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Akhmed Zakayev

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Akhmed Zakayev
Ахмед Халидович Закаев
Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Incumbent
Assumed office
November 2007
Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Foreign Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
In office
1997 – November 20, 2007
Personal details
Born (1956-04-26) 26 April 1956 (age 68)
Soviet Union Kirovskiy, Soviet Union
ProfessionActor

Akhmed Khalidovich Zakayev (Template:Lang-ru) (born April 26, 1956 in Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) is the former Deputy Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister of the unrecognised Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was also the Foreign Minister of the Ichkerian government, appointed by the President Aslan Maskhadov shortly after his 1997 election, and again in 2006 by Abdul Halim Sadulayev. Russia has accused him of being a leading Chechen field commander and of overseeing murders and kidnappings..

Early life

Akhmed Zakayev was born in 1956 in the settlement of Kirovskiy in Kazakhstan, where his family was deported by Stalin along with the rest of the Chechens in 1944. He graduated from the acting and choreography schools in Voronezh and Moscow and worked as an actor at a Grozny theatre, specializing in a Shakespearean roles. Since 1991, he was the chairman of the Chechen Union of the Theatrical Actors. In 1994, Zakayev became a Minister of Culture in the Chechen separatist government of Dzhokhar Dudayev.

The Chechen wars and the interwar period

After the Russian forces invaded Chechnya, starting of the First Chechen War, Zakayev left his job and took up weapons. He took part in the battle of Grozny in 1994-1995 while serving as a minor commander under the command of Ruslan Gelayev and then led the defence of the village Goyskoye in 1995. After this, the armed group under his command operated in the south-west part of Chechnya, with its headquarters in the town of Urus-Martan. He was eventually promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and appointed the commander of the Urus-Martan Front. In February 1996, he became commander of the entire Western Group of Defense of Ichkeria. In August 1996, Zakayev's forces took part in the decisive raid on Grozny, where he personally led the attack on the city's central railway station and then the siege of a major Russian military site. His war merits paved Zakayev's way to Chechen high politics. He became the acting president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev's advisor for the security matters and the secretary of the Chechen Security Council and represented Chechnya at the peace talks in Khasav-Yurt, which brought a peaceful end to the first armed conflict between Moscow and Grozny.

After the war, Zakayev became the Chechen Deputy Prime Minister (in charge of education and culture) and a special envoy of the elected President of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov in relations with Moscow, taking part in the delegation that signed the official Chechen-Russian peace treaty at the Kremlin in 1997. During the interwar period period, he opposed the rise of radical Islam in Chechnya and co-authored a book titled Wahhabism - the Kremlin's remedy against national liberation movements, associating the Islamist extremism with the Soviet global pro-terrorist policy and the support for dictatorships in the Muslim world. During the early phases of the Second Chechen War in 1999-2000, Zakayev commanded Maskhadov's presidential guard; he was also involved in negotiations with Russian representatives before and during the resumed hostilities. In 2000, after having been wounded in a car accident during the new siege of Grozny, he left Chechnya for treatment. After this he stayed abroad, he turned into the most prominent representative of President Maskhadov in Western Europe, with Ilyas Akhmadov being the Chechen emissary to the United States.

In exile

Since January 2002, Zakayev and his immediate family are residing permanently in the United Kingdom. On November 18, 2001, Zakayev, officially internationally wanted by Russia, flew from Turkey to the Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow to meet the Kremlin's envoy, General Viktor Kazantsev for the high-level talks since the start of the war. Unfortunately, these negotiations were fruitless because Kazantsev demanded a complete capitulation of the Chechen side, with the only acceptable topic for the Russian side being the disarmament of Chechen fighters and their re-integration into civilian life. On July 18, 2002, Zakayev also met with the former Secretary of Security Council of Russia Ivan Rybkin in Zürich, Switzerland.

After receiving the political asylum in Britain in 2003, Zakayev lives in London and he visited several countries (including France, Germany and Poland) without being arrested. During the September 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis, Zakayev agreed with the civilian negotiators and authorities of North Ossetia-Alania to fly to Russia to negotiate with the hostage takers. However, the siege ended in bloody confusion just few hours before this could happen. As an envoy of Maskhadov, he also met in London with the representatives of the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia in February 2005, where they agreed on a peace proposal centered around a gradual cessation of violence by rebels corresponding with the three-week ceasefire unilaterally declared by Maskhadov (who once again called for President of Russia Vladimir Putin to negotiate). These efforts were ignored by the Russian government and Maskhadov was soon killed by the Russian forces in Chechnya.

