For more than a decade Moscow has been fighting an insurgency in the North Caucasus. The rebellion that started as a separatist movement has now taken on a distinctly Islamist tone and repeatedly resorts to terrorist methods. Although the large-scale “counter-terrorist operation” that began in 1999 and was declared to be over in 2009 claimed large numbers of victims on both sides of the conflict, an end to terrorism in the North Caucasus is not yet in sight.