Arbi Barayev
Encyclopedia
Arbi Alautdinovich Barayev , nicknamed "The Terminator
", was a renegade Chechen
warlord often accused of clandestine links with the Russian special services. In 1996 he became the founder and first leader of the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment
, which was regarded as one of the main hostage-taking, kidnapping, and oil-smuggling groups operating in Chechnya during the lawless interwar period that followed the 1994-1996 conflict
with Russia.
Barayev's actions contributed significantly to the rise of the Chechen criminal state in the late 1990s, helping to drive out foreign journalists and humanitarian workers while undermining the presidency of Aslan Maskhadov
. He reportedly boasted of personally killing over 160 people and is said to be responsible for the deaths of over 50 people from his home village of Alkhan-Kala, including family members. Arbi was an uncle of Movsar Barayev
, a key figure in the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis
.
, the future vice president. He also protected Vice President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev
, with whom Barayev formed a close personal relationship, and Sultan Geliskhanov
, director of Chechnya's State Security Department.
Barayev and his men fought in the First Chechen War
of 1994-1996 for the Chechen separatist side. It was then when they committed their first act of kidnapping, abducting for ransom a group of 29 Russian engineers from a power plant near the Chechen capital Grozny
.
Barayev and his group, based around the town of Urus-Martan
, were linked to a series of high-profile crimes including the notorious murder of six foreign Red Cross
employees shot dead in the hospital of Novye Atagi
in September 1996, as well as the kidnappings of Yelena Masyuk
, a Russian NTV journalist and personal friend of Maskhadov, and Valenti Vlasov, Boris Yeltsin
's envoy to Chechnya. Other high-profile hostages allegedly kidnapped by Barayev included the ORT
journalists Roman Pereveztsyev and Vladislav Tibelius, an Italian journalist Mauro Galligani, British children-aid workers Camilla Carr and Jon James (during a failed operation to rescue them, the Chechen anti-kidnap unit commandos engaged in a deadly clash with "unknown terrorists", unofficially Salman Raduyev
's men; they were eventually ransomed by Boris Berezovsky) and others.
In 1997, Maskhadov signed a decree putting Barayev's Special Purpose Islamic Regiment armed group under the command of the Chechen interior ministry. Barayev, who also held the post of deputy commander of the National Guards, however refused to obey the order. When six of his men were detained in Ingushetia
, Barayev attacked an Ingush police post and took hostages; one of them was killed and the rest were prisoner-swapped. Two more of his men were captured in Chechnya and made to confess to kidnappings on the state TV. His militia and some Islamist
allies from Shariah Security forces from the fought with the Chechen government forces in a large-scale gun battle in the city of Gudermes
in the summer of 1998. Between 50 and around 80 people were killed in the mutiny. The Islamic Regiment was not disarmed, but Barayev was stripped of his rank of Brigade General
and declared as the "enemy of Ichkeria and the Chechen people
". In December 1998, Barayev proclaimed the Supreme Council of Islamic Jamaats
, dug trenches around Urus-Martan and threatened to attack the targets across and outside of Chechnya if Maskhadov tried to fight them.
A commonly accusation against Barayev regarded the late 1998 abduction and beheading of four foreign mobile phone engineers
. It was claimed that the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) outbid the employers of kidnapped Briton
engineers to get them decapitated by Barayev and his gang rather than be released; supposedly, the video and photographic materials of their executions fed the FSB anti-western propaganda efforts at beginning of Second Chechen War
. A former Russian hostage Abdurakhman Adukhov told the BBC
that Barayev told him it was actually Osama bin Laden
who paid him $30m for the atrocity, outbidding the ransom offer of $10m. Barayev himself denied that his group kidnapped and killed the foreigners.
. According to another version, Barayev and his men merely bribed their way out of Komsomolskoye while leaving Gelayev and his people to their fate. The incident led to the declaration of revenge on the part of Gelayev, whose fighters then blew up several houses belonging to Barayev in his home village of Alkhan-Kala near Grozny, killed a number of his men, and even attempted to assassinate Barayev in Ingushetia. According to federal authorities, more than 40 Chechens died as a result of these clashes.