On October 31, 2007, Zakayev officially distanced himself from the newly-resigned Chechen separatist leader Doku Umarov and the Chechen Islamist ideologist Movladi Udugov who together had declared the creation of Caucasus Emirate. In response, Zakayev called for the remnants of the separatist parliament to form the new government and salvage legitimacy. Soon after, on November 20, 2007, Zakayev has submitted his resignation from the ministerial post, but said this should not be viewed as a departure from "the fight for our independence, our freedom, and for the recognition of our state". In November 2007 Zakayev announced that a meeting of parliamentaries remaining loyal to the idea of Ichkeria elected him the Prime Minister of the Chechen government in exile. In September 2008, Ramzan Kadyrov said he was now trying to persuade Chechens refugees and exiles to return, including Akhmed Zakayev, whom Kadyrov described as "a valuable artist who would be welcome to return to help revive Chechnya's cultural heritage." Zakayev (as well as Alla Dudayeva, the widow of the first Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev) also accused Udugov of being a paid agent provocateur for the Russia's FSB.

Russian extradition demands

In October 2002, Zakayev organized the World Chechen Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark (which was attended among others by the former first speaker of the State Duma, Ruslan Khasbulatov). During the congress, Zakayev was accused by Russia of involvement in planning of the Moscow theater hostage crisis. He was detained there on October 30, 2002, under an Interpol warrant filed by Russia, which named him a suspect in the theater siege. Zakayev denied involvement in the theater capture. He was held in Denmark for five weeks and then released due to lack of evidence, as Russia's formal extradition request did not include any evidence linking him to the siege.

On December 7, 2002, Zakayev returned to the UK but the British authorities arrested him briefly on the London Heathrow Airport; he was released on 50,000 GBP bail, which was paid British actress Vanessa Redgrave. He was accused by Russian authorities of 13 crimes, ranging from armed rebellion and involvement in "murders" of hundreds of servicemen, to kidnappings of civilians and executions of hostages, to planning terrorist attacks. Zakayev welcomed the British deportation hearings as an opportunity to put his case before an international public. One accusation, cutting fingers of a suspected FSB informer Ivan Solovyov, was based on a written testimony by the former Zakayev's bodyguard Duk-Vakha Dushuyev provided by Russian authorities; however, it appeared that Solovyev had lost his fingers much earlier to frostbite. Dushuyev himself has escaped from Russia and then in a dramatic statement told the court that he was tortured at a Russian army base with electric shocks to extort the false testimony to be used against Zakayev. In another accusation, Father Sergei, one of two Russian Orthodox Church priests allegedly murdered by Zakayev, turned out to be in fact still alive. The witness Reverend Filipp, allegedly kidnapped by Zakayev in 1996, also refuted his supposed testimony and even denounced Russian authorities for "implicating the Church in politics". Leading Russian human rights activist Sergei Kovalev told the court Zakayev would be at risk of death in Russian captivity (Kovalev spoke about two high-profile Chechen prisoners, field commanders Salman Raduyev and Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev, who died soon after being jailed in Russia, and of another, parliamentary speaker Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev, who has "disappeared" without trace after his arrest in 2000). According to Alexander Goldfarb, one of the defence’s most important arguments was the 2001 meeting between Zakayev and General Kazantsev, which took place when the Chechen envoy had already been put by Russia on the international wanted list and during which the Kremlin's spokesman on Chechnya Sergei Yastrzhembsky ("Mr Y" according to the court documents) appeared on television saying that Russian government had no grievances against Zakayev. Therefore, on November 13, 2003, Judge Timothy Workman rejected the Russian request, deciding that it was politically motivated and that Zakayev would be at risk of torture in the case of "unjust and oppressive" extradition. The judge also said the crimes which involved Zakayev allegedly using armed force against combatants were not extraditable because they took place in the situation of internal armed conflict. Russian authorities in turn responded by accusing the court of double standards. On November 29, 2003, it was announced that Zakayev had been granted political asylum in the UK.

In London, Zakayev became a close friend to the Russian dissident and former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, later murdered by radioactive poisoning in November 2006; Zakayev accused the Russian President Putin of ordering the death of Litvinenko. In 2007, British police warned Zakayev that there was an increased threat to his personal security shortly before the alleged attempt to kill Berezovsky by the FSB-connected Chechen gangster Movladi Atlangeriyev (or "Mr A"). According to the KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky in 2008, Zakayev was placed #2 on the FSB assassination list, between Berezovsky and Litvinenko. In January 2008, Zakayev's name showed up on the purpoted hit list of the pro-Moscow President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov's enemies abroad to be killed, which was published on the Internet following the murder of the Chechen dissident Umar Israilov (a former bodyguard of Kadyrov who was shot dead after receiving asylum in Austria).

Possible return from exile

On February 11 2009, Ramzan Kadyrov said he personally invited Zakayev to return to Chechnya if he doesn't want to be "used by special services and other forces against Russia". At the same time, Russia's ambassador in London, said Britain had turned into a "sanctuary" for Russia's fugitive, including Zakayev, still-wanted on terrorism charges. In an interview for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Zakayev claimed to rebuff the Chechen president's reported offer and said that Kadyrov was only following the Kremlin's orders; he also reinstates this stance two days later in the interview for the BBC Russian Service. Nevertheless, on February 17, the Russian state agency RIA Novosti agency wrote that Zakayev allegedly announced his intentions to return to Chechnya and "work for a lasting peace" in the republic. According to the Caucasus Emirate's mouthpiece Kavkaz Center, Zakayev, who may be granted amnesty, stated his readiness to return and "contribute to a long-term peace in the region" in an interview for Ekho Moskvy on the same day.

