Arbi Alautdiinovich Baraev - Field commanders of militants - About the war in Chechnya - Local conflicts - Russian soldiers as a reliable support for Russia. How Barayev was killed. Little-known details of the special operation

Touches to the portrait

The first to make names for themselves through atrocities against prisoners and hostages were field commanders Abu Movsaev and Sultan Gelikhanov. But soon they were surpassed in all respects by a young “talented” student from Alkhan-Kala, Arbi Barayev. Foreign Wahhabi theologians valued him “for his firmness towards the enemy,” and the leaders of Ichkeria took him into account. Many Chechen youths looked up to him. Udugov propaganda created the image of a national hero from Arbi.

However, we must pay tribute to Barayev’s determination. He was a unique person in his own way: in five years he climbed the career ladder from traffic police foreman to brigadier general (analogous to our rank of lieutenant general)! It’s time to be included in the Guinness Book of Records. Moreover, the 27-year-old Chechen owes such a rapid ascent not to his brilliant mind, talents or valor of heart, but to the human blood he shed: since January 1995, he has personally tortured more than two hundred people! Moreover, with the same sadistic sophistication he mocked a Russian priest, an Ingush policeman, a Dagestani builder, and subjects of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain.

“An executioner is not a profession, it is a calling,” Barayev confessed. And the dirtier the work politicians assigned him, the more willingly he took it: after all, they paid for it at double the rate.

During Soviet times, Arbi Baraev served in Chechnya as a traffic police foreman. The work is boring, but profitable. He learned to deftly take bribes from those who like to cheat, was strict with violators, but was easy-going for the appropriate bribe. He demonstrated humility to his superiors and meekly counted out his due share of the exactions. But he believed that he deserved better. The one who is carried away by the demon of ambition is no longer able to be restrained by reason. Arbi perceived D. Dudayev's coming to power as a great personal success, since, like many other Chechens, he relied on him.

Soon he found himself in the personal guard of Dudayev’s relative Sultan Gelikhanov (former head of the Gudermes traffic police), whom the separatists appointed as leader in the northeast of the republic. Of course, the chief's trust in his guard was not based in a vacuum. Firstly, they were united by belonging to the same tukhkum*. Gelikhanov was from the Yalkharoy teip, Baraev was from the Mulkoy teip. Secondly, “impeccable” service in the corrupt Chechen traffic police. And thirdly, the desire to get to the top.

With the beginning of the first Chechen campaign, he created his own small detachment, which then grew into a large independent unit.

At the beginning of 1995, Dudayev issues a secret decree on the creation of a group to capture “languages”. Vakha Arsanov was appointed to lead it, who involved his relative Barayev in a new field of activity. It must be said that Arbi showed remarkable ingenuity and a creative approach: instead of Russian military personnel, he began to kidnap rich Chechens who collaborated with the federal government. If official Moscow refused to pay for them, the hostages’ relatives from the Chechen diaspora in Russia counted out the money. Business was booming. Baraev hoped to get the biggest jackpot by kidnapping the son of RAO UES Deputy Chairman Nurdy Usmanov, whom he kept in one of his prisons in Urus-Martan.

If he made money from hostages, he earned his fame through torture. He took particular pleasure in mocking wounded Russian prisoners.

In accordance with the prevailing fashion among militants, he recorded all his sadistic delights on videotape. Then, exchanging videotapes, the murderer friends savored particularly juicy details. It is Barayev who is credited with the invention of the “Chechen lotto”. For the uninitiated, I’ll explain: this is a game for flayers. Three to five (depending on the mood and dosage of drugs) Russian captured soldiers are taken. A Chechen “banker” comes out with a machine gun in his hands and explains the rules of the game. On the count of “one or two,” everyone begins to do push-ups or squats. Whoever leaves the race gets a bullet in the head, and the winner participates in the subsequent draw.

According to official statistics, several tens of thousands of people were captured by bandits, and only about a thousand were released. Of course, each prisoner experienced a personal tragedy. But those who were in the clutches of Barayev stand apart: they really had to go through all the circles of hell.

After the end of the first Chechen campaign, Baraev, with the tacit support of his relative V. Arsanov, vice-president of Chechnya, put the slave trade on a grand scale. According to experts, the income from kidnapping hostages in Chechnya exceeded even the income of the Ichkerian drug lords.

