Date
Author
Отдел расследований «Новой газеты Европа»
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
The successor of the padishah. Part 4
As the commanders of the Wagner PMC, they went to serve in the Akhmat special forces, and how Kadyrov lost control of his most combat -ready unit
Autti Alaudinov with the fighters of the Kamerton Akhmat detachment. Photo: Kamerton_Press / Telegram
In anticipation of the change of power in Chechnya, the New Gazeta Europe continues the series about the political situation and the layout of forces in this very difficult Russian region.
In past episodes, we talked about Kadyrov’s diagnosis, about why doctors believe that his disease is incurable, as well as that it is well understood in the Kremlin. For several months now, the Presidential Administration has been working out possible scenarios in case of a change in the authorities in Chechnya and consider candidates for successors Kadyrov. In the previous series, we analyzed and appreciated the chances of the sons of the head of Chechnya, his other relatives and closest associates. In addition, we talked about the unknown details of the biography of one of the probable successors of Kadyrov Alaudinov and how two factors were in a key way: Putin’s war in Ukraine and the desperate desire of the head of Chechnya to preserve his personal army in this war. Today we will talk about how Apti Alaudinov managed to create the most combat -ready “Chechen” unit, how Ramzan Kadyrov became the sponsor of the “troops of Jesus” and, on what conditions, thousands of former mercenaries of the Wagner PMC crossed the “roof” of the Akhmat special forces.
Wagner prostate
On April 5, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, reported in his telegram channel about the transition of 3 thousand former “Wagnerians” to the 204th special purpose regiment of the Akhmat Ministry of Defense, also known as the Chechen special forces “Akhmat” under the command of Apti Alaudinov. In support of his words, Kadyrov published a joint video of Alaudinov himself and Ratibor himself (former commander of the 1st assault squad of the Wagner PMC Alexander Kuznetsov). The Z-patriots community to this news reacted extremely painfully and emotionally.
Only the lazy did not recall last year's conflict Prigozhin and Kadyrov. The conflict itself arose from scratch through the fault of the creator of Wagner. Kadyrov, on the contrary, tried to allow this absurd quarrel to the world, but he did not succeed in reassuring the "dear brother Zhenya", which, apparently, fell into a political corkscrew. Then the case reached the verbal duel in increased tones and between the closest associates of the head of Chechnya and the commanders of Vagner, including Ratibor, who neglected the State Duma deputy from Chechnya Adam Delimkhanov “Tick-Tok commander”.
After Kadyrov’s message about the transfer of Ratibors to the Akhmat, the Z-community immediately unclenched its idol from the hero to the traitors. The most sharply the assessment was formulated by the ALEX Parker Returns Z-blogger ( spelling and punctuation are preserved. - Approx. Ed. ): “Now Ratibrah on Chevron does not even have a flag of Russia, but only the Chechnya flag. Without the most promising politician ( Prigozhin. - Approx. Ed. ) Everything collapsed and actually all the musicians died on that ill -fated plane, although they did not fly there physically there. This is no longer a ratibor, but the Chechen litter, which betrayed everything that she did and believed in before. In the Third Chechen, which is inevitable - he will now shoot good Russian people. His act is only contempt ... "
In fact, there was nothing anomalous in the transition of the “Wagnerians” to the volunteer international unit “Akhmat” (Chechens there are twenty percent there). This process began before the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, and after the plane crash in which the entire leadership of the Wagner PMC died, it was only intensified. So, last October, Kadyrov announced the 170 “Wagnerians” who went to “Akhmat”. Alaudinov himself formulated this news a little differently: he announced the creation of the Cameron detachment in his division, which was fully consisted of fighters of the Wagner PMC. In the telegram channel “Camlon Akhmat” detachment there is a small video about combat training. Judging by the personnel, as well as in an interview published on Russia Today, the numbers voiced by Kadyrov were close to reality, and several Wagner PMCs and a certain number of ordinary fighters really joined the Alaudinsky Akhmat.
