Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev

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Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev

Order:	2nd President (acting)
Took Office:	April 21, 1996
Left Office:	February 12, 1997
Predecessor:	Dzhokhar Dudaev
Successor:	Aslan Maskhadov
Date of Birth:	September 12, 1952
Place of Birth:	Vydrika, Soviet Union
Date of Death:	February 13, 2004
Place of Death:	Doha, Qatar
Political party:	Vainakh Democratic Party

Zelimkhan Abdumuslimovich Yandarbiyev (Russian: Зелимхан Абдумуслимович Яндарбиев) (September 12, 1952 – February 13, 2004) was an acting president of the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (1996-1997).

Contents 1 Political career 1.1 War and radicalisation 1.2 Exile 2 Assassination 2.1 Russian agents 3 References and notes 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Political career

Originally a literary scholar, poet and children's author Yandarbiyev became a leader in the Chechen nationalist movement as the Soviet Union began to collapse. In May 1990, he founded and led the Vainakh Democratic Party (VDV), the first Chechen party, which was committed to an independent Chechnya. The VDV initially represented both Chechens and Ingush until their split after Chechnya's declaration of independence from the RSFSR.

In November 1990 he became a deputy chairman to the newly formed All-National Congress of the Chechen People, which was led by Dzhokhar Dudayev and which ousted the Soviet-era leadership. With Dudayev, he signed an agreement with Ingush leaders splitting the joint Chechen-Ingush republic in two. In the first Chechen parliament, from 1991-1993, Yandarbiyev headed the media committee. Since 1991 he served as Vice-President of the self-proclaimed republic.

[edit] War and radicalisation

During the 1994-1996 First Chechen War, Yandarbiyev had little connection with military operations, spending his time writing books on the independence effort. In April 1996, following the assassination of his predecessor Dzhokhar Dudayev, he became an acting President. Except for his personal bodyguards, he never had a military unit of his own. In late May 1996, Yanderbiyev headed a Chechen delegation that met Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin for peace talks that resulted in the signature of a ceasefire agreement on May 27, 1996.

Yandarbiyev stood in presidential elections held in Chechnya in February 1997 but was defeated by Aslan Maskhadov, a senior military leader, getting only 10 per cent of the votes. He took part of signing of the peace treaty in Moscow on May 12, 1997. The two men fell out badly the following year, when Yanderbiyev was accused of being behind an assassination attempt against Maskhadov. In September 1998, Maskhadov publicly denounced Yanderbiyev, accusing him of importing the radical Islamic philosophy of Wahhabism and of being responsible for "anti-state activities" including anti-government speeches and public meetings, as well as the organisation of illegal armed groups. Yanderbiyev subsequently joined forces with the hard-line Islamist opposition to Maskhadov's rule.

Yanderbiyev was seen as a key figure behind the 1999 attack by Shamil Basayev's coalition of Islamist guerrillas on the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan.^{[citation needed]} That led to the start of Second Chechen War in late 1999, following which Yanderbiyev travelled abroad to Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates and eventually settled in Qatar in 2001, where he sought to obtain Muslim support for the Chechen cause.

[edit] Exile

Yandarbiyev was a cause of considerable friction between Russia and Qatar, which refused to extradite Yanderbiyev despite an Interpol arrest warrant issued in 2001.^{[citation needed]} He was also mentioned by Russia on a United Nations list of groups and people with suspected links to the al-Qaeda organisation and is said to have had contacts with the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.^{[citation needed]}

He was believed to have been a key figure in the international network of Chechen separatist fundraisers in the Islamic world.^{[citation needed]} He was also accused by the Russian government of involvement in the October 2002 Moscow Theatre Siege, in which around 120 hostages and guerrillas were killed.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Assassination

On February 13, 2004, Yandarbiyev was assassinated when a bomb ripped through his SUV in the Qatari capital, Doha. Two of his bodyguards were killed as well, and his 12-year-old son Daud was seriously injured.

It was initially unclear who was responsible for the blast, but suspicion fell on SVR or GRU, denying any involvement, or internal feuding among the Chechen rebel leadership. Maskhadov's separatist Foreign Ministry condemned the assassination as a "Russian terrorist attack", comparing it to the 1996 attack that killed Dudayev. The car bomb led to Qatar's first anti-terrorism law, declaring lethal terrorist acts punishable by death or life imprisonment.

On June 1, 2004, Leonid Parfyonov, one of the leading NTV journalists, was fired from the channel allegedly for making public the decision of the channel direction that had forbidden him to present a TV interview with Malika Yandarbiyev, widow of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.^[1][2]

[edit] Russian agents

On February 19 the Qatari authorities arrested three Russians in the Russian embassy villa for the murders. One of them, the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Qatar, Aleksandr Fetisov, was released in March allegedly due to his diplomatic status and the remaining two GRU agents: Anatoly Yablochkov (also known as Belashkov) and Vasily Pugachyov (sometimes misspelled as Bogachyov), were charged with the assassination of Yandarbiyev, assassination attempt of his son Daud and smuggling weapons into Qatar. According to Moscow, Yablochkov and Pugachyov were secret intelligence agents sent to the Russian Embassy in Doha to collect information about global terrorism. Russia’s acting Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov pledged state support to the suspects and declared that their imprisonment was illegal.^[3] There were some speculations that Aleksandr Fetisov had been released in exchange for Qatari wrestlers detained in Moscow on February 28.^[4]

The trial proceedings were closed to the public after the defendants claimed that one of the prosecution witnesses, the Qatari Colonel Dawi or Dawdi, had tortured them in the first days after their arrest, when they had been held incommunicado; the two Russians alleged that they had suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and attacks by guard dogs. Based on these torture allegations and the fact that the two officers were arrested within an extraterritorial compound belonging to the Russian Embassy (i.e. effectively on Russian soil), Russia demanded the immediate release of its citizens; they were represented by the attorney of the law firm founded by Nikolai Yegorov, a friend and fellow student of Vladimir Putin at Leningrad State University.^[5] The Qatari prosecutors concluded that the suspects had received the order to eliminate Zelimkhan Yandarbiev from Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov personally.^[6] On June 30, 2004 both Russians were sentenced to life imprisonment; passing the sentence, the judge stated that they had acted on orders from the Russian leadership. [1][2][3]

The verdict caused severe tensions between Qatar and Russia, and on December 23, 2004, Qatar agreed to extradite the prisoners to Russia, where they would serve out their life sentence. The agents received a heroes' welcome on returning to Moscow in January 2005 but disappeared from public view shortly afterwards. The Russian prison authorities admitted in February 2005 that they were not in jail, but said that a sentence handed down in Qatar was irrelevant in Russia. [4]

[edit] References and notes

[edit] See also

• Vainakh

[edit] External links

• Obiturary. Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Poet and writer turned Chechen separatist politician Chechen Times
• The Assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev: Implications for the War on Terrorism Jamestown Foundation

Preceded by Dzhokhar Dudaev

President of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria 1996–1997

Succeeded by Aslan Maskhadov