Salman Raduyev (or Raduev; Russian: Салма́н Раду́ев; February 13, 1967 – December 14, 2002) was a rogue Chechen warlord and terrorist. He was considered to be one of the most radical and notorious Chechen rebel commanders of the period between 1994 and 1999.
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Rise to fame
During the 1980s Raduyev was a leader of the Komsomol (Young Communist League) in Gudermes and later was active in the business community. After Chechnya declared independence, he was appointed the prefect of Gudermes in June of 1992 by his father-in-law, Dzhokhar Dudaev who was the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. During the First Chechen War Raduyev became a field commander for the separatist Chechen forces. At this time he was one of the best known of the rebel field commanders, commanding the 6th Brigade based in the strategically important Gudermessky District. On December 14, 1995, Raduyev, along with Sultan Geliskhanov, led a three-day raid on the city of Gudermes. On January 9, 1996, Raduyev led the large-scale Kizlyar hostage taking raid into neighbouring Russian region of Dagestan, where his men took at least 1,500 civilian hostages. The raid escalated into the all-out battle and ended with the complete destruction of the Dagestani border village of Pervomayskoye, and other Chechen leaders criticised Raduyev.[1] In March 1996, Raduyev was shot in the head and incorrectly reported dead[2] as he went for medical treatment abroad.
Independent warlord
In the summer of 1996 Raduyev returned to the republic and refused the orders of the Chechen Acting President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev to stop carrying out terrorist operations (he said ordered bombings in Armavir and Pyatigorsk), despite the ceasefire and talks that would lead up to the Khasav-Yurt Accord. He even accused Yandarbiyev of treason for agreeing to ceasfire and threatened to attack him.[3] Raduyev was the only field commander to announce openly that the "war without rules" with Russia would continue despite the signing of a peace agreement. He claimed that Dudayev was still alive,[4] and now issuing orders to him from a secret NATO base in Turkey with the goal being the "liberation" of the whole North Caucasus. In 1997 the newly elected Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov reduced Raduyev from the rank of Brigadier General to Private, but further action against him was blocked by a public opposition from the pro-Raduyev war veterans. Raduyev's private militia, called "General Dudayev's Army", was reportedly involved in several train robberies and other criminal acts. Raduyev himself kept claiming responsibility for every explosion in Russia, until he had announced a "temporary moratorium" on the terrorist acts in September 1998.[5] As a sign of his good gesture, Raduyev claimed that it was he who freed the nine kindapped Russian servicemen from their captors.[6] Raduyev's eccentric behaviour was not widely popular in Chechnya[7] and many doubted his sanity. In the newspaper interview in 1997, Maskhadov described Raduyev as "mentally ill"[8] and even Shamil Basayev, his ally in the opposition against Maskhadov,[9] called Raduyev "crazy." He also became conflicted with the Islamist circles in Chechnya, after Islamic court sentenced him to four years in prison in absence for attempting to overthrow Maskhadov in 1998[10] but made no attempt to arrest him. Same year, Raduyev called to ban "Wahhabism" in Chechnya.[11] In January of the next year, he backed the Chechen parliament against the Sharia Court.[12]
Decline and death
Salman Raduyev was heavily wounded in a car bomb assassination attempt in 1998 (previously, he survived at least three other attempts). In early 1999, Raduyev underwent major plastic surgery in effect acquiring a new face; the alleged implants of titanium earned him the nickname of Titanic (he also became popularly known in Chechnya as "Michael Jackson"). Still seriously ill and recovering from surgery, Raduyev had vowed reprisals against Russia for the sentencing of the two Chechen women.[13] Because of his injuries, Raduyev did not take an active role in the Second Chechen War and was captured in March 2000 by Russian special operations unit Vympel in his home. Soon after his arrest he was shown on television clean shaven after Russian guards had forcefully shaven his beard and Russian President Putin said that Raduyev had confessed to trying to assassinate Eduard Shevardnadze, the President of Georgia. Raduyev was tried on multiple charges including terrorism, banditry, hostage-taking, organization of murders and organization of illegal armed formations. In December of 2001 he was sentenced to life in prison. In December 2002, Salman Raduyev died in the "White Swan" penal colony in Solikamsk from internal bleeding. The circumstances surrounding the death of Raduyev are not clear and according to his family he was murdered in prison. Kommersant daily said that "the real reason for Raduev's death will probably never be known," while Vremya Novostei suggested that, after being forced to give all the information requested from him, he was therefore "no longer needed" by the Russian authorities and killed.[14] Amnesty International has called for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death[15] but the request was ignored.
See also
External links
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Wars Notable battles Other
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Second Chechen War |
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