Chechnya - Dzhokhar Dudayev

Looking and acting surprisingly like Boris Badenov of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame, Dzhokhar (pronounced Jokar) Dudayev was a Muslim and a former general in the Soviet air force. He was a member of the Myalkhir Hill Clan, a very unpopular clan amongst other Chechens. The Myalkhir Hill Clan is poor, feisty and treacherous-sort of the Chechen equivalent of our white trash without the mobile homes.

Dudayev delivered on his promise of a gazavat, or holy war, when Moscow invaded his tiny gangster kingdom. Dudayev hated Russians (who weren't too fond of him, either-even those opposed to the war and Boris Yeltsin alike).

Dudayev's men were led by Basayev, veterans of the war in Abkhazia, where they are mildly related and supportive of the 20-odd clans that are fighting the Russians there. Dudayev's son was killed during the Russian assault on Grozny. Dzhokar Dudayev was elected president of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic on a nationalist separatist platform in October 1991, and immediately told Russia to get stuffed. He knew the strategic and economic value of not only the pipelines but the smuggled contraband that crosses Chechnya. It took a year and a half for Moscow to figure out what to do. In April 1993, Dudayev disbanded the Chechen parliament. The next month, a series of skirmishes developed into war leading to heavy street fighting in Grozny during the summer of 1993. Moscow still hadn't figured out what to do, so they did what they do in all emerging fistfights-they bet on both sides. Both Chechen loyalists and Chechen independence groups used Russian equipment, soldiers and mercenaries. The alliance that swung the tide was the Chechen mafyia, which backed Dudayev and provided intel from corrupt intelligence officers and a flow of weapons. DP can confirm that Dudayev is dead but his spirit is very much alive throughout Chechnya.