Through his proxies, he managed to establish strong “informal” connections with people close to the power structures in Moscow. According to many analysts, it was Barayev who became the main trading partner of high-ranking federal officials and businessmen who engaged in such a profitable business as the ransom of hostages.

According to the “gentleman’s agreement” of the parties, Barayev was entitled to no more than 25 percent of the ransom amount. Most of it went to the Russian “liberators”. But even these percentages were enough for me not to be too constrained in my desires. They claim that he received $7 million from the Russian Presidential Representative in Chechnya, Vlasov, who was once kidnapped, and that the head of the FSB Directorate for the Republic of Ingushetia, Gribov, and his deputy, Lebedinsky, were sold for $800,000.

I have already mentioned that the vast majority of slave traders had a special humane attitude towards lucrative hostages. After all, you can only ask a good price for a healthy, well-groomed prisoner. And this unwritten rule was respected by everyone. With the exception of Barayev. He could unexpectedly snap and, for the sake of pleasure, beat off the hostage’s kidneys, and then torture him, not caring about commercial interest.

When Yandarbiev, Udugov and Basayev set out to disrupt Maskhadov’s “alliance” with London, which was showing simply indecent interest in Chechnya and Caspian oil, they conceived a terrible plan: the murder of three captured British citizens and a New Zealand citizen. Arbi Barayev was invited to play the role of the main performer. He not only killed captured foreigners, but cut off their heads. All this was filmed on videotape.

In the West, the demonstration of these terrible footage caused shock. Europeans, pampered by humanism, could not understand why Chechen field commanders compete so passionately in super-cruelty. Meanwhile, Baraev’s efforts were not in vain. International terrorist No. 1 Osama bin Laden paid millions of dollars for the pleasure of watching such an “action movie.”

Arbi was one of those who led the rebellion in Gudermes in July 1998 against a unit of the National Guard loyal to the president. The Wahhabis did not stand on ceremony with their fellow countrymen. 13 guardsmen were killed in firefights and dozens were wounded.

In response, A. Maskhadov disbanded the “Islamic regiment”, depriving Barayev of his military rank and awards. Arbi did not remain in debt and organized an assassination attempt on the head of Ichkeria. By a lucky coincidence, the president was not injured.

Within four hours, the head of the Ministry of Sharia Security, A. Arsaev, on Maskhadov’s instructions, was planning an action to destroy the young and early Wahhabi “leader” (the real leaders of Wahhabism, meanwhile, were watching the development of events with interest). But the intricate operation stalled until Arby’s “sworn friend”, a repeat offender R. Gelayev, got involved for personal reasons. It was his guards who shot Barayev almost point-blank with pistols, but, surprisingly, he remained alive.

With his involvement in kidnappings, Arbi made more and more enemies among influential Chechen teips. So, in May 1999, on the way out of Grozny, he was wounded in the back by people from the Terloy tukhkum. Every fifth Chechen teip declared chir (blood feud) on him, so the appearance of Barayev in many Chechen villages would mean inevitable death for Arbi. However, not only Chechens. Some Ingush teips gave him the same sentence. In particular, the “vendetta” was declared by the relatives of an Ingush policeman captured in July 1997 at the Almaz-2 checkpoint.

However, this Wahhabi allowed himself to run into trouble even when he grossly violated the traditions and customs of the mountaineers. Celebrating the birth of his second son in Urus-Martan, the happy father became so angry that he began firing from his house not only with a machine gun, but also with a grenade launcher. One of the grenades landed in a neighbor's yard and injured a teenager. When the grandfather of the wounded boy tried to reason with the “raging Islamist,” he ordered the old man to be tied up and beaten. The neighbors swore on the Koran to wash away this insult with Barayev’s blood.

Amazingly, even after this he managed to beat death for a long time. The bullet found him at the end of June 2001 during a special operation by federal forces in Alkhan-Kala. In his ancestral village, a bloody sadist was killed. And after this they managed to defeat his entire gang.

The advent of Wahhabism

On the night of December 21-22, 1997, armed militants carried out a daring attack on the military camp of a motorized rifle brigade stationed in Buinaksk. The attackers (according to various sources, there were from 40 to 60 people) acted in groups of 8-10 people and were armed with grenade launchers, machine guns, and machine guns. They arrived on the outskirts of Buinaksk in a KamAZ, Volga and Zhiguli with the intention of seizing equipment from the brigade's fleet of combat vehicles.