Chechen surgeon Khassan Baiev
, who amputated a portion of the leg of Shamil Basayev
after his injury on a mine field, also had operated on Salman Raduyev and Arbi Barayev himself; however, Barayev promised to kill him because he would also help the wounded Russian soldiers. Baiev described Barayev as "a born killer, and his men were desperados with blood vendettas proclaimed against them for murder. They joined Barayev for protection against the avengers in an endless cycle of violence. ... He owned a stable of expensive foreign cars, had several wives, and moved around with an escort of twenty to thirty guards. Everyone assumed that he was in the pay of Russian intelligence. Relatives of Arbi Barayev publicly denounced him for his crimes, saying that the family announced in the courtyard of the mosque that if anyone killed him, they would relinquish all claims. There would be no blood revenge
." Facing death threats from Barayev as well as from the federal side, Baiev was eventually forced to flee Chechnya abroad.
Following the Russian occupation of most of Chechnya, Barayev freely lived in Alkhan-Kala and frequently passed through Russian checkpoints without any problems using identity papers of an FSB officer. He was also not included in the lists of people wanted "for participation in illegal armed groups". Once arrested, he was said to be instantly released by the demand of Beslan Gantamirov, then the leading figure in the pro-Moscow government. In May 2000, the Russian military intelligence GRU
officer leaked papers about Barayev's affiliation with FSB to a Chechen journalist. In April 2001, Barayev's men allegedly ambushed and killed Viktor Popkov
, a Russian dissident working in Chechnya as an aid worker and human rights activist since 1995, in the close vicinity of a military roadblock. According to the U.S. Department of State
, Barayev sent a group of his fighters to train in Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan
in the spring of the same year.
announced that "special Islamic commander Arbi Barayev has become a martyr."
According to the another version of Barayev's death, the GRU decided to get rid of him after the suspicious death of FSB chief Vice-Admiral German Ugryumov
, who allegedly provided cover (krysha) for Barayev. In a well-prepared five-day operation, GRU agents recruited from the Chechen in blood feud with Arbayev searched for him in Alkhan-Kala and then stormed a local FSB base where he ran for cover, killing an FSB agent in the process. Barayev has been allegedly captured alive and then tortured to death.
His body was given to his immediate family for a funeral (in contrast, when Maskhadov was killed in 2005, he was buried by the Russians in an unmarked secret grave), he was however barred from being buried in his home village by the local people. In October 2002, the widow of Barayev, Zura Barayeva
, was killed while taking part in the Moscow hostage crisis
. The attack was led by the Arbi's 22-year old nephew and successor Movsar
, who also died during the incident. The remnants of Barayev's group were reportedly integrated into the mainstream rebel forces following the theatre seizure.
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
", was a renegade Chechen
Chechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
warlord often accused of clandestine links with the Russian special services. In 1996 he became the founder and first leader of the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment
Special Purpose Islamic Regiment
The Special Purpose Islamic Regiment , also known as the al-Jihad-Fisi-Sabililah Special Islamic Regiment, was a Chechen criminal organization loosely formed by renegade Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev in 1996...
, which was regarded as one of the main hostage-taking, kidnapping, and oil-smuggling groups operating in Chechnya during the lawless interwar period that followed the 1994-1996 conflict
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
with Russia.
Barayev's actions contributed significantly to the rise of the Chechen criminal state in the late 1990s, helping to drive out foreign journalists and humanitarian workers while undermining the presidency of Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan Aliyevich Maskhadov was a leader of the Chechen separatist movement and the third President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.He was credited by many with the Chechen victory in the First Chechen War, which allowed for the...
. He reportedly boasted of personally killing over 160 people and is said to be responsible for the deaths of over 50 people from his home village of Alkhan-Kala, including family members. Arbi was an uncle of Movsar Barayev
Movsar Barayev
Movsar Buharovich Barayev , earlier known as Suleimanov, was a Chechen and militia leader during the Second Chechen War, who led the seizure of a Moscow theater that led to the deaths of over 170 people.-Life:...
, a key figure in the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis
Moscow theater hostage crisis
The Moscow theater hostage crisis, also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege, was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater on 23 October 2002 by some 40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya. They took 850 hostages and demanded the...
.
Early life
A martial arts fan in his youth, Barayev became a Soviet police officer in 1990 at the age of just 16. In 1991, after the Chechen declaration of independence, he became a personal bodyguard to his uncle, Vakha ArsanovVakha Arsanov
Vakha Arsanov was a former vice president in the Aslan Maskhadov's government of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.-Early life:Vakha Arsanov was born in 1950 in Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic...
, the future vice president. He also protected Vice President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev
Zelimkhan Abdumuslimovich Yandarbiyev was a Chechen writer and a politician, who served as acting president of the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria between 1996 and 1997...
, with whom Barayev formed a close personal relationship, and Sultan Geliskhanov
Sultan Geliskhanov
Sultan Geliskhanov is a former head of the state security service in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and a former field commander in the Chechen resistance against Russia.-Early life:...
, director of Chechnya's State Security Department.
Barayev and his men fought in the First Chechen War
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
of 1994-1996 for the Chechen separatist side. It was then when they committed their first act of kidnapping, abducting for ransom a group of 29 Russian engineers from a power plant near the Chechen capital Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...
.
1996-1999
During the inter-war period, Barayev and his associates became infamous for their alleged part in a wave of lawlessness which swept the devastated republic, including brutal killings and kidnappings as well as suspected involvement in two failed attempts to assassinate the Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov and the successful assassinations of the Chechen interior minister Nasrudi Bazhiyev and Shadid Bargishev, head of the newly-formed anti-abduction service.Barayev and his group, based around the town of Urus-Martan
Urus-Martan
Urus-Martan is a town and the administrative center of Urus-Martanovsky District of the Chechen Republic, Russia, located on the Martan River. The town is located in the central part of the republic, to the southwest of the capital Grozny. Population:...
, were linked to a series of high-profile crimes including the notorious murder of six foreign Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
employees shot dead in the hospital of Novye Atagi
The ICRC hospital of Novye Atagi
The ICRC Hospital of Novye Atagi is an International Committee of the Red Cross hospital in Novye Atagi, Chechnya, Russian Federation. It was evacuated in December 1996 when six members of the expatriate team were assassinated during an early morning raid by an unidentified armed group...
in September 1996, as well as the kidnappings of Yelena Masyuk
Yelena Masyuk
Yelena Vasiliyevna Masyuk is a Russian television journalist known for her coverage of the First and Second Chechen Wars and her high-profile 1997 abduction.-Journalism:...
, a Russian NTV journalist and personal friend of Maskhadov, and Valenti Vlasov, Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
's envoy to Chechnya. Other high-profile hostages allegedly kidnapped by Barayev included the ORT
Channel One (Russia)
Channel One is the first television channel to broadcast in the Soviet Union. The channel was renamed Ostankino Channel 1 in 1991, after the Soviet Union broke up and the Russian SFSR became the Russian Federation. According to a recent government publication, the Russian government controls 51%...
journalists Roman Pereveztsyev and Vladislav Tibelius, an Italian journalist Mauro Galligani, British children-aid workers Camilla Carr and Jon James (during a failed operation to rescue them, the Chechen anti-kidnap unit commandos engaged in a deadly clash with "unknown terrorists", unofficially Salman Raduyev
Salman Raduyev
Salman Raduyev was a Chechen separatist warlord considered to be one of the most radical and notorious Chechen rebel commanders of the period between 1994 and 1999...
's men; they were eventually ransomed by Boris Berezovsky) and others.
In 1997, Maskhadov signed a decree putting Barayev's Special Purpose Islamic Regiment armed group under the command of the Chechen interior ministry. Barayev, who also held the post of deputy commander of the National Guards, however refused to obey the order. When six of his men were detained in Ingushetia
Ingushetia
The Republic of Ingushetia is a federal subject of Russia , located in the North Caucasus region with its capital at Magas. In terms of area, the republic is the smallest of Russia's federal subjects except for the two federal cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg...
, Barayev attacked an Ingush police post and took hostages; one of them was killed and the rest were prisoner-swapped. Two more of his men were captured in Chechnya and made to confess to kidnappings on the state TV. His militia and some Islamist
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
allies from Shariah Security forces from the fought with the Chechen government forces in a large-scale gun battle in the city of Gudermes
Gudermes
Gudermes is a town in the Chechen Republic, Russia, located on the Sunzha River east of Grozny. Population: 32,000 .Gudermes had a rural locality status until 1941. Later, it became a railroad junction between Rostov-on-Don, Baku, Astrakhan, and Mozdok. Gudermes is home for oil extraction...
in the summer of 1998. Between 50 and around 80 people were killed in the mutiny. The Islamic Regiment was not disarmed, but Barayev was stripped of his rank of Brigade General
Brigade General
Brigade General is a rank used in many armies to denote the lowest rank of general, corresponding to command of a brigade. The rank is mostly used in countries where it is used as a modern alternative to a previous older rank of Brigadier or Brigadier General...
and declared as the "enemy of Ichkeria and the Chechen people
Chechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
". In December 1998, Barayev proclaimed the Supreme Council of Islamic Jamaats
Jamia
Jamia is the Arabic word for gathering . It can also refer to a mosque, or more generally, a community or association....
, dug trenches around Urus-Martan and threatened to attack the targets across and outside of Chechnya if Maskhadov tried to fight them.
A commonly accusation against Barayev regarded the late 1998 abduction and beheading of four foreign mobile phone engineers
1998 abduction of foreign engineers in Chechnya
The 1998 abduction of foreign engineers took place when four United Kingdom-based specialists were seized by unidentified Chechen gunmen in Grozny, the capital of Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya. After more than two months in captivity, all four men were found brutally murdered, reportedly...
. It was claimed that the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) outbid the employers of kidnapped Briton
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
engineers to get them decapitated by Barayev and his gang rather than be released; supposedly, the video and photographic materials of their executions fed the FSB anti-western propaganda efforts at beginning of Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
. A former Russian hostage Abdurakhman Adukhov told the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that Barayev told him it was actually Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
who paid him $30m for the atrocity, outbidding the ransom offer of $10m. Barayev himself denied that his group kidnapped and killed the foreigners.
1999-2001
In March 2000, during the early phase of the Second Chechen War, Barayev reportedly betrayed the Chechen field commander Ruslan Gelayev to the Russian military forces, resulting in the massacre of Gelayev's forces in the Battle of KomsomolskoyeBattle of Komsomolskoye
The Battle of Komsomolskoye took place in March 2000 between Russian forces and separatists in Chechnya in the village of Komsomolskoye .-The battle:...
. According to another version, Barayev and his men merely bribed their way out of Komsomolskoye while leaving Gelayev and his people to their fate. The incident led to the declaration of revenge on the part of Gelayev, whose fighters then blew up several houses belonging to Barayev in his home village of Alkhan-Kala near Grozny, killed a number of his men, and even attempted to assassinate Barayev in Ingushetia. According to federal authorities, more than 40 Chechens died as a result of these clashes.
Chechen surgeon Khassan Baiev
Khassan Baiev
Dr. Khassan Baiev is a Chechen-American trauma surgeon who upheld the Hippocratic oath to treat thousands of civilians and combatants on both sides of the First and Second Chechen Wars, including Russian soldiers and Chechen fighters....
, who amputated a portion of the leg of Shamil Basayev
Shamil Basayev
Shamil Salmanovich Basayev was a Chechen militant Islamist and a leader of the Chechen rebel movement.Starting as a field commander in the Transcaucasus, Basayev led guerrilla campaigns against the Russian troops for years, as well as launching mass-hostage takings of civilians, with his goal...
after his injury on a mine field, also had operated on Salman Raduyev and Arbi Barayev himself; however, Barayev promised to kill him because he would also help the wounded Russian soldiers. Baiev described Barayev as "a born killer, and his men were desperados with blood vendettas proclaimed against them for murder. They joined Barayev for protection against the avengers in an endless cycle of violence. ... He owned a stable of expensive foreign cars, had several wives, and moved around with an escort of twenty to thirty guards. Everyone assumed that he was in the pay of Russian intelligence. Relatives of Arbi Barayev publicly denounced him for his crimes, saying that the family announced in the courtyard of the mosque that if anyone killed him, they would relinquish all claims. There would be no blood revenge
Feud
A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another...
." Facing death threats from Barayev as well as from the federal side, Baiev was eventually forced to flee Chechnya abroad.
Following the Russian occupation of most of Chechnya, Barayev freely lived in Alkhan-Kala and frequently passed through Russian checkpoints without any problems using identity papers of an FSB officer. He was also not included in the lists of people wanted "for participation in illegal armed groups". Once arrested, he was said to be instantly released by the demand of Beslan Gantamirov, then the leading figure in the pro-Moscow government. In May 2000, the Russian military intelligence GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
officer leaked papers about Barayev's affiliation with FSB to a Chechen journalist. In April 2001, Barayev's men allegedly ambushed and killed Viktor Popkov
Viktor Popkov
Viktor Alekseyevich Popkov Виктор Алексеевич Попков was a Russian dissident, humanitarian, human rights activist and journalist. He spent the last 15 years of his life in the hot spots of the falling Soviet Union, including the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, the Nagorno-Karabakh War and the war in...
, a Russian dissident working in Chechnya as an aid worker and human rights activist since 1995, in the close vicinity of a military roadblock. According to the U.S. Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
, Barayev sent a group of his fighters to train in Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in the spring of the same year.
Death
On June 22, 2001, Barayev was reported killed during a raid by the Russian military special forces on Alkhan-Kala. According to a Russian military spokesman, 17 Chechens and at least one soldier were killed in the operation. Previously, Barayev had been reported killed by the Russian media several times but every time he re-emerged unscathed, but this time the Kavkaz CenterKavkaz Center
The Kavkaz Center is a privately run website by pro-Chechen which aims to be "a Chechen internet agency which is independent, international and Islamic" that "does not represent the viewpoint of any state structures"...
announced that "special Islamic commander Arbi Barayev has become a martyr."
According to the another version of Barayev's death, the GRU decided to get rid of him after the suspicious death of FSB chief Vice-Admiral German Ugryumov
German Ugryumov
German Alexeyevich Ugryumov was a Soviet and Russian navy and security services official. During his childhood he lived in Chelyabinsk Oblast.-Naval counterintelligence career:...
, who allegedly provided cover (krysha) for Barayev. In a well-prepared five-day operation, GRU agents recruited from the Chechen in blood feud with Arbayev searched for him in Alkhan-Kala and then stormed a local FSB base where he ran for cover, killing an FSB agent in the process. Barayev has been allegedly captured alive and then tortured to death.
His body was given to his immediate family for a funeral (in contrast, when Maskhadov was killed in 2005, he was buried by the Russians in an unmarked secret grave), he was however barred from being buried in his home village by the local people. In October 2002, the widow of Barayev, Zura Barayeva
Zura Barayeva
Zura Barayeva was the widow of Arbi Barayev, a notorious Chechen warlord. She was killed during the Moscow theater hostage crisis in October 2002, in which she headed a female unit.A former hostage described her:...
, was killed while taking part in the Moscow hostage crisis
Moscow theater hostage crisis
The Moscow theater hostage crisis, also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege, was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater on 23 October 2002 by some 40 to 50 armed Chechens who claimed allegiance to the Islamist militant separatist movement in Chechnya. They took 850 hostages and demanded the...
. The attack was led by the Arbi's 22-year old nephew and successor Movsar
Movsar Barayev
Movsar Buharovich Barayev , earlier known as Suleimanov, was a Chechen and militia leader during the Second Chechen War, who led the seizure of a Moscow theater that led to the deaths of over 170 people.-Life:...
, who also died during the incident. The remnants of Barayev's group were reportedly integrated into the mainstream rebel forces following the theatre seizure.
External links
- Rebel leader's notorious family, BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 23 October 2002 - CHECHEN SHAHEED "ARBI BARAYEV"(ALLAH BLESS HIS SOUL), Live Leak