But more important is another. From an interview on Russia Today it is:
In order to get the “Wagnerians”, Apti Alaudinov allowed them to “preserve their structure that differs from the generally accepted, and approaches to conducting hostilities, <...> did not break what works like a clock ...”.
From the point of view of military science, which involves a strict hierarchy of military units, this design is absolutely unthinkable.
In February of this year, the TASS agency announced the transition to Alaudinov more than a thousand former Wagnerians and the formation of two more battalions from them as part of the 204th Akhmat regiment. This message went unnoticed, since it came out on the same day with the news of the death of Alexei Navalny, and the head of Chechnya himself, for some reason, decided not to boast of these achievements yet.
And in March, negotiations with Ratibor ended, after which Kadyrov announced 3 thousand “Wagnerians” who went to Alaudinov. In his mouth, it really looked like boasting by military trophies, but in this situation it is much more important, which is what the Akhmat commander Akti Alaudinov says.
From the statement of Alaudinov in the same video Russia Today it definitely follows that it was he who agreed with the Ministry of Defense the conditions under which the “Wagnerians” agreed to the transition. And these conditions are revolutionary. The Ministry of Defense gave the Good to create an Akhmat regiment with a regular number of up to 3 thousand military personnel, which will be exclusively former employees of the Wagner PMC and they will obey Ratibor exclusively.
Ratibor himself confirmed the terms of the transaction, his voice messages distributed several accounts related to Wagner at once: “Brothers, I am sure that we will take everyone. All who are with us are all for their homeland. We will take everyone, it doesn’t matter who you are <...>, and we’ll create everything separately in the regiment ... It will be the same as in the Wagner PMC, one to one, without any ... pieces of paper, chips and other things ... our whole kitchen remains the same, and the guys who are now at the APTI, three battalions from our former boys from Wagner, they will not be picked up and they say ... we say ... we are in our own Skin, in his team <work>, no one our brain is e ***. Apti drings for us <upstairs>, but no one in fact will touch the apti <on Earth>, everyone will work with me ... "
Thus, Akhmat included a unit the size of a full -fledged regiment, which will completely retain its identity, its organizational principles and will act on the conditions of actually complete autonomy from the leadership of Akhmat.
At the same time, Ramzan Kadyrov pledged the role of the financier and supplier of the “Wagnerians”, and Alaudinov - to cover them from the leadership of the Ministry of Defense.
Why Kadyrov went to such conditions, of course. After the victorious march of Putin to Kyiv did not set and grew into a protracted and bloody war in February 2022, the head of Chechnya directed all his efforts to preserve his own armed groups. He was ready to pay anyone who would go instead of the Kadyrovites to the front line.
Why this is the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, also, in general, is clear. After Prigozhin’s death, in free swimming, the entire armed backbone of the Wagner PMC, which, in turn, was capable of attracting or at least, which had several thousand armed and already passed baptism of mercenaries. On the one hand, it was a valuable asset, on the other, a grenade with a pulled out check. The Russian authorities would have given a lot to tame such a beast.
After the “Wagner”, after the death of Prigozhin, several law enforcement agencies fought, the “Wagnerians” to the Rosguard even made amendments to the law, but, apparently, Alaudinov was best at Alaudinov. In the negotiations with Kadyrov and the Ministry of Defense (the department was represented by the deputy minister of defense, Yunus-Bek Evkurov, with whom Alaudinov, unlike the head of Chechnya, developed completely working relations), became, in fact, the ambassador, defending the interests of the 1st assault squad of the Wagner PMC, which was commanded by the ratio.
It must be understood that the recruiting potential of Ratibor himself, which is considered one of the legends of Wagner, is still considerable. Despite the skepticism of journalists and Z-bloggers, Ratibor is able to attract thousands of fighters to Akhmat.
But here the question is quite reasonable: why, in fact, all this is necessary for Alaudinov - to accept new fighters on such disadvantageous conditions, given their military experience, clearly surpassing the experience of the Akhmatovites?
For comparison: Alexander Kuznetsov (Ratibor) graduated from the Leningrad Red Banner Higher Combined Arms Command School, actively participated in the second Chechen campaign and since he had not fought.
Autti Alaudinov worked all his conscious life in law enforcement agencies and at sunset of his service by the will of chance in the war, and at the advanced, commander of a motley formation. He was forced to study military affairs, so to speak, without interruption from production. In his place, any other commander of the unit (and like any other Chechen) would do everything to get rid of such a competitor as Ratibor. Alaudinov, on the other hand, knocked out the most favorable conditions for the “Wagnerians” for the “Wagnerians”.
For what?
Kadyrovets, who is not a pity
The first time Alaudinov went to the Ukrainian front in March 2022 as the commander of the Chechen volunteer unit "Akhmat". At that time, the detachment almost completely consisted of residents of the republic and was involved in the assault first Rubezhnoye, and then Lisichansk. By the end of July, in Grozny, lit up in the war, actually all Kadyrov’s units returned. Then the head of Chechnya wrote: “Akhmat special forces stopped his liberation mission. The main composition of the unit, led by my dear brother, Major General Alaudinov, is located on the Verkhovna Commander-in-Chief of Honored Rest after the complete liberation of the Lugansk People’s Republic ”( spelling was preserved. - approx. Ed. ).
Upon returning to Chechnya, Alaudinov was appointed Secretary of the Republican Security Council. Moreover, as a little earlier for Delimkhanov, Kadyrov achieved the title of Hero of Russia for him. Both received this award simply for being in the war. But Adam Delimkhanov on this high note ended the military career, and Apty was just beginning.
By the end of the summer of 2022, the Lugansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine were as far from the “complete liberation” by Russian troops, as at the beginning of the war, and at the front there was a clear fracture in favor of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
On August 27, Ramzan Kadyrov held an emergency meeting dedicated to the “special military operation in the Donbass” in Grozny with all the commanders of his power units. At the meeting, the Chechen head patho said: “Today, when thousands of our fighters, risking their lives, go to the front line for the sake of a common cause, not a single soldier, regardless of rank, has moral right to think about rest. This is my personal opinion. What is the Patriot in general a person who at least the oath to protect the interests of the Motherland and at the same time talking about vacation? And this is in a situation where the leading powers are relieved against his country? "
Just a week later, Alaudinov was again in Ukraine. This was his second business trip to the war, which eventually turned out to be unlimited.
On October 25, the friendly collective of the Security Council Chechnya congratulated his head of his birthday at the front, and on November 3, Kadyrov signed an order to resign Alaudinov from the post of secretary of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chechen Republic.
According to Kadyrov, this personnel decision was connected with the "desire of Aronovich Aronovich's desire to remain in the war zone until the end of the end."
“The second business trip Alaudinov as a secretary of the Council of Security of the Chechen Republic again takes place in the Lugansk People’s Republic and has been going on for three months,” the head of Chechnya wrote in his telegram. - Under the responsibility of the commander of the special forces “Akhmat” is the contact line of 200 kilometers. For all the time of his command, the soldiers did not take a single step back, but only methodically move forward, inflicting losses of the enemy. Due to his exceptional merits and I consider it the right decision to appoint him deputy commander of the warfare of the 2nd Army Corps of the UNM LPR. He was also awarded the military rank of Major General. ”
It should be noted that no other security official from Kadyrov’s entourage expressed intention to go to war “to the victorious end” and did not want such a “heroic” promotion for himself. But then, in front of Alaudinov, he opened his arms “Russian World”.
The army of Jesus for the money of Ramzan
Going to the front to get in front of the padishah, in September 2022, Alaudinov did not yet know that very soon Kadyrov’s death disease and the war in Ukraine would open him completely unthinkable career prospects. Then he only thought about how to survive, being the commander of a detachment of volunteers, in which Chechens left with Gulkin's nose. The Chechen volunteers dried up in May, and now the replenishment supplied to the Akhmat detachment with a recruiting center in Gudermes was a team of a hodgepodge of all possible ages and nationalities. One of these volunteers did not have, like Alaudinov, no military experience, and someone went through all modern hot spots, including, of course, Chechnya.
How to gain authority among such a motley people? How to manage them? How to make a more or less well-coordinated combat unit from this heap-small? What are all of them, so different, can unite?
