and planting the explosive

device, these militants went on a shooting spree, killing a couple of

policemen before they were gunned down themselves. This is a deputy

agriculture minister. He can be seen walking past a garage in the

downtown, when a man sues him in broad daylight. -- shoots him. The

authorities struggle to respond to these attacks. Police are accused

of being heavy-handed, for making mistakes. The result is it more

bloodshed. I have come to investigate an incident in a

village three others from the capital. Few people have Topsy and

prospects are bleak. -- have jobs. This must have begun to attract a

new crowd of young believers. -- and this mosque. In May, during

Friday prayers, the building was surrounded by armed security forces.

Officers burst in and arrested 150 worshippers, including 15

schoolboys. He shows me evidence of abuse. The men and boys were all

taken to a police station where they were beaten, and some had

their hair torn out and their beards were shaved off. He said

that the village teachers are paid to be complicit. TRANSLATION:

Deeply summon the headmaster and his deputy to the police station.

Most teachers saw the badly bruised young men. They knew perfectly well

what was going on. The Head Master of was a sworn enemy of the people.

At this heated public meeting immediately after the invasion, he

claimed the young radicals would soon impose Sharia law on the

village and force all the women to wear veils. He denounced a reign of

terror in which pro secular teachers like him, had been

murdered. Little did he suspect that he would become the next

target. I head for the school and find one teacher who agrees to tell

me what happened to his boss on the night of July 9th, last year.

TRANSLATION: They shot him in his home. It was point blank range in

the face. His wife and son were watching TV. Who did it and why?

Nobody knows. He tells me that he is short that the militants kill

the school head. TRANSLATION: He was a victim of the extremist

movement. His speeches and insults were on the internet and everywhere

and the underground heard about it. I asked him about what he thinks

about what happened. A TRANSLATION: We do not think that murdering

people is the way to solve problems. That is not the way to bring about

justice. This war has been going on for 20 years. This man says he is

determined to stop it. He is an MP, and the architect of a new policy,

which seeks dialogue with the militants. He says there are

released 20 terraced websites targeting Dagestani youth. So he is

keen to show me how he is also familiar with new media, and how he

will beat the jihadists online and get the government's message into

cyberspace. TRANSLATION: No religion or ideology can justified

the explosions, terrorist acts and murders, today the caucuses,

Dagestani included, are being targeted by terrorist organisations.

They are deceiving young people, and making cannon fodder out of

them. We are offering ways for them to come back to their families.

even has invited some local bodies into his office. -- bloggers. It is

almost midnight. This kind of openness is rare in Russia. One of

the bloggers, she seizes the opportunity ask about the events.

He questions the bloggers authority to ask, though he is not a lawyer,

but he does concede that the investigation has stored and should

get moving. But I ask him whether some people are forced into the

woods by police abuse. TRANSLATION: With all the terrorist attacks, the

police have enough of their own problems. So this claim that they

had nothing better to do to walk the streets and beat people up for

no reason is just untrue. We have dozens of criminal cases. That

shows that the legal system is working. Maybe it is not as

efficient as it could be, but the reports coming, and they are always

looked into. But for many, that is not enough. This demonstration

shows how frustrated many young Dagestanis have become, prompting

some people to predict the onset of an Arab Spring over here. It may

not be Tahrir Square, but in these recent demonstration, nearly 4,000

came to denounce arrests and kidnappings by the security

services. Human rights groups estimate that last year, 160 men

were killed in police operations, 36 were abducted. He is also trying

to build bridges. He promises action, but the reception is

hostile. He pleads with the crowd to give Dialog a chance. He says

that together, they can bring the wrongdoers to account. The crowd is

asked whether they believe him. No, no, they shout. There is far more

sympathy for this man's view, that the state has failed, and only

Sharia law can deliver peace and order. Such scenes caused deep

alarm in the corridors of the Kremlin. Islam has been here since

the 7th century, and Dagestan remains one of the most religious

parts of the Russian Federation. Most Dagestanis reject the violence

endorsed by the insurgents, but with all the problems here,

tolerance is increasingly under siege.

Back at the stadium, young fans are watching a training session. They

boast to me that their team will sue been playing in Europe. -- will

soon be. Forepaw in Dagestan may be entering a golden age, and it is