He fought briefly in the second war kicked off by the August 1999 invasion of Dagestan by the Al Qa`ida-tied jihadist wing of the ChRI interim government and fighting forces, was wounded and fled abroad in 2001.  He remained the ChRI’s foreign minister when it went underground after defeat in the second war and became an insurgency, an increasingly jihadist one.  Zakhaev remained a leading figure in the ChRI in exile in London.  He did so even after ChRIs commanders maintained ties to Al Qa`ida and carried out the 2002 Dubrovka theatre hostage-taking, the 2004 Beslan hostage-taking, and other mass terrorist attacks against civilians (and non-civilians).  He continued after the ChRI declared its new goal of creating an Islamist state and the ChRI underground command adopted Shariah law in 2002.  He remained so after the ChRI began to expand operations to the entire North Caucasus in 2003.  He remained so after the ChRI institutionalized the expanded operational scope of the jihad in 2005 by creating Dagestan Fronts, Ingush and Kabardino-Balkaris Sectors.  He remained so after the ChRI created Urals and Volga fronts targetting Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and other Russian regions far away from Chechnya and the North Caucasus.

Zakaev split with the ChRI only in October 2007!  He did so only after amir Umarov declared the ChRI defunct and founded the Caucasus Emirate (CE) in its place.  Thus, the CE broke with Zakaev; Zakaev did not break with the CE.  It remains unclear whether Zakaev would have remained with the CE, if it had not abolished the ChRI government and renounced more nationalist separatists like Zakaev.  He might have continued to cooperate with and support radical jihadi terrorists even up until now, if the CE’s Shariah Court had not sentenced him to death.  The CE was the culmination of the long ongoing jihadization of the ChRI, and Zakaev never condemned ChRI terrorist operations until the ChRI nationalists were jittisoned by Umarov and the CE.   

Nevertheless, even after the CE break with the ChRI, Zakaev claimed that he had fighters in Chechnya who remained loyal to him and his government-in-exile, and his website continued until 2009 to report boastfully about operations carried out by the CE’s mujahedin (For more see Gordon M. Hahn, "Look Who Is Talking,” Russia Profile, October 6, 2008).  His Chechnepress.org ceased such reports, and the site itself was closed down when Zakaev began negotiations with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov about returning to Chechnya in 2009.  However, after those talks broke down such reporting resumed  (See, for example, a short report on an attack on Kadyrov’s home town on August 28th at www.chechenpress.org/events/2010/08/29/01.shtml).  This activity constitutes direct assistance to a terrorist organization.  Thus, the U.S. may have included the CE on its list of international terrorist organizations, instead of just its amir ‘Abu Usman’ Dokku Umarov, if Zakaev was not protected by Great Britain.

Although the new Chechenpress.org is criticial of the CE, it continues to publish reports of the insurgents’ attacks, and when the CE split somewhat this past August, Zakaev stated he had maintained close ties to one of the CE’s leading terrorists, Aslanbek Vadalov, who amir Umarov had even designated his successor until the split led to their falling out.

With the whole story, readers can decide whether Great Britain and Poland – NATO members and very close U.S. allies – have adopted the correct policies regarding Zakaev.

Reviewed by Gordon M. Hahn – Analyst/Consultant, Russia Other Points of View – Russia Media Watch; Senior Researcher, Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program and Visiting Assistant Professor, Graduate School of International Policy Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California; and Senior Researcher, Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group. Dr Hahn is author of two well-received books, Russia’s Revolution From Above (Transaction, 2002) and Russia’s Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), which was named an outstanding title of 2007 by Choice magazine.  He has authored hundreds of articles in scholarly journals and other publications on Russian, Eurasian and international politics and publishes the Islam, Islamism, and Politics in Eurasia Report (IIPER) at http://www.miis.edu/academics/faculty/ghahn/report.

ONE OF THE ARTICLES IN QUESTION

Chechen separatist Zakayev arrested in Poland

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA (AP) 
Associated Press

September 17, 2010

WARSAW, Poland ­ A senior Chechen separatist wanted in Russia for alleged murder, kidnapping and terrorism was arrested Friday in Poland where he was to attend a conference organized by the World Chechen Congress, police said.

Akhmed Zakayev, who lives in Britain, was apprehended "without any trouble" on an international warrant issued by Russia and was turned over to prosecutors, national police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said.

Russia accuses the 51-year-old activist of kidnapping and murder during a separatist war in Chechnya in the 1990s. Zakayev and his supporters have said the allegations are trumped-up, and that he represents the political faction of Chechnya's separatist movement and has no connection to the military wing spearheading the region's insurgency.

Prosecutors were examining the Russian warrant and other documents before questioning Zakayev and deciding whether to extradite or release him, prosecutors' spokeswoman Monika Lewandowska said.

Zakayev ­ who with his silver beard and impeccable grooming looks more the diplomat than guerrilla fighter ­ appeared relaxed, in white shirt and suit, as he arrived in a police car at the prosecutor's office.

"He is approaching it all with a large dose of calm," said Adam Borowski, a conference organizer who was with Zakayev at the time of his arrest. He told The Associated Press that Zakayev had learned he was wanted and was on his way to see prosecutors when he was picked up.

"He says he believes that Poland, as a democratic country, will not believe Russia's fabricated evidence. He believes that Poland will not extradite him and that he will be released."

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on national radio that decisions concerning Zakayev will be taken "in accordance with our understanding of Poland's interests and with our sense of decency and justice, and we will not be trying to meet anybody's expectations."

At Russia's request, international police agency Interpol had put out a "red notice" on Zakayev ­ the equivalent of putting him on its most-wanted list. An Interpol red notice is a not a warrant, but shares one country's warrant with other member countries.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said only that officials are closely following the situation and are in contact with the Polish authorities.

Marina Gridneva, a spokeswoman for the Russian Prosecutor General's office, said her office is preparing to send materials on Zakayev's case translated into Polish to support the extradition request.

Earlier this week Russian Ambassador to Poland Alexander Alekseev said Russia "has proof" that Zakayev had been involved in terrorism, and Moscow would expect Poland to arrest him if he came to the country.

In 2002, Russia tried to have Zakayev extradited from Denmark where he was attending the two-day World Chechen Congress. Danish authorities ruled, however, that Russia failed to provide sufficient evidence for his extradition, and Zakayev was released.

He then flew to London, where he was picked up on the Interpol warrant. British authorities eventually decided not to extradite him, instead granting him refugee statue saying that he risked being tortured if he was sent back.

The day before his arrest, Zakayev told Radio Free Europe's North Caucasus Service in a telephone interview from Warsaw that he was happy to "answer any questions" from the Polish prosecutor's office.

"I don't think Russia has presented any new information (to Polish authorities)," Zakayev said. "Everything they have has already been considered twice by courts in Denmark and Britain. However, if it is necessary, and if Polish authorities decide that these questions should be considered by a Polish court, I am ready for such a turn of events."

Zakayev entered politics in 1994, when as an actor he was named culture minister by Chechnya's first separatist president just months before the Russian army rolled in to crush the tiny mountainous region's independence bid. The war ended in a cease-fire and a humiliating Russian withdrawal that left Chechnya de facto independent and largely lawless.

When the Russian army marched back into Chechnya in 1999, Zakayev was a top assistant to separatist President Aslan Maskhadov. Zakayev was wounded and left Chechnya, becoming Maskhadov's top envoy abroad.

Zakayev's charisma has won him many supporters, including actress Vanessa Redgrave, who has campaigned in his support and paid his $98,000 bail after he was detained at London's Heathrow Airport in December 2002.

He has said he represents the Chechen separatist political faction, and distanced himself from radical Islamic rebels. This year he denounced the militant leader who claimed responsibility for the Moscow subway bombings in March, which he described as a "monstrous crime."

Polish authorities in the past have been supportive of a small but active Chechen diaspora there, but the arrest comes at a time when the tense relationship between Warsaw and Moscow has begun to thaw.

Following the historical animosity between the two nations ­ exacerbated after the fall of communism by Poland's joining of NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004 ­ the April plane crash in Russia that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other top Polish officials brought an outpouring of sympathy from Russia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is to visit Poland later this year as a sign of a "new start" in bilateral relations that offer a huge potential in all fields, Alekseev said this week.

Conference organizer Borowski noted that Zakayev had frequently visited Poland in the past.

"I think that the Chechens are the first victim of the warming of (Poland's) ties with Russia," he said.

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Angela Charlton in Paris, Karel Janicek in Prague and Jan Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this report.