Dagestan

The Republic of Dagestan (/dɑːɡᵻˈstɑːn/ or /ˈdæɡᵻstæn/; Russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respublika Dagestan), also spelled Daghestan, is a federal subject (a republic) of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea.

With a population of 2,910,249, Dagestan is very ethnically diverse and Russia's most heterogeneous republic, with none of its several dozen ethnicities and subgroups forming a majority. Largest among these ethnicities are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgian, Laks, Azerbaijani, Tabasaran and Chechen. Ethnic Russians comprise about 3.6% of Dagestan's total population. Russian is the primary official language and the lingua franca among the ethnicities.

Dagestan has been a scene of Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, and ethnic tension since the 1990s. According to International Crisis Group, the militant Islamist organization Shariat Jamaat is responsible for much of the violence. Much of the tension is rooted in an internal Islamic conflict between traditional Sufi groups advocating secular government and more recently introduced Salafist teachers preaching the implementation of Sharia in Dagestan.

List of minor planets: 2001–3000