According to Sulim Yamadaev, former militants that became officials of enforcement bodies are chasing the fighters of his battalion.
Photo: Yury Tutov
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“Many People Tell Me Ramzan Did It”
In his first interview after the murder of his brother Ruslan Yamadaev, ex-commander of Vostok Battalion, Hero of Russia Sulim Yamadaev rejected the stories given by detectives and Chechnya’s President Ramzan Kadyrov. Half-Colonel Yamadaev said his family had no blood feud or business clashes that could have led to the assassination. At the same time, Sulim Yamadaev specified that he doesn’t believe in Kadyrov’s involvement either.
Sulim Yamadaev didn’t attend funeral of his brother Ruslan, or Khalid, as they call him in Chechnya. “I wanted to go, I still want to go. But late on Thursday, when I left the house, I had a call that forced me to come back,” he told Kommersant correspondent Olga Allenova. “They said Khalid had been probably killed to make me go to Chechnya. They said as soon as I appeared in Chechnya, they would kill me. And it would lead to very bad consequences… The family wanted a peaceful funeral. I don’t want my brother’s funeral to turn into new grief for anyone. But Allah knows how hard it was for me not to go.”
"Many people tell me Ramzan did it. But I don’t want to believe that Ramzan went as far as killing the members of my family. He isn’t just anyone, but the president of the republic. I knew his father. I was like a son to Ahmat-Hadji. We are from one tape. How could he have done it? The murders like that are very dangerous in Chechnya. And Ramzan is well aware of it. And I think many people knew it. They knew we had been in conflict with Ramzan recently, knew that killing such man as Khalid would lead to nothing good. And those people killed Khalid to clash me with Ramzan,” Sulim said.
“The next day after Khalid was killed, I was given to read an Internet report, whereby I allegedly was at the brother’s funeral in Gudermes, saying: “I will kill Ramzan when Ramadan is over.” I couldn’t believe my eyes – I haven’t spoken with journalists after the death of Khalid, my phone is switched off and I could be approached only through my people. You are the first with whom I speak. And I didn’t go to the funeral. And that report emerged a day before Khalid was buried… There, they refer to Reuters, but I repeat I have talked to no one, I wasn’t in Gudermes,” Sulim emphasized, giving it as a proof that someone was attempting to set him at Kadyrov.
Asked about Ramzan Kadyrov’s meeting in the Kremlin on the day of his assassination, Sulim said he didn’t know whether the meeting took place. “He picked up Sergei Nikolaevich [General Kizyun, former commandant of Chechnya], with whom he was to go to that meeting. But whether or not they reached it, I don’t know. Khalid himself was to call in the evening,” Sulim said.
As to the difficulties of Vostok Battalion, Sulim Yamadaev said that former militants that became officials of enforcement bodies in Chechnya are chasing fighters of his battalion.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 29, 2008
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