Movsar Barayev
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Movsar Barayev (Мовсар Бараев; died October 26, 2002), earlier known as Suleimanov, was a Chechen terrorist and militia leader who led the seizure of a Moscow theater (see Moscow theater hostage crisis) that led to the deaths of over 120 civilians.
[edit] Militia leader
Movsar Barayev was the nephew of the notorious Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev. After his uncle's death in 2001 until his own, Movsar was the leader of a Chechen militia unit known as the Special Purpose Islamic Brigade (SPIR). No large-scale operations or even acts of sabotage that have been claimed by the unit since then. [1] Barayev junior was said to be a sworn enemy of the Chechen commander and elected president, Aslan Maskhadov. [2]
The Federal Security Service (FSB) showed unusual interest in Barayev, claiming he was the main contact used by Arab terrorist organizations to send money to Chechnya. The FSB also did its best to turn other Chechen commanders against Barayev.
He was falsely announced by the command of the Russian forces in Chechnya to have been killed on August 25, 2002, and again on October 12, 2002, eleven days prior to the Moscow theater crisis. [3] The later report of Barayev's death came from Lieutenant-Colonel Boris Podoprigora, deputy commander of the Joint Group Forces.
[edit] Moscow hostage crisis
On October 23, 2002, Barayev led a group of forty-one SPIR militants and their family members, who had dubbed themselves "the suicide squad from the 29th Division," to seize the theater in the Russian capital Moscow, demanding negotiations with Russian authorities for an end to the second war in Chechnya, withdrawal of Russian forces and Chechen independence. [4]
Movsar Barayev, along with all of his group and more than one hundred hostages, was killed when the Russian FSB OSNAZ special forces stormed the building.