See also

References

  1. UK actress defends Chechen rebel
  2. Chechen accused of terror acts
  3. Moscow Gives More Evidence On Zakayev, The St. Petersburg Times, December 3, 2002
  4. Risky Walk in Rebel-Held Chechen Capital, The New York Times, August 14, 1996
  5. Chechnya: The Turning Point That Wasn't, RFE/RL, May 11, 2007
  6. Moscow opens Chechnya peace talks, BBC News, 18 November, 2001
  7. Russian, Chechen Rebel Envoy Hold First Talks Since War Began, Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2001
  8. Kremlin and Rebel Envoys Discuss Peace for Chechnya, The New York Times, November 19, 2001
  9. Russia opens talks with Chechens, CNN, November 19, 2001
  10. Chechnya Peace Talks Get Under Way, The St. Petersburg Times, November 20, 2001
  11. Long negotiations with unclear results, Prague Watchdog, November 16th 2001
  12. Prominent Candidates for Russia's Presidency, Pravda, 12.01.2004
  13. Zakayev Was Asked to Assist in Negotiations at the School, The Moscow Times, September 6, 2004.
  14. New Details Emerge on Maskhadov's Bid to Mediate in Beslan, The Jamestown Foundation, January 06, 2006
  15. Communication Breakdown, TIME, September 12, 2004
  16. Statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Chechenpress, October 31, 2007
  17. Foreign Minister Of Chechen Separatist Government Resigns, RFE/RL, November 20, 2007
  18. As a result of “telephone voting”, Zakayev has declared himself a "prime minister" of Ichkeria, Kavkaz Center, 25 November 2007
  19. The Putin-Osama Connection, Frontpage Magazine, January 16, 2008
  20. US 'provoked Russia-Georgia war', BBC News, 10 September 2008
  21. Kadyrov officially invites Zakayev to Chechnya to lead the revival of culture, Kavkaz Center, 11 September 2008
  22. Russia: Is North Caucasus Resistance Still Serious Threat?, RFE/RL, November 01, 2007
  23. Russian to the Core, TIME, November 03, 2002
  24. ^ Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. "Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB." Free Press, New York, 2007. ISBN 978-1416551652.
  25. Russia pushes for Chechen extradition, BBC News, 2 November 2002
  26. Denmark frees top Chechen envoy, BBC News, 3 December, 2002
  27. Zakayev Evidence On Shaky Ground, The St. Petersburg Times, November 19, 2002
  28. Prosecutor details accusations against Zakaev, RFE/RL, 5 November 2002
  29. Chechen accused of terror acts, BBC News, 9 June, 2003
  30. Zakayev Welcomes Deportation Trial, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 21-Feb-03
  31. Key witness in Chechen extradition case 'was tortured', The Independent, 25 July 2003
  32. Evidence gathered by torture, BBC News, 31 July, 2003
  33. Kadyrov Accused of Intimidation,The St. Petersburg Times, September 9, 2003
  34. Zakayev saved by Mr Y, Gazeta.Ru, 2003/07/01
  35. Court rejects Chechen extradition, BBC News, 13 November, 2003
  36. Judge rejects bid to extradite Chechen rebel leader, The Guardian, November 13, 2003
  37. Russia Loses Fight Over Chechen's Extradition, The New York Times, November 29, 2008
  38. Chechen rebel defeats Putin's extradition plea, The Telegraph, 13/11/2003
  39. Russian request to extradite Chechen exile is turned down, The Independent, 14 November 2003
  40. UK accused of hypocrisy on terror, BBC News, 13 November, 2003
  41. Chechen envoy granted UK asylum, BBC News, 9 November 2003
  42. Litvinenko laid to rest in historic Highgate, The Telegraph, 08/12/2006
  43. Zakaev says Putin was behind Litvinenko's murder, Kavkaz Center, 8 December 2006
  44. Police feared assassination for two Russian dissidents, The Guardian, July 22, 2007
  45. Police probe 'new KGB poison attack' as defector Gordievsky is found unconscious in Surrey home, Daily Mail, 6 April 2008
  46. Slain exile's family warns of death list, The Australian, January 26, 2009
  47. Kadyrov Invites Zakayev To Return to Chechnya, The Moscow Times, 11 February 2009
  48. Zakayev Rebuffs Chechen President's Reported Offer, RFE/RL, February 11, 2009
  49. Template:Ru icon Закаев говорит, что не намерен возвращаться, BBC Russian Service, 10 February 2009
  50. Zakayev says that he is not intended to return, Chechenpress, February, 12th 2009
  51. "Exiled Chechen Zakayev hopes to return to motherland". RIA Novosti. 2009-02-17. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  52. According to Zakayev, Kadyrov can unite the Chechen society, Kavkaz Center, 17 February 2009

External links

Articles

Leaders of Chechnya (1991–present)
 Chechen Republic
(since 1993)
 Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
(1991–2007)
Acting officeholders shown in italics.
Categories: