A clearer picture emerged yesterday of the short, violent life of Sulim Yamadayev, a man who played a bloody part in Russia's subjugation of the Muslim republic of Chechnya and who was assassinated in Dubai on Sunday. Yamadayev's notoriety sprang not only from the activities of his shadowy Vostok battalion but also from his Muslim family's betrayal of the Chechen cause: having fought the Russians in the 1994-96 war of independence, the Yamadayev clan switched sides to fight alongside federal troops sent back into the country by Vladimir Putin in 1999.
Yamadayev led the battalion after his brother Dzhabrail was killed by a car bomb in 2003, and both he and another brother, Ruslan, were awarded Hero of Russia medals by the Kremlin. Ruslan was shot dead in Moscow in September. According to the Russian news agency Novosti, Sulim Yamadayev was dismissed as commander of the Vostok battalion last August over his alleged involvement in the 1998 abduction and murder of a Chechen businessman.
Yesterday Dima Beliakov, a Russian photographer who met Yamadayev several times during both Chechen conflicts, spoke about the man he said was "just like an animal", but whom he nevertheless "respected for his life experience and what he was doing in the second Chechen campaign". "I met him briefly during the first campaign," said Beliakov, speaking from Moscow. "He was not famous then. In the second campaign, everyone knew him."
His first impression, he said, was that "he was just like an animal, jumping from one foot to another, very aggressive". Wounded "16 times, probably", Yamadayev was shell-shocked, said Beliakov. "He was a war junkie, a fighter, his life was war and he enjoyed it. He just needed a target." Beliakov said that in 1995 and 1996, before he switched sides, Yamadayev had twice saved the life of Shamil Basayev, the man who went on to mastermind the 2004 Beslan school siege in which more than 300 hostages, half of them children, died.
He claimed Yamadayev, who he said had a softer side as a husband and family man, had lived to regret saving his former comrade's life from the Russians. On the human-rights abuses attributed to Yamadayev and his men, Beliakov said he had not witnessed any killings but had seen people kidnapped and prisoners tortured. Nevertheless, "there are no black and white people in war, only grey. I know for sure each side was carrying out atrocities".
Photographs on Beliakov's website lend credibility to the horror stories. One, taken in 2005, is of the remains of what Beliakov describes as an "Islamite rebel", who supposedly blew himself up with a hand grenade to avoid falling into the hands of the Vostok fighters. Others show hooded men pointing guns at the heads of cowering prisoners who were captured, according to Beliakov, "during a hunt for the murderer of a Vostok relative".
It is unclear whether the Dubai authorities knew Yamadayev was living in the city, or whether he was doing so under his own name or an alias, but any doubt that Russia still regarded him as one of its own was extinguished yesterday. Just hours before Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, was due to meet President Dmitry Medvedev and Mr Putin, the Russian prime minister, in Moscow at the start of two days of discussions on bilateral ties, the Kremlin issued its first official statement on the killing.
Andrei Nesterenko, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, said Moscow was giving its "fullest attention" to the investigation. "There can be no other way," he said, "when we are talking about a citizen of our country, much less a Hero of Russia." One nation's hero is frequently another's villain, and that was how Yamadayev was seen by many Chechens. To broaden his range of potential enemies further, his family was also out of favour with Ramzan Kadyrov, who became president of Chechnya in 2007.
Although both men had fought originally for the rebel cause and switched allegiance to the Kremlin, tensions between them boiled over last year and, according to a front-page report in yesterday's Moscow Times, the Chechen government put Yamadayev on a "wanted" list for murder. Yesterday, however, President Kadyrov told the state-run Interfax news agency that Chechen police were ready to assist Dubai authorities with the investigation into Yamadayev's death.
"But for this to happen," he said, "the appropriate order must come from federal authorities." Asked about the murder, Mr Kadyrov said: "I can only judge from media reports, but these have been entirely contradictory." It was the second violent death in the Jumeirah Beach Residence in under a year. In July, Suzanne Tamim, a Lebanese singer, was killed in her apartment. Yesterday, however, residents appeared largely unperturbed. "It could have happened anywhere," said Eman el Shafei from Egypt. "It just so happened here and I am not put off by it. If it was a robbery or another serious crime I'd be concerned."
Darya Yurkia, from Perm in Russia, was less sanguine. "A lot of people are talking about Russian crime and the stereotypes associated with it here," she said. "I am very proud to be Russian - but not to be associated with this." * The National
