Hunt for Heroes

Ruslan Yamadayev was shot dead in Moscow

In Moscow last night, 46-year-old Ruslan Yamadayev was shot dead - Hero of Russia, retired colonel of the Russian army, former State Duma deputy, former “brigadier general of Ichkeria,” former deputy military commandant of Chechnya. The attempt on his life was made around 5:15 p.m. on Smolenskaya Embankment, in the area of ​​house No. 10, just a few hundred meters from the Government House. According to preliminary data, when Mr. Yamadayev stopped at a traffic light in his Mercedes in front of the British Consulate building, an unknown person approached the car and shot him through the window with a submachine gun. Ruslan Yamadayev died on the spot. The former military commandant of Chechnya, retired Colonel General Sergei Kizyun, who was riding in his car, was also seriously wounded. The criminal managed to escape safely.

The leadership of almost all special services gathered at the scene of the emergency yesterday - the murder of Ruslan Yamadayev was not only, by all indications, ordered and carefully planned, but also, taking into account his personality, could have a serious political nature. Ruslan Yamadayev was known as the leader of one of the most influential clans in Chechnya since the time of the first Chechen campaign, who played a significant role in the victory of federal forces over the separatists. And recently, the name of the Yamadayevs has been constantly heard because of the conflict that flared up between members of this family and the President of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

One of Ruslan's brothers - also Hero of Russia, Lieutenant Colonel Sulim Yamadayev - until recently headed the Vostok battalion stationed in Chechnya , which reports directly to the Ministry of Defense and the GRU. Last spring, the Chechen authorities first took the initiative to disband this unit, accusing its fighters of crimes against civilians, and then began to openly accuse both Sulim himself and his brothers. The Yamadayev brothers, in turn, accused Ramzan Kadyrov of illegal actions against them, saying that the head of Chechnya simply wants to drive them out of the republic as political competitors. According to one of the brothers, Ruslan has been receiving constant threats lately, and allegedly the brothers even managed to stop several assassination attempts that were behind his political opponents.

Due to the death of Ruslan Yamadayev, this conflict will naturally only intensify. Although now the positions of his clan were greatly weakened - Ruslan, according to unofficial information, was considered a “political figure” and the “brain center” of the family. And his brothers have been in trouble lately - Sulim has been removed from command of the Vostok battalion, and in Chechnya they are trying to open a criminal case against him, the other, Badruddi, is already in prison.

What makes this high-profile murder even more scandalous and political is the fact that this is not the first case of the mysterious death of an influential person in Chechnya who was openly in opposition to Ramzan Kadyrov. In November last year, also in the center of Moscow , the former commander of the operational combat group “Mountaineer”, subordinate to the FSB, Movladi Baysarov, was shot . He was also shot almost in broad daylight, only this happened, according to the official version, during an attempt to resist his arrest by officers of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, who exactly shot Baysarov remains unknown - although a criminal case into his death was opened, it did not end in anything.

Most likely, in connection with the death of Ruslan Yamadayev, officials will not announce any specific versions of the assassination attempt, especially of a political nature, limiting themselves to statements traditional in such cases that all possible options are being considered. At the same time, even the options of murder based on personal hostility or the elimination of a competitor for commercial reasons will, in principle, seem unlikely, but still acceptable - the Yamadayev brothers have previously repeatedly found themselves in various criminal and near-commercial scandals.

Yesterday, investigators and experts continued to work at the scene of the murder of Ruslan Yamadayev on Smolenskaya Embankment until late evening. According to preliminary data, the attack on Ruslan Yamadayev occurred around 17.15, when he drove past the British Consulate building in his Mercedes 500 and stopped at a red traffic light. Where he was coming from and where to was not reported. According to one of Mr. Yamadayev’s relatives, he was returning after an important meeting with one of the senior officials of the Russian Presidential Administration. And this is supposedly why General Kizyun was in the car with him. According to unofficial information, Mr. Yamadayev’s Mercedes was armored. Apparently, the criminals were watching him and seemed to take advantage of the fact that Mr. Yamadayev slightly opened the window.

Information appeared that there were two criminals and both of them were wearing gauze bandages on their faces. Approaching Mr. Yamadayev’s car, the killer, according to unofficial information, opened fire on him through an open window with a submachine gun, which investigators believed was a “Kedr” brand. In total, about 20 bullets were fired, almost the entire clip.

Mr. Yamadayev died immediately. General Kizyun, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was wounded in the chest and arm and was sent to the hospital in serious condition. The criminals, according to unofficial information, fled in an Audi 80 car. The search for them did not yield any results. Perhaps more detailed details of the assassination attempt will become known today, after interviewing all witnesses and studying security cameras from surrounding houses.

None of the representatives of the special services yesterday dared to express any versions, which was quite understandable. In recent months, the Yamadayevs' surname has been heard exclusively in connection with their conflict with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov over the Vostok battalion . As far as is known, not very friendly relations between them began to develop several years ago - it was assumed that Mr. Kadyrov was dissatisfied with the fact that the Yamadayev brothers lay claim to a separate political role in the republic and, at the same time, command a “security” unit that is actively operates in the republic, but is in no way subordinate to him. This conflict entered the open phase in April of this year, after a column of Vostok fighters led by one of the Yamadayev brothers, Badruddi, did not pass Mr. Kadyrov’s motorcade on the road. Soon after this, local police units were brought to the site of the main Vostok base in Gudermes, which actually blocked the battalion. At the same time, a number of clashes occurred between Vostok fighters and police officers, several people died, and the Chechen authorities and the battalion leadership made mutual accusations. Mr. Kadyrov’s press service also began disseminating information that the battalion’s fighters, having “realized the criminal nature” of their commanders, began to leave en masse. The battalion said that Vostok employees were forced by threats and blackmail to write denunciations against their commanders. Soon Badruddi Yamadayev was put on the wanted list - it turned out that he should have been in a colony (in 2003 he was sentenced to 12 years for attempting to assassinate a Moscow sanitary doctor), but instead he was in the custody of Vostok.

A few weeks later, the conflict, which the senior leadership of the Ministry of Defense had to sort out, seemed to be resolved. However, already in the summer, the Chechen authorities made new accusations against the Vostok battalion, its commander Sulim Yamadayev and his brothers. Personally, Mr. Kadyrov in August announced the initiation of a criminal case against Sulim - the local prosecutor's office allegedly found witnesses to how he participated in the kidnapping of a local resident back in the late 90s. At the same time, it was announced that he and his brothers could be involved in other serious crimes. A little later it became known that Sulim Yamadayev was removed from the command of Vostok, and he was even put on the wanted list. Recently, however, the search was canceled because it turned out that Sulim was living quietly in Moscow, where he was undergoing treatment.

Ruslan Yamadayev actively commented on all these events, calling the claims and accusations from the head of Chechnya against his family members “nonsense and nonsense.”

According to one of the brothers of the deceased, Issa, Ruslan Yamadayev recently left politics and was exclusively engaged in family and raising children. According to him, yesterday Ruslan, at the moment when he was attacked, was returning from the Kremlin administration, where he was supposed to meet with a responsible official. “Although Ruslan left politics, he was very worried about the Vostok battalion, which he created together with General Kizyun,” said Issa. - The conversation should have been about the affairs of the battalion. Recently, cases have become more frequent when they tried to lure fighters from this unit with promises or threats to units controlled by the current President of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. And although everyone who wanted to betray had already left, attempts to influence the fighters did not stop. There have been more threats lately.”

Threats against both Ruslan Yamadayev and his brothers, according to Issa, have been received constantly recently. Thus, one and a half to two months ago, according to him, two cars with close relatives of Wahhabis who died in clashes with fighters of the Vostok battalion were sent from Chechnya to Moscow. Their task, according to Issa, was one - to kill the older Yamadayev brothers. The family passed this information on to the FSB and the GRU of the Ministry of Defense, but there was allegedly no reaction. Moreover, according to Issa, security at the house of Ruslan’s parents in Chechnya, which was traditionally carried out by Vostok fighters, was recently removed.

Yamadayev Ruslan Bekmirzaevich - was born on December 10, 1961 in Gudermes of the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, after graduating from school he worked on construction sites in Gudermes, the Perm State District Power Plant, and on the development of virgin lands of the Kazakh SSR. After Dudayev came to power in Chechnya, he commanded units of “independent Ichkeria” and received the rank of “brigadier general.” Since 1997, Yamadayev began to actively oppose the political and religious extremism of some field commanders supported by Maskhadov. In 1998, he supported his relative, the Mufti of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, and took the side of the federal authorities. Since 1999, Yamadayev led the people's militia. In November 1999, the Yamadayev brothers transferred Gudermes to the control of federal forces without a fight. After this, his militias, together with federal forces, actively participated in special operations to destroy separatist gangs.

In September 2001, being the deputy military commandant of the Chechen Republic, he repeatedly headed operational combat and search operations. From 2002 to 2003, he was the head of the Central Executive Committee of the United Russia party, the regional executive committee in the Chechen Republic. In 2003, he graduated from the Institute of Management and Business in Makhachkala with a degree in jurisprudence. From December 2003 to 2007, he was a deputy of the State Duma of the fourth convocation, a member of the Committee on International Affairs, and first deputy secretary of the Political Council of the regional branch of the Chechen Republic of the Central Executive Committee of the all-Russian political party “Unity and Fatherland - United Russia”. In 2004, “For courage and heroism shown in the performance of official duty in conditions involving risk to life,” he was awarded the title of Hero of Russia by decree of the President of the Russian Federation. He held the rank of colonel in the Russian army. He was married and had three sons and two daughters.

The Vostok special forces battalion, which until recently was commanded by Sulim Yamadayev , is one of the centrally subordinate units that are designed to stay in Chechnya on a permanent basis. Structurally, it is part of the 42nd Army Motorized Rifle Division, while at the same time being part of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Ministry of Defense. The training of fighters is carried out by GRU instructors. The backbone of the Vostok battalion is formed by supporters of the influential Yamadayev clan, who were previously part of the second battalion of Maskhadov’s National Guard. However, in November 1999, the main part of this unit, under the command of Sulim Yamadayev, went over to the side of the federal troops. In March 2002, a special company of the military commandant’s office of Chchen was formed from among the supporters of the Yamadayevs, which was part of the mountain group of the Russian Ministry of Defense. In November 2003, the company was transformed into the Vostok battalion. Vostok's main base is located in Gudermes. The battalion's operations cover mountainous territory and the adjacent part of the plain in the Vedeno and Nozhai-Yurt regions in the south and south-east of Chechnya.

Official data on Vostok's strength has never been disclosed. According to unofficial data, the number of personnel in the unit ranges from 1.5 to 2 thousand. Most of them are Chechens. Most of them come from Gudermes.

There are also Russians serving in the battalion, including officers and all career GRU employees. All privates and officers of Vostok serve on a contract basis. “Vostok” is focused on conducting combat operations in particularly difficult topographical and climatic conditions of South-Eastern Chechnya, in addition, it is still one of the main sources of intelligence information on Chechnya for Russian military intelligence. Vostok fighters also took part in the fighting in South Ossetia in August of this year.

Victor PAUKOV, Eduard LOMOVTSEV