Chechen fighters in the Russian service
Another former Chechen underground fighter has legalized himself. The country has ignored a process that has long ago become irreversible and is approaching its logical final form. The surviving members of Dudayev and Maskhad returned to Grozny and again received weapons from Russia.
Bai-Ali Tevsiev took a good post in the Grozny mayor's office. He was appointed deputy head of the city for religion. Tevsiev's personality is interesting. The fact is that in 1999-2000, that is, under Maskhadov, he was the mufti of Ichkeria. It was Bai-Ali who then personally declared ghazavat (holy war) to the federals. After Russian units occupied Chechnya, he went abroad. Until 2009 he was in Austria. Then he returned, lectured on the history of radical Islamic movements in the Central Mosque named after. Akhmat Kadyrov. Studied at the Syrian State University and the Austrian Islamic Academy.
However, Tevsiev is not the only resistance activist who sided with the federals. For example, there is such an adviser to the Chechen President Shaa Turlaev. A wonderful character. In the past, he commanded the guards of Aslan Maskhadov. Surrendered in 2004. He was seriously injured. He "came out of the forest" and laid down his arms. And here is Adam Delimkhanov. Now he is a deputy of the State Duma. In the second half of the 1990s, he worked as a driver for the famous field commander Salman Raduev. He joined the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation in 2000. Or Magomed Khambiev, a deputy of the current Chechen parliament, who used to be a brigadier general, led the battalion named after. Baysangur Benoevsky, National Guard of Ichkeria. He capitulated in March 2004, as four dozen of his relatives were taken hostage. At one time, the deputy chairman of the Chechen government, Magomed Daudov, was partisans against the army. Mufti of Chechnya Sultan Mirzoev in June - December 1999 headed the Ichkerian Supreme Sharia Court. After all, even Ramzan Kadyrov himself fought for the militants during the first campaign.
Naturally, from the point of view of history, there is nothing surprising here. In the 19th century, many naibs (governors) of the legendary Imam Shamil became Russian subjects and served the empire. Although their oath did not give any guarantees to the tsarist government. The historian Vladimir Lapin writes: “The recruitment of a former enemy, the rewarding of him with a high rank (up to and including the general), the payment of a large salary was considered by the highlanders not as a royal favor, but as a hidden form of tribute, as a payment for loyalty. Therefore, it is just as inappropriate in such a situation to talk about the “venality” of khans or beks, since this was an element of the political culture of the region … This form of relations allowed both sides to save face, and the nobility also found justification for their refusal to continue the war with the Russians”.
The tradition of accepting former enemies took place, for example, in South America during the Spanish conquest. There the phenomenon was so widespread that it contributed to the emergence of a whole new social stratum, and in the future - a new ethnos. “And when Quesada conquered this territory, calling it New Grenada, then he captured these aristocrats (native. - DK), capturing them, of course, baptized them and made them his confidants … The Inca and Aztec leaders were given the title“don”, then there were ranked among the nobility, and they did not pay taxes, but had only to serve as a weapon to the Spanish king. Marriages of Spaniards with Indian women immediately became commonplace”(L. Gumilyov). A similar system operated in Iran under the Safavids, in the 16th-18th centuries. The Persians have ravaged Georgia more than once. But, as the historian Zurab Avalov notes, “as Persian nobles, they (Georgian princes - DK) sometimes play a prominent role in Persia, often occupying the first positions of the state. But their strength in Persia, of course, was based on the fact that they had certain resources as Georgian kings. And so, tying up on the basis of the Iranian policy, the kings and the first princes gradually drew a lot of Georgians into Persian affairs. In particular, Georgian detachments as part of the Shah's armies went to fight in Afghanistan.
In present-day Chechnya, Kadyrov's power structures are staffed mainly with amnestied militants. These are battalions "North" and "South", regiments of the UVO, PPSM-1, PPSM-2. In April 2006, ex-Prime Minister of the republic Mikhail Babich quite definitely spoke about them: “You shouldn't be fooled that these are regular units that will carry out federal tasks. Apparently, these are parts that will perform some of their tasks. But how much they will correlate with the tasks of the federal center is unknown. " Kadyrov used the bulk of the surrendered to the maximum benefit for himself. He offered them a new idea - the idea of Chechnya under his banner. And people followed him. At the same time, they have not lost their previous contacts linking them with the forest. In addition, the status of Ramzan's loyal comrades-in-arms provided them with protection from blood feuds and the opportunity to carry out blood feud without fear of retaliation, since the attacker and his family would automatically be included in the ranks of gang members officially subject to destruction.
Moreover, in 2010, the ranks of the Kadyrovites began to replenish at the expense of the mobilized republican youth. In particular, 100 young men were sent to the Sever battalion. Although this summer, a very bad story received publicity. The fighters of the said battalion and the deputy commander Abdul Mutaliev turned out to be the direct participants in the mess. The bottom line is that in February, in a shootout near the Chechen village of Alkhazurov, four servicemen from the Ufa and one Armavir special detachment of the Internal Troops were killed. Combing the forest, Ufa and Armavirians moved ahead. Their Chechen colleagues are behind them. We went out to the militants. The wheelhouse began. The commandos blamed the "northerners" for the big losses. In their opinion, they conveyed to the dushmans the coordinates of the location of the veveshniki and supported the underground fighters with fire. As evidence, they published a printout of the negotiations. According to Ufa residents, one of the “subscribers” is Mutaliev. President of the Association of Veterans of Anti-Terror Units "Alpha" Sergei Goncharov then explained: “Those police officers who now serve in the battalion crossed from one side to the other several times. They still retain the mentality of mountain fighters, and policemen's certificates do not oblige them to do much."
Of course, there is no doubt that in the "North" Chechen conscripts will be taught how to fight well. But, probably, the best base could be the Vostok battalion of Sulim Yamadayev, which has a fundamentally different history, which, unfortunately, does not exist at the moment. His veterans under Dudaev fought against federal forces, but in 1999 they took the side of the Russian Federation. Ex-mujahideen were not taken to the unit. According to some information, in the spring of 2008, Yamadayev had 580 bayonets, and in November - 284. However, according to other sources, earlier "Vostok" had up to 1,500 soldiers. He was a serious obstacle for the Chechen head on the way to full control over the republic. In fact, the conflict between Kadyrov and the Yamadayev brothers has been smoldering for a long time. After the "second coming" of the Russian army, a dispute arose over whom Moscow would stake. Moscow has relied on the Kadyrovs. First on the father. And after his death (in 2004) and on his son. True, for some time Mr. Alkhanov was listed as president. The head of Vostok, who was nominally subordinate to the Ministry of Defense, remained on the sidelines. But he did not bow to Kadyrov Jr. In April 2008, Sulim's people clashed with the Kadyrovites in Gudermes. Then some of the Yamadayevites were lured to the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs. They went to the department, but they refused to issue them there. In the future, "Vostok" showed itself excellently in military operations on the territory of South Ossetia. Then Sulim was removed from office, the battalion was disbanded.
Well, as for the Kadyrovites operating in the Caucasus, today they are loyal to their leader. As long as he swears loyalty to the Kremlin, these people will not fight for independence. If the situation changes, then the consequences can be any, up to the most catastrophic. We already have a sad experience. Let us recall Shamil Basayev and his battalion of the KNK (Confederation of the Peoples of the Caucasus), trained with the participation of the GRU to work in Abkhazia, and then met Russian tanks with effective grenade launcher fire on the streets of Grozny on December 31, 1994. It goes without saying that the Kadyrovtsy cannot go anywhere. The ideal solution is the creation of one or two new national units in parallel, through which Chechen recruits would pass. Veterans of the same "Vostok" are quite suitable for the positions of instructors. Only there is a "small" problem. This option contradicts the party line.