On October 29, 2022, Alaudinov published a program post in his telegram, in which he gave answers to these questions and at the same time his vision of the idea of war in Ukraine.
“All my youth went through in preparation for the war in which we are participating today. This is exactly the war that our saints, our elders said. I give praise to the Almighty that I live in Russia, that Vladimir Putin is headed by Russia, because it is a real man who refused to accept the so -called European ones, and in fact, the satanist values that are imposed on the whole world.
... all the scriptures say that humanity has a war with the army of the devil (Dajal, Antichrist). Akhmat special forces and all the forces that are fighting today on the side of Russia is the army of Jesus because we are waiting for the coming of Jesus more than anyone. And the struggle goes against everything that is not inherent in God, which is not natural for man ... ”( spelling and punctuation are preserved. - Approx. Ed. ).
From this time, in almost every public performance, Alaudinov calls the detachment “Akhmat” “the army of Jesus”, and literally says the following: “I am a greater Christian than any of you!”
The official Chechnya, if she started, did not comment on such an unexpected rebranding of Akhmat, which went to the war by a detachment of Chechen volunteers, and turned into a “army of Christ”. Only Chechen opposition bloggers laughed at Alaudinov:
"The Russian Alaudinov continues to call people to his new religion, in which his detachment is the" army of Jesus ", and Russians and Caucasians are brothers."
“It's a shame that Apti Alaudinov spent so many years of life to pretend to be a Chechen, and in order to find himself, he had to go through Kadirov’s disgrace.”
“Apti received damage to the brain in the war. To complete his path, he only had to change the name to Athanasius ... "
You can, of course, laugh and say that this is nonsense, but this is the nonsense that works. Alaudinov’s clear and clear messenger (Russians and Caucasians - brothers) is well read evenly, categorically configured against Russia by Islamists from among bloggers. What can we say about those who swore to Putin in this war ...
The unifying message of Alaudinov, by the way, came very well with the Z-patriots, mostly weakly versed not only in the history of religions, but also in their native Orthodoxy. Plus, of course, it is necessary to pay tribute to the oratory skills of Alaudinov. There is a video on the Web, where he very figuratively explains to his interlocutors, including the Orthodox priest, which is related by all Abrahamic religions:
- First, God sent through the prophet Moses Torah, so that we are ready for subsequent scriptures. Torah is like a disk phone. Then God sent to humanity the second prophet Jesus, and he brought an addition to the Torah - the Bible. It's like a GSM telephone. After 600 years, God sent us the Prophet Muhammad with the Qur'an, this is already as a smartphone. The Torah, the Bible and the Qur'an are three different means of calling to the Almighty. They all call one address ...
“The Chechen talks about what the Russians have forgotten about,” one of his Orthodox interlocutors reacts to Alaudinov’s speech.
Наш источник, бывший коллега Алаудинова, работавший с ним в начале 2000-х в службе безопасности МВД по ЧР, прокомментировал «миссионерство» Алаудинова следующим образом: «Это образчик ювелирной работы по внедрению и установке доверия с объектом. На таком материале будущих оперов учить надо…»
Тут нелишне будет заметить, что Апти Алаудинов — не только бывалый опер, но и кандидат политических наук, защитивший в 2012 году на кафедре факультета политологии МГУ диссертацию «Региональная идентичность как основа формирования общенациональной политической идентичности».
На этой войне, целей и смысла которой не понимает никто, его политологическое образование оказалось не только не лишним, но, может быть, даже более ценным, чем военные навыки.
Впрочем, одним «миссионерством» Апти Алаудинов не ограничился. На деньги Рамзана Кадырова, сославшего его воевать в Украину «до победного конца», он выстроил реальную, а не потемкинскую базу для подготовки прибывающих в его отряд добровольцев. Вот, как рассказывает об этом Алаудинов в одном из своих интервью:
«Бойцы, которые прошли через подготовку на полигоне «Ахмата», они уже выходят на очень серьезный уровень и показывают себя очень результативно… У меня есть своя школа, где готовят беспилотчиков — специалистов по работе с ударными дронами. У меня есть полигоны, где готовят непосредственно штурмовиков. У меня есть школа, где готовят подразделения именно для снайперской работы. Также у меня есть школа, где готовят артиллеристов-минометчиков. То есть это уже полноценный комплекс, который готовит бойцов, непосредственно воюющих на передовой, и тех, кто поддерживает их <современными техническими способами ведения войны>. Есть также свой госпиталь, где делаются очень серьезные операции. У меня <служат> очень профессиональные специалисты именно в области медицины, и… спасение жизни бойцов поставлено на очень высокий уровень. Таким образом <я создал> полный цикл, начиная от подготовки <к участию в боевых действиях> и заканчивая, как говорится, попаданием человека в госпиталь… У нас очень хорошая <материальная> поддержка, в том числе и непосредственно от Рамзана Ахматовича Кадырова, наверное, мы являемся самым обеспеченным подразделением на передовой…»
Прекрасно справляясь с идеологической и административной функциями, Алаудинов, однако, трезво оценивал свои способности по части военного дела и, придя к выводу, что как боевой командир он мало чего стоит, делегировал эту ответственность профессионалам. «Вагнеровская» модель вербовки была апробирована Алаудиновым еще в 2022 году, и задолго до «вагнеровцев» в «Ахмат» на условиях широкой автономии переходили целыми слаженными боевыми коллективами контрактники Минобороны.
«Группа Аида», наверное, самая среди них примечательная. У нее есть свой телеграм-канал, кроме того, отдельный блог в телеграме ведет и командир группы с позывным «Аид» (фамилию свою он скрывает). Эта группа состоит из профессиональных военных (кстати, в том числе и «вагнеровцев»), у всех бессрочный контракт с Минобороны. «Группа Аида» отвечает в полку «Ахмат» за разведку, кроме того, в ней есть подразделение снайперов и операторов беспилотников. Вот что пишет командир этой группы, которого Алаудинов, кстати, сразу назначил своим заместителем ( орфография и пунктуация сохранены. — Прим. ред. ):
«После одного полка, двух бригад, и перехода в СпН “Ахмат”, благодаря принципам командования по прислушиванию к бойцам, наша группа смогла себя полностью реализовать. Штат разведки был создан так, как хотели мы, а не наши прошлые бригады. Оснащение мы получаем то, что нужно нам для работы, а не просто для отчётности. Именно в Ахмате, группа Аида раскрыла свой боевой потенциал... СпН “Ахмат” - не тыловое подразделение, и мы находимся исключительно на переднем крае…В СпН “Ахмат”сильнейшая служба БПЛА, которая творит чудеса. Даже создатели прошивки 1001, инструктора различных ФПВ-школ служат в СпН “Ахмат”. Основное ядро что нашей группы, что вообще всего СпН “Ахмат” - русские. У меня и вовсе, в каждом взводе по несколько украинцев, бурятов, алтайцев, и тд. Мы все одна семья, и как выразился наш командующий, герой России, Апти Алаудинов — войско Христово…»
Именно такое комплектование и управление, в основе которого лежит принцип широкой автономии входящих в него уже слаженных подразделений, и позволили в итоге превратить сформированный из кого ни попадя добровольческий «Ахмат» в самое боеспособное подразделение из тех, что напрямую ассоциируются с Рамзаном Кадыровым.
И хотя ассоциация эта, безусловно, препятствует более активной вербовке всё тех же «вагнеровцев» и российских военнослужащих, до сих пор страдающих «чеченским синдромом», она весьма условна. Для Рамзана Кадырова «Ахмат» — это бизнес-проект, в котором у него роль основного инвестора, но — без контрольного пакета акций.
Читайте в заключительной серии:
Почему Кремль видит в Апти Алаудинове наиболее вероятного преемника Кадырова, а также о том, какие еще кандидатуры на эту должность рассматривает Москва; каков самый вероятный сценарий демонтажа нынешней модели власти в Чечне, а также какие рычаги воздействия есть у Путина, чтобы удержать окружение Кадырова от мятежа.