Militants will be searched abroad
because they will not be extradited to the Russian Federation
The authorities of Dagestan have put 18 brigadier generals, lower-ranking commanders and fighters of the ideological front on the international wanted list. Many of them are now abroad, which became the reason for contacting Interpol. True, it is clear that Chechnya and the eastern countries that financed the aggression are unlikely to ever hand over the bandits. Moreover, they will give them money for a new war. And although the security forces say that they are ready for this, sources in the special services believe that it is better to destroy the militant leaders. But this requires a “court verdict in absentia.”

There were eighteen of them
The most famous of the eighteen criminals put on the wanted list are the brothers Shamil and Shirvani Basayev, Jordanian citizen Habib Abd el-Rahman Khattab, the leader of the Dagestan Wahhabis Bagautdin Magomedov, the chairman of the self-proclaimed government of the Islamic Republic of Dagestan Sirazhutdin Ramazanov and the famous poet in Dagestan, 67-year-old Avar Adallo Aliyev. The Dagestan prosecutor's office accuses them of organizing illegal armed groups, committing terrorist attacks and acts of aggression, murders, hostage-taking and a number of smaller crimes (the poet Aliyev did not do this himself, but ideologically inspired the bandits).
Currently, 1,600 criminals put on the federal wanted list are hiding in Chechnya. But those who are now wanted by Interpol were not among them. Except for Shamil Basayev.
Back in 1991, he hijacked a plane from Mineralnye Vody to Turkey, but soon, as the official version says, the Turkish authorities extradited him to Grozny. Basayev somehow managed to avoid prison. Moreover, in the presidential elections he competed with Dzhokhar Dudayev. He lost and went to fight in Abkhazia. Then he fought with Russia.
There are rumors that after the hijacking of the plane, Basayev was saved from prison by the GRU. Allegedly, it was there that he was taught all the intricacies of military affairs, hoping to become a tame field commander. A GRU agent became a field commander, but got away from his hands. After the Budennovsky campaign in 1995, the Prosecutor General's Office put Basayev on the wanted list as a terrorist. Since then they have been looking for him.
But, for example, the terrorist Khattab and the Wahhabi Bagautdin did not play hide and seek with the state. But now they are playing with all Interpol states at once.
Chechnya, of course, will never give them up. Although Maskhadov swears hatred of terrorists and bandits, he does not even control his own security forces. And this is about seven thousand people who, according to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, mainly carry out the decisions of field commanders.
There is, however, hope that the criminals will fall into the hands of the authorities of other countries. In Europe and America, terrorists are unlikely to be treated on ceremony, so, for example, Basayev, who from time to time flew to Switzerland, now most likely will not do this.
But there are countries of the East. And here everything is much more complicated.

He who pays hides
According to intelligence services, some leaders of oil-producing Arab countries have a vested interest in the constant tension around Chechnya. Calmness in the North Caucasus for them is fraught with loss of money, since new oil pipelines are planned to be laid in the region. And during the war, what kind of oil pipelines? Therefore, sheikhs, through third parties (like Osama bin Laden), sponsor Chechen militants. For the same reason, if something happens, they hide them for the time being.
By the way, in the village of Karamakhi, from which federal troops recently drove out the Wahhabis, dozens of brand new Russian foreign passports were found with different names, but with photographs of the bandits put on the wanted list yesterday. Some of them already have visas from Arab countries. And now, according to the Dagestan prosecutor’s office, many of the militants have gone abroad.
The intelligence services know that recently in the Pakistani city of Karachi the leaders of extremist Muslim organizations gathered and, under the leadership of a certain Sabbah Ali, discussed the situation in Dagestan and the financial problems of the Chechen bandits. And bin Laden seems to have already allocated $30 million to Basayev and Khattab. In addition, according to the Foreign Intelligence Service, about $20 million has been collected for militants in Jordan.
And they will collect more if necessary. Otherwise, why would Basayev ask the Afghan Taliban for “stingers” at $80 thousand apiece and recruit entire detachments of mercenaries in Turkey? In addition, good money was promised to militants from Kosovo and the Afghan Mujahideen.
Yesterday at a press conference, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Igor Zubov said that the Chechens in general “can field 25-30 thousand people. This number includes 5-7 thousand people who were trained in Khattab’s camps, and about 7 thousand people from the Chechen security forces ".
So rich sponsors (more precisely, investors) will not betray their clients. True, the prosecutor's office of Dagestan and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs do not lose hope that it is still possible to reach an agreement with the Middle Eastern countries. “There are certain levers that can be pulled,” they explain.

Sentenced
While the authorities are looking for leverage, the militants are preparing for a new invasion. They receive weapons and money through Azerbaijan. Russian authorities fear that aid to the bandits is also coming through the open section of the Chechen-Georgian border. As Zubov said, negotiations are now underway with the Georgian authorities to block this passage.
Zubov named Ingushetia and the Prigorodny region of North Ossetia as the main directions of new attacks by the Chechens. "The militants," said the deputy minister, "may also repeat the 'Budennovsky option' or blow up some hydraulic structure in the region." But, Zubov reassured, “Russia has enough strength and means.” You can even wage a war in Chechnya itself, although this is undesirable - there will be many casualties.
Another solution was suggested by ex-FSB director Nikolai Kovalev. In one of his interviews, he said that the Russian special services already have commando groups ready to destroy the leaders of the Chechen militants. But, he complained, “there is no command, that is, no order.” In principle, Kovalev explained, such actions “can be carried out by a court verdict in absentia.” True, this requires the political will of the country's leadership.

MAXIM J-STEPENIN

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 173 dated September 23, 1999, p. 1