Chechen Commander Killed in Moscow
// Movladi Baisarov, former commander of the Gorets special division
The Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic carried out a special operation in Moscow Saturday evening. Former commander of the Gorets (“Mountaineer”) special division, FSB Col. Movladi Baisarov was killed on Leninsky Prospekt. The Chechen prosecutor's office had declared a search Baisarov on charges of kidnapping and murder after he refused to subordinate himself to Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and disbanded the Gorets division. His killing was possible because the FSB removed his guards and Baisarov decided to give evidence on kidnappings in Chechnya.
Killed Instead of Arrested
Movladi Baisarov was killed at about 6:00 p.m. He arrived in a Russian VAZ-1111 sports-utility vehicle at 30 Leninsky Prospekt apparently for a prearranged meeting. Witnesses say that Baisarov got out of his car and approached a group of Chechens standing nearby. When they recognized Baisarov, who was unshaven and wearing a black jacket, they shouted at him and then fired on him with Stechkin submachine guns. Most of the bullets struck him in the head. The assailants then fled by car in the direction away from the city center.
The police did not have to be called. Members of the Moscow Department to Combat Organized Crime (Russian abbreviation UBOP) and special-assignment police were standing on the other side of the street observing the scene. They crossed the street and discovered a so-called Khattabchik – a grenade made to be launched from a rifle, lying near the body. A technician was called in to defuse it and then the group began its work at the crime scene. The victim was armed with loaded Stechkin and Glock-16 pistols and two Khattabchiks. He was also carrying a large sum of money and documents identifying his as an FSB colonel. The Chechens quickly returned to the crime site. They were members of the Chechen UBOP. They said that they attempted to take Baisarov into custody but, seeing a grenade in his hand, they were forced to open fire to prevent him from exploding it. Resisting arrest thus became the official cause for his killing.
Nonetheless, the circumstances surrounding the special operation on Leninsky Prospekt were so strange that the Simonovskaya Prosecutor's Office in Moscow was compelled to initiate a criminal investigation of Baisarov's death. A prosecutor's spokesman told Kommersant that the investigation is looking at the justification for the use of arms by the Chechen police and the reason the operation was carried out by Chechen police, using the accustomed methods of their republic, instead of Moscow police.
When Baisarov's supporters arrived on the scene of his death, they immediately saw a different picture.
“What arrest? They simply murdered him!” Vakha told Kommersant. Like Baisarov, Vakha is a native o the village of Pobedinskoe. He and other Chechens said that Baisarov was an influential person and none of them believed that he was involved in kidnapping or murders. Rather, they say, he was removed for his opposition to Ramzan Kadyrov.
“They won't get away with it that easily. Molvadi had an older brother,” Vakha concluded, hinting at the possibility of blood vengeance.
During the regime of Aslan Maskhadov, Baisarov (who was one of the most-mentioned figures on Russian television last night) was a minor field commander whose forces operated in the Grozny area. When counterterrorist operations began, he became close to Akhmat Kadyrov, who was mufti of Chechnya at the time. Baisarov's rebels became Kadyrov's body guards. In 2004, when Akhmat Kadyrov, then president of Chechnya, was killed in an explosion, his security force was disbanded. Baisarov was not long without work, however. His people were made the Gorets division, subordinate to the tactical department of the North Caucasus FSB. The division was based in Pobedinskoe. According to Chechen human rights activists, its main function was kidnapping and liquidation operations. In Chechnya, it was called “the death squad.” At the end of last year, the regional FSB was closed down under pressure from Chechen authorities. At that time, Ramzan Kadyrov decided to dissolve Gorets as well and reassign its members to various law enforcement structures controlled by him. Baisarov was counting on support from his former FSB managers to held him maintain the division, perhaps by making its members a special division of Chechen Interior Ministry's extra-agency guard department, which he would lead. When Baisarov refused to be subordinate to Prime Minister Kadyrov, his forced were blockaded on their base in Pobedinskoe and the Chechen prosecutor “reanimated” the 2004 criminal case against Baisarov. At that time, ten members of the local Musaev family were kidnapped and killed in Grozny. The prosecutor and Chechen UBOP established that members of the Gorets division kidnapped them and Baisarov personally shot them with a noiseless Vintorez rifle. According to investigators, Baisarov thus avenged the death of his brother Sharani, who served in Akhmat Kadyrov's security forces. Baisarov denied his involvement in the deaths of the Musaev family members. He was declared wanted on those charges in any case, first as a witness and later as a suspect. In spite of the fact that the search was declared federally, he was sought only within Chechnya. His name did not appear in national databases. Baisarov went to Moscow and appeared in the media saying that Ramzan Kadyrov was trying to hunt him down to get rid of possible competition. He was unconcerned about his own future. For instance, he told Kommersant that he was not hiding from anyone in Moscow and was expecting to return to Chechnya soon to become the deputy prime minister in charge of law enforcement.
According to information obtained by Kommersant, the search for Baisarov in Moscow began in the middle of this month when a UBOP team was formed for that purpose. All that agency's posts were given a description of Baisarov, who traveled through Moscow in a Mercedes limousine accompanied by several Jeeps carrying bodyguards. According to the UBOP alert, the Jeeps could contain members of the Gorets division or FSB agents. It also included a warning to use caution in apprehending Baisarov. That search was ineffective. A Kommersant source in the Russian Interior Ministry said the reason for that was that Baisarov had protection. He was saves twice after being taken into custody in Moscow. Both times he was held for reasons other then the charges stemming from Chechnya. One of those two times, he was taken in for extortion after demanding the return of $200,000 he men lost at a casino on Novy Arbat. Counterintelligence agents intervened to have the case closed.
“The Program Is Closed. Don't Call Any More”
The situation changes a few days ago. A group arrived in Moscow from Chechnya that had been formed specially to capture Baisarov. Some information indicates that the group was being overseen by First Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya Adam Demilkhanov personally.
An acquaintance of Baisarov told Kommersant that the arrival of the Chechen group in Moscow had been preceded by negotiations with the top leaders of Russian law enforcement agencies. “Movladi's guard was suddenly removed. Several of his comrades were taken into custody and sent back to Chechnya,” the source said. “Simultaneously, last Gorets fighters in the republic were disarmed. Movladi understood that anything could happen to him now and he gathered us together and said that, if he is taken, they wouldn't take him back to Chechnya alive.” Prime Minister Kadyrov commented as he accepted the arms from the Gorets fighters that “we can now say with assurance that the problem with the Gorets battalion, as they say, has fallen into oblivion.”
People close to Baisarov say that he spent last week calling his former managers from the dissolved regional FSB. Knowing that they could no longer protect him, he was trying to arrange a meeting through them with someone from the Main Military Prosecutor's Office. Allegedly, Baisarov intended to give evidence that would prove hid innocence and, at the same time, show his political opponents' guilty of kidnapping and murder. “The last contact he had with the special services was last Friday,” Kommersant's source said. “They told him, The program is closed. Don't call any more.'”
Baisarov's acquaintances do not know who summoned him to the scene of his death or why. They say it was probably an authority figure from Chechnya whom he trusted. That would explain why he came without guards, in a private taxi that he hailed on the street. It is possible that the meeting was not even related to the search for him. On Saturday morning, someone blew up several oil wells controlled by Baisarov outside Pobedinskoe. Thus, Baisarov lost a source of steady financing just before his death. Only First Deputy Prime Minister Demilkhanov, who oversees law enforcement in the republic, was the only Chechen official to respond to Baisarov's death in public yesterday. He declared that Movladi Baisarov, unlike his brother Sharani, did not work for the Chechen government. “Sharani Baisarov was a brave warrior, and for his exemplary fulfillment of his duty in conditions rife with risk to his life and wellbeing, he was awarded the Order of Bravery,” Demilkhanov said. We all knew Sharani as a loyal, upstanding and courageous warrior. We respected him and his family. But his brother Movladi took a criminal path and committed serious crimes.”
Alexander Zheglov, Sergey Mashkin
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 20, 2006
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