The guards at the posts showed vigilance and were the first to take the fire. The battle lasted more than an hour. From a distance of 400-500 meters, the militants first fired at the park area and the territory of the military camp from both sides. They managed to destroy several units of military equipment and vehicles. The duty units, alerted, prevented the militants from breaking through into the fleet of combat vehicles. During the battle, Lieutenant M. Kozyrev was wounded and Private A. Sovenko was shell-shocked.

In the morning, the bandits got in touch, requested vehicles and began to leave, taking with them the bodies of their dead. According to radio interception data, negotiations were conducted on air both in Chechen and in the languages ​​of some peoples of Dagestan.

At 7.30 in the morning, near the village of Inchkhe, bandits at a checkpoint took five local policemen hostage. They abandoned the KamAZ in a populated area, set it on fire, and then boarded a seized regular bus with passengers (mostly women) and tried to break through towards Chechnya.

Alarmed units of internal troops, as well as groups of Dagestan special forces, blocked transport arteries, eventually forcing the militants to leave the bus and release the women. The bandits took with them Dagestan policemen as human cover (before this, this role was performed by local residents). When the bandit group broke through to the administrative Chechen-Dagestan border, one terrorist was killed and three were wounded.

In the village of Dylym, the gang split into two parts. The main one, using the mountainous terrain and heavy fog, went to Chechnya, the other disappeared into the mountains.

The authorities of Dagestan have officially requested from Grozny the extradition of the criminals who committed the attack on the military unit in Buinaksk. Chairman of the State Council Magomedali Magomedov specifically contacted the leadership of Chechnya about this.

There is one curious detail here: just four days before this, a round table was held - “Dagestan-Chechnya: Peace Initiatives”, where the parties, represented by the first deputy heads of government of the two republics, expressed their determination to jointly fight crime. But, as one would expect, there was no reaction from Maskhadov regarding this provocative action of the Chechen militants.

It is worth noting that the Khasavyurt direction on the administrative border with Chechnya was considered the most tense at that time. It was here that most of the terrorist attacks against Russian military personnel were carried out. Especially explosions of armored vehicles. The appearance of militants in Buinaksk is explained primarily by the fact that federal forces outposts along the administrative border with Chechnya were often 10-15 kilometers apart and could not simply physically control the entire border area. Apparently, it was also due to the fact that the territories adjacent to Buinaksk were populated almost half by Chechens-Akkinsk, some of whom provided active assistance to bandit groups.

As for the motorized rifle brigade stationed in Buinaksk, at that time it became the center of attention not only of Chechen militants, but also of the Dagestan criminal world: shortly before this, an officer’s dormitory there was blown up. It was only by luck that no one was hurt. Soldiers and officers of the brigade, mostly Russians, were openly threatened with death; leaflets were scattered on the territory of military camps demanding that they leave Buinaksk. There were frequent cases of beatings of military personnel. And the mass kidnappings of soldiers in the fall of 1998 further aggravated the situation.

To be honest, such things happened with the connivance of local authorities and law enforcement agencies; unpunished terrorist acts and kidnappings, explosions at train stations and markets, car and livestock thefts had become almost commonplace in the North Caucasus by that time.

Throughout the 90s, a new radical religious movement was gaining strength here - Wahhabism, which very soon acquired a distinct political overtones. And no wonder: Chechnya was increasingly turning into a kind of incubator for growing Wahhabis. Their representatives strengthened their positions in power. A. Maskhadov, who initially fought against the “radicals,” was forced to come to terms with religious extremism, at least in practice. And they increasingly expanded their zones of influence and by the end of 1997 they no longer hid their claims to coming to power in Dagestan and a number of other North Caucasian republics.

In multinational Dagestan, Wahhabis appeared after the first mass pilgrimages of local Muslims to the holy places in Mecca and Medina. And although their teachings are alien to the religious worldview of Dagestan Sunni Muslims, the community of “pure Muslims” grew by leaps and bounds. In dollar leaps and bounds from Saudi Arabia - a state where Wahhabism is the official ideology.

It should be noted that the Arabian sheikhs made a good choice in a complex geopolitical game. Mass unemployment among young people, the loss of worthy life guidelines, a humiliating financial situation - all this created fertile ground for all types of radicalism. And then, at first, every convert received a gift of a thousand dollars from the bearded Wahhabis. The prize for introducing five more people to the new faith weighed five thousand “greens”. The activists' monthly salary ranged from $300 to $700. In 1995 alone, all kinds of radical Islamic centers spent 17 million dollars on propaganda of Wahhabism in Dagestan. After all, traditional Sunni Islam for the Caucasus, I emphasize once again, is not suitable as a “revolutionary base”, a springboard for the onset of extremism.

One can recall how the battle for the souls of Muslims unfolded in the republic between the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Dagestan and the Wahhabi sect, who accused each other of heresy. The first convinced with the word of true faith, the second shoved money into the hands of the poor, for which Wahhabism was popularly called “dollar Islam.”

If earlier the sectarians had the patience to conduct scientific and religious disputes with the Sunnis, then later they chose a different tactic. The Wahhabis directed their main efforts towards the disintegration of Islam from within, and in every possible way discredited the mullahs and imams of the traditional sense. And as soon as a respected religious figure in the republic made a rebuke of Wahhabism, he was forced to remain silent forever. Thus, in 1998, the Mufti of Dagestan, Said Mukhamed-Khadzhi Abubakarov, was vilely killed, having dared to openly criticize the Wahhabis for schismaticism from the rostrum of the People's Assembly. Around the same time, the former head of the village of Karamakhi was brutally killed, from where Sunni Muslims were expelled after bloody clashes.

In just three years, a small group of Karamakhi residents (8 people) grew to several thousand well-armed militants, who in 1999 created their own “independent territory” in Dagestan, which included the villages of Karamakhi, Chabanmakhi, and Kadar.

The leaders of the Islamic Community of Dagestan (Jamaat), created by the Wahhabis, did not hide their ultimate goal - secession from Russia and the construction of a new type of Islamic state together with Chechnya. At the same time, two scenarios for coming to power were considered: the first - through elections, the second - by armed means. According to the second option, rebel groups occupy several regions of the republic, and then the formed Wahhabi government, on behalf of the peoples of Dagestan, turns to Chechnya for help in the fight against Russia. It was expected that immediate military assistance - openly or secretly - would be provided to the rebels by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, as well as Turkey, which was interested in the transit of Caspian oil through its territory.

To implement the force option, Jamaat had its own “combat formations.” About six hundred militants of this detachment were baptized during the first Chechen war. Almost all of them fought under the command of the field commander Emir Khattab. The most capable terrorists underwent training in Pakistan: they studied the Koran in the morning, and improved their sabotage skills during the day and evening.

Between the Wahhabi military formations and the so-called army of General Dudayev, led by S. Raduev, a military agreement was signed on assistance “in the liberation of the Caucasus from the Russian Empire.” Not only Jamaat soldiers, but also Akkin Chechens living in the Khasavyurt region of Dagestan were trained at the Raduev bases.

Having once headed the Gudermes district Komsomol committee, Raduev acquired good connections in the neighboring area. In any case, he felt here, according to the Akkin Chechens, not a guest, but a host. And he did not hide his irritation when he met Avars whom he openly disliked.

Wahhabism became most widespread in the Kizilyurt region, where the largest center of “dollar Islam” in Russia, the “Central Front for the Liberation of Dagestan,” was located. There is no need to explain from whom the Wahhabis were going to liberate the republic. Moreover, their words did not differ from their deeds. The "liberators" created several "fronts" in the republic. They were well-equipped technically, had satellite communications, warehouses with ammunition and weapons, and a publishing house specializing in the production of anti-Russian and anti-army literature, which was primarily distributed in the same areas where Russian military facilities were located.

Here is a quote from the Central Front appeal:

“O Muslim brothers! If we do not expel Russian dogs from our territory now, we may lose our people forever, as happened in other republics where these Russian bastards visited... We decided to follow the path of jihad, and there are two paths before us : either victory or shahadat" (1).

This extremist organization claimed responsibility for the December 1997 attack on a motorized rifle brigade in Buynaksk. After this brazen armed attack, the Kizilyurt sectarians, led by their spiritual leader Bugautdin Magomedov, were forced to move to the new capital of the North Caucasian Wahhabis - to the Chechen Urus-Martan.

A curious revelation was made by field commander Shamil Basayev, who called the bloody battles of the united Chechen and Dagestan Wahhabis with Maskhadov’s forces “a battle for the soul of Dagestan.”

M. Tagaev, who called himself the commander of the rebel army and was twice convicted, declared 1999 “the year of the cleansing of Dagestan from all Russians.”

The military hierarchical ladder of the Wahhabis is noteworthy, where the highest levels were allocated exclusively to Chechens. And the Dagestan guys, it seems, had to do all the dirty, bloody work. And with this alone they were made to understand that in the “Caucasian family” of Wahhabis, the “groom” is Chechnya, and Dagestan is the “bride.” And a woman should know her place.

Many in the North Caucasus reproached Z. Yandarbiev, M. Udugov, Sh. Basaev, S. Raduev for supporting Wahhabism, which has Arab roots. After all, if we proceed from the interests of the Chechen people, then we should not encourage the Islamic “ultra”. However, knowledgeable people knew that the Chechen leaders had other priorities. Firstly, the most authoritative field commanders have long and firmly linked themselves with the interests of their Arab masters. Caspian oil does not flow through Turkey or Russia, which means that the Arab sheikhs profit even more from Arabian oil. And what could be sweeter than the rustle of money?

Secondly, only by focusing on the Arabs can you have a “wedding” with Dagestan and break through to the sea. Until these plans were implemented, the interests of the Chechen field commanders would completely coincide with the interests of the Middle Eastern oil monarchies.

The successful completion of the unification of the two neighboring republics made it possible not only to withdraw from the “allied plans”, but also to abolish the activities of Wahhabi organizations. Because in this case, to develop the economy, the Chechens needed not only cheap labor from the Dargins, Lezgins, and Russians, but also a smoothly operating oil pipeline. Where? No, not to Novorossiysk, but to the Georgian port of Supsa... For several years, in great secrecy, a new mountain road was built along the bed of the Argun River through the Main Caucasus Range in the direction of Itum-Kale-Shatili. It was planned to use it to launch oil and gas pipelines to Georgia. So the actions of the Chechen supporters of the Wahhabis were consistent and logical.

In this regard, an interesting statement from A. Maskhadov at one of the rallies in Grozny:

“During the war, as the chief of the General Staff, I thought that we knew about what was happening in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. That there, probably, it started the same way. In the difficult days of the war, they, generously financed, carried out their ideology. After the war ", not understanding this ideology, we began dividing up positions. Wanting to make like-minded people out of them, we flirted with them, indulged them. Now we are reaping the fruits of our behavior. Today, dealing with the consequences of this religious movement, we must say that we underestimated its role. That’s why we came to today’s result.”

Alas, Maskhadov did not have the courage to overcome Wahhabism. He surrendered under pressure from the opposition.

Wahhabis usually lead an ascetic camp life. The “war against infidels and bad Muslims” does not involve sentimentality to the victorious end. But when the conversation turns to Emir Khattab, the faces of the stern “Mujahideen” brighten: this is their guiding star. Khattab ordered black flags to be installed on every Wahhabi car - signs of the “holy war” with the infidels. He spoke publicly extremely rarely, but on the eve of the invasion of Dagestan he declared this republic to be the next front where the “gazavat” would unfold.

Chechnya has long attracted the attention of another Arab terrorist, Osama bin Laden. Firstly, Maskhadov’s opposition, represented by Udugov, Basaev, Yandarbiev, was ready for an alliance with any rich uncle if he fights “Jews and crusaders.” Secondly, many of Osama’s friends from Afghanistan and other “hot spots” settled here.

In the spring of 1999, negotiations between Raduev and bin Laden’s people took place in Peshawar, Pakistan. And soon a representative of the “Chechen Ministry of Foreign Affairs” hurried to the capital of the Afghan Taliban, Kandahar, who discussed the issue of moving the Saudi millionaire-terrorist to Chechnya. According to the Arabic newspaper Hayyat, published in London, if necessary, the problem of providing asylum to bin Laden would be resolved.

It was Osama who, more than others, had a hand in the aggression of the Chechen Wahhabis against Dagestan. His father-in-law, Mullah Omar, gave a fatwa (blessing) for the attack. Bin Laden himself not only transferred more than $30 million to Basayev and Khattab, organized the supply of weapons and combat training, but also personally visited sabotage camps near the Chechen village of Serzhen-Yurt on the eve of the invasion of Dagestan. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this with reference to leading American experts.

