Chechnya - Shamil Basayev

The million dollar man. Or so the Russians think by, putting that price on his head. Basayev thinks its an insult. Shamil Basayev was born in 1963 in Vedeno, Vedeno District, Chechen Republic. Vedeno is famous for the fortress where the great Chechen leader Iman Shamyl surrendered to Russian forces 100 years earlier. He is married to two wives and moves around quite a bit. He has three brothers. One was killed during the fighting in Vedeno at the beginning of 1995. An older brother, Shirvani Basayev, was a commandant of the city of Bamut.

In 1987, Basayev enrolled at the Moscow Institute of Land-Tenure Regulations Engineers. In August 1991, in one of history's stranger events, he defended Boris Yeltsin with a couple of hand grenades during the takeover of the White House in Moscow. In 1991, he returned to Chechnya from Russia and joined the Confederation of the People of the Caucasus (KHK), working his way up to commander in 1992. He fought in Abkhazia against the Georgians and Russians in August of 1992. He also fought alongside the Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh. He went to Afghanistan between April and July 1994 for training at the Khowst camps. In the summer of 1994 he fought at Dzhokhar Dudayev's side. His most famous action was on June 14, 1995, when he took the hospital in the city of Budyonnousk, Russia. He says he was actually on his way to Moscow but ran out of bribe money. His goal was to destroy Yeltsin's credibility at the upcoming June 16 G-7 Summit in Halifax, Canada. During the standoff with 150 heavily armed Chechens, an old woman walked up to the Chechens in the hospital and asked them what the name of the movie they were shooting was. It got weirder. On the 18th, Victor Chernomyrdin, the Russian prime minister, appeared live on Russian television to conduct hostage negotiations with Basayev. His daring raid worked and the process of peace negotiations began.

In April 1996, he was elected commander of the armed forces of the Chechen Republic. In December 1996, he left the post of the commander in order to be a candidate for president of the Chechen Republic in forthcoming elections. On January 27, 1997, he pulled in only 23.5 percent of the voters, finishing in second place behind the winner, Aslan Maskhadov.

Then, in late 1997, Maskhadov issued a decree appointing Shamil Basayev acting premier for the duration of Maskhadov's trip to Turkey. Shamil Basayev had just resumed his post of first deputy premier. (Since Basayev had submitted his resignation from the post back in the summer, Maskhadov refused to sign the decree on Basayev's resignation.) In early December, President Aslan Maskhadov announced that he would transfer some of his authority as premier to First Vice Premier Shamil Basayev.

On January 1, 1998, Maskhadov dismissed his cabinet and tasked Basayev with forming a new government with 22 ministers instead of the then 45. Maskhadov expected to remain both the president and prime minister of Chechnya. However, Basayev was increasing his powers and influence, and let it be known he preferred to become Chechnya's prime minister.

In Augsut of '99 when Russian units attacked Chechen villages in Dagestan he and Khattab put together a crusading group of fighters to push back the Russians. This was one of the triggers of the '99-'00 war along with the apartment bombings that Moscow blamed on the Chechens but never actually proved. He lost his right foot in the Feb. '00 retreat from Grozny.

http://www.-cgsc.army.mil/milveu /english.mayjjun97/finch.htm