Movladi Udugov
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movladi Udugov (Russian: Мовлади Удугов) (born 1962) is a major ideologue of the Chechen rebels.
Contents |
[edit] First Chechen War
He joined the ruling structures of Ichkeria (Chechnya) in the early 1990s, serving as propaganda chief in Dzhokhar Dudaev's government. [1] During the 1994-1996 war, the ways in which he distributed information about the conflict were more professional than those of the Kremlin, so the victory of the Chechens in the information war is attributed to him. A mark of the high esteem in which the Russian leaders held him is their name "the Chenchen Goebbels" for him.
Following the First Chechen War, Udugov became a Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Aslan Maskhadov, and travelled to Moscow on a number of occasions for talks with members of the Security Council and Russian government. [1] He unsuccessfully ran for President in the 1997 election campaign, representing an unpopular radical Islamist platform.
[edit] Second Chechen War to present
At the start of the Second Chechen War in autumn 1999, Udugov left Chechnya, as a result of which, his influence on the Chechen rebel movement diminished rapidly. Russian authorities accused him of being one of the main organizers of the Chechen rebel-led attack on Dagestan in August-September 1999, and Udugov is wanted by the Russian federal government since March 20, 2000, accused of having violated Article 279 of Russia's Criminal Code, which outlaws "armed uprisings." [1]
In March 1999 Udugov created The Kavkaz Center, a Chechen international Islamic Internet agency. Since 2006, following his victory in a dispute with exiled moderate Chechen leader Akhmed Zakayev, he is once again an official rebel spokesman. His whereabouts are unknown - he is believed to live in an Arab country.
[edit] Political beliefs
Udugov follows a particularly fundamentalist strain of Islam that is not shared by most Chechens. He rejects the proposition of an independent Chechen state in favor of an Islamic state encompassing the entire North Caucasus. [2]