According to one of the advisers to the US Congress, Yu. Bogdansky, a recognized expert on bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire terrorist has been involved in planning military operations in Dagestan since the spring of 1998, together with Basayev, senior Pakistani intelligence officers and the leader of the Sudanese Islamists Hasan al-Gurabi.

Wahhabi claims to supreme state power are rejected in all countries (with the exception of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan). Even if radical Islamists win the elections, they are trying to prevent them from taking the helm of government. This was the case in Algeria in 1992, and this was also the case in Turkey, when the military forced the Welfare Party, which received the majority of votes, to resign as soon as it tried to establish contacts with Muslim radicals. Egypt is waging a merciless fight against the Wahhabi groups of the Muslim Brotherhood.

We, alas, could not get rid of the inferiority complex, were timid, and were embarrassed to deal a powerful blow to Wahhabism (primarily legal and political). Russia decided to rapidly civilize, relying on the basic values ​​of both the West and the East, which means it should not forget the experience they suffered: first the missionary comes, then the merchant, then the soldier.

Meanwhile, for a long time, the missionary activities of the Wahhabis in our country were almost not controlled by anyone. Visiting ministers of “pure Islam” from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan regularly spoke in mosques, throwing mud at the local Muslim clergy, encouraging unrest and discord.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, the Egyptian Terik inspired victory; in Karachay-Cherkessia, he was echoed by a certain Biji-ulu, who declared himself the “imam of Karachay.” “Parishes” of Wahhabis grew like mushrooms after rain in the Stavropol region, in the Rostov (Novoshakhtinsk) and Volgograd (Volzhsky) regions, in Astrakhan. And in the Dagestan villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi they openly, almost officially, established their power.

What about Moscow? Never mind. At that time, Prime Minister S. Stepashin visited the lair of the Wahhabis in Dagestan (“Kadar zone”) and was quite pleased.

“Good, kind guys,” he reassures the public. - Workers.

Moreover, the head of government sent humanitarian aid to the Dagestani Wahhabis! In Makhachkala they just threw up their hands in surprise. What can I say? No comments needed.

Six months later, these rural “workers,” using years of prepared and well-fortified defenses, held back the air and artillery strikes of the federal troops for half a month...

Paradox! Apparently, this, unfortunately, can only happen here. Maskhadov fought against Wahhabism in Chechnya for more than two years (!), leading to armed clashes, and Moscow did not lift a finger not only to help him, but also did nothing to destroy extremist groups in the depths of its territory. In general, in the south of Russia all conditions were created for the spread of Wahhabism throughout the Caucasus. Everything was ready for war.

An illiterate mother is a blind child.
Zeynalabdin Tagiyev, Baku millionaire
(from the answer to the question why he is building
Seminary for women in Baku).
Circa 1902

In 1973, at the very beginning of summer, when the local heat had not yet become unbearable like the luggage of a cruel driver who rented someone else’s donkey, and the country roads had not yet covered the roadside bushes and trees with their fine whitish dust, in Alkhan-Kala, not far from Grozny, In the Mulkoy teip, a boy was born into the Barayev family. The birth of a child is always a joy. The birth of a future warrior in the Vainakh teip is doubly joyful.
Nothing can darken such joy, not even the poverty of the family that has found an heir.
On the eve of giving birth, the boy’s mother dreamed of an old Arab man in long white robes. Mullah, to whom she told about her dream, called this dream prophetic and advised him to give the boy the name Arbi. This was good and wise advice.
"Arbi" is translated from Chechen as "Arab". Arabs in Chechnya are respected as the people who gave the Muslims the Prophet. And the Chechens themselves adopted Islam at one time from Arab missionaries who spread the religion of Allah in the Caucasus back in the 8th century. The process went faster with the mediation of the Mamelukes - who grew up from Chechen boys sold by their own parents into Turkish slavery and became skilled and merciless warriors there. The Porte, growing by leaps and bounds, needed new territories, and the Mamelukes returned to their homeland along with the missionaries. This circumstance gave the necessary weight to the words of the preachers of Islam, and the Vainakhs, who had professed Christianity for more than five hundred years, became Muslims. Indeed, it is better to be a living follower of the Prophet Muhammad than a dead follower of the Prophet Issa, who went against the Mamluks and is no less revered in the Islamic tradition. However, “no less” never meant “equal” or “more.” The fact is that Muhammad in this table is the seal of the prophets.
And whoever is the seal has the last word.
However, let's return to the plot.

The mullah's confidence that the Almighty himself had sent her this dream flattered the devout woman, and the assumption made in connection with this that her future son would become a great man made her happy. Neither she nor her husband Alautdi, born in Kazakhstan into the family of an exiled Chechen, had any education. This is probably why their understanding of human greatness did not go beyond traditional Vainakh ideas. The fact is that every Chechen is, first of all, a warrior, and war with both the near and distant environment is a natural state for him. It is precisely this mentality that allows him to consider the property of his rich neighbor as his legitimate booty, to seize which, if his own strength is not enough, the most warlike men of the teip unite into armed groups led by a military leader (in Chechen “byachcha”. The arithmetic of such raids is simple: whoever captured the greatest booty is the greatest and most respected.
Tradition, you know...
However, calling the worldview and value orientations of the majority of representatives of the Mulka teip “traditional” for Chechens could only be done with great reservations. The fact is that in Ichkeria (as the mountainous part of modern Chechnya was then called) and in Dagestan Buinaki for a long time (from about the end of the 8th century) an Arab emir reigned, who was a close relative of the dynasty of Damascus caliphs. The genes of the emir and his retinue still make themselves felt both in the appearance and in the behavior of people from Argun and its neighboring areas. The Arabs assimilated in Chechnya despise traditional mountain norms of behavior (adat), preferring Wahhabism or other radical Islamic teachings and the use of force as a universal and most effective way to solve any problems. They view Islam and Sharia only as a means to achieve their own goals.
Historians and researchers of the Caucasus note that the cruelty of the emir’s descendants to this day is noticeably superior to that of average Chechens.

After discussing the mullah's prediction, both mother and father decided that their Arbi would become a great warrior.
“And he will take revenge...” added Alautdi, more referring to his own material troubles than to the centuries-old Vainakh grievances.
“He will take revenge...” his wife echoed and sighed, remembering the noisy crash from the neighboring house.
Avarka's husband fired Alautdi a year and a half ago, blaming illiteracy, reluctance to study and regular absenteeism. In fact, Alautdi was not a truant, he was just often sick. He didn’t think about the fact that by taking a ballot you could be sick legally. Let's not blame him. It's hard to take advantage of something you don't have the slightest idea about.
Since then, the head of the Barayev family, who lost his job, has been doing odd jobs. The family was poor.
However, poverty and poor health did not prevent Alautdi from having children.
Families in the Mulkoy teip have always had many children; to lag behind relatives in this matter would be completely undignified.
In addition, at that time few people considered poor health or poverty to be any serious factors that could somehow influence the demographic indicators of society. Let's be honest, after all, a decline in the birth rate is more typical for societies that have already entered the phase of material prosperity, and those who vegetate in poverty breed like rabbits. The fact is that the instinct aimed at the survival of the population forces one to compensate for the lack of quality of life with an excess of the number of people trying to survive.
But let's not be ironic about how the world works - you either eat caviar or throw it!

Ah, Arbi, Arbi... - the mother said to her son who had returned from the street, wiping his broken nose with a wet rag. - When will you become my man? When will you grow up? If you can’t defeat the offender with your fists, go back home and get a knife from the kitchen. Learn to overcome your fears. If you are afraid of someone else's blood, kill a chicken every day!!! We have a lot of them. Killing a chicken is not scary at all. You don’t even need to think about anything. Chickens do not take revenge on those who kill them. If you start killing people, it’s dangerous to stop. Until you kill the last bloodline, you can’t sleep peacefully!
- But if I don’t have mercy on my enemies and kill them, will their relatives then kill me? - Arby didn’t understand.
“If you’re smart, they won’t kill you,” the mother sighed. - Besides, it is not at all necessary to become a “kuig bekhki” and kill yourself. And you need to choose your enemies wisely. If you kill a Russian, no one will take revenge on you. Russians are like chickens. They do not take revenge for their killed, and therefore no one respects them. And you, my boy, grow big and strong! And never forget to take revenge on your offenders. Let them be afraid! Remember that only those who are feared are respected. This is how the world works.
- Why then do they write in fairy tales that good always triumphs over evil? - the completely confused boy was surprised.
“You’ve already answered your question,” Mom smiled. - Everything is correct. Good indeed always triumphs over evil. This means that the one who wins is the good one.

Arby didn’t think about his mother’s words for long: mostly his thoughts revolved around how he should now choose his enemies if they had already done it for him themselves. Vile and treacherous. Depriving the possibility of a similar choice.
It was annoying to realize this.
After going through his memory of recent offenders, Arby discovered that all his current enemies are stronger than him. After reflecting on this depressing fact, resentment was added to the annoyance, and the boy decided that tomorrow he would make new enemies for himself. Those who will be weaker than him. There were no problems with the choice of candidates - the younger brothers of his offenders were the best suited for the role of enemies. The fact that their elders would later stand up for them did not change the decision made. They've already offended Arby this way and that. And at least you can get revenge. As my mother taught me. It’s just a pity that he doesn’t have his own company. Such that no one would have the desire to offend him. However, this too was fixable, Arby realized.
- How do you choose friends? - he asked.
- Friends? - the mother was surprised. - Vainakhs don’t have friends. There is only your own tape and its enemies.
- Even if they are Chechens? - the boy was amazed.
- If they are from another teip, they are enemies! You can team up with them against a common enemy, but they will still expose other tapes to fire in order to weaken them. And after victory they will kill you or subjugate you.
- Is it possible to unite with common enemies against those who want to subjugate or set you up? - Arby became interested.
He didn't want to obey, but he didn't want to be killed even more.
“When there are only enemies around, then you can unite with enemies,” the mother answered, pursing her lips. She probably remembered something unpleasant. “But you’re reasoning correctly,” she approved after thinking, “the main thing is, don’t forget that anyone with whom you teamed up is already preparing to betray you.” Never trust anyone, my boy. He who trusts does not live long.
- Can you trust Uncle Vakha? - Arby asked, remembering the plastic machine he got for his birthday. It would be reckless to label as an enemy someone who gives such pleasant gifts.
“Uncle Vakha is allowed,” my mother smiled. - He's from our teip.

The next day, Arby came home shining like a new nickel. The plan went exactly as he had hoped.
As soon as he went out into the yard, he immediately saw the younger brother of the leader of his offenders fiddling in the sand. Arby walked up to the playful toddler, knocked him down and began kicking him, trying to hit him in the head with the toes of his recently purchased boots. He did it poorly - the boy tried to cover his face with his hands and twirled around as if he were a real snake.
When his brother and a group of his friends came running to the cries of a new enemy, Arby took a heavy table knife from his pocket and, grabbing the brat by the hair, threw his head far back, and then, slowly, pressed the sharply sharpened blade on his throat, which was exposed and stretched like a string. . That's exactly what he did when he slaughtered his mother's stupid chickens. Feeling the cold metal pressing down on his trachea, the brat stopped resisting and shut up.
- Stand! - Arby ordered and when his offenders stopped, he added. - If anyone moves, I will kill him!.. Like a chicken!..
Having thoroughly enjoyed their wide eyes and whitened faces, he dictated his terms:
- Why did you get up? Now call his mother! And let it go quickly! If I get tired of waiting, I'll kill him!!! If it’s not the mother who comes, but the father, I’ll kill him! If anyone tries to run away, I will kill him! - the leader of his offenders, who tried to sneak away on his behalf, he stopped with a sharp shout. - Not you! Somebody else! And now they will tie your hands, then you will come up and kneel at his feet! Turn your back to me!

We didn't have to wait long.
The boy stopped the out of breath woman, but maintaining a calm expression on her face, five meters away from him and the toddler who had already peed himself.
“Don’t say anything and listen to me,” he said. -Are you listening?..
The woman nodded. She watched him with the dry eyes of a cobra caught in the loop of an insidious serpentologist, but this cobra understood the nuances of the current situation. Arby's heightened intuition told him that his enemy's mother was furious, but if he was convincing enough, he would do whatever was asked of her. It was good and right.
After pausing for quite a long time and catching the moment when the frightened woman, who was trying with all her might to maintain composure, began to moisten her eyes, Arby voiced his demands to her. There were few of them, and they all boiled down to one thing: now they would let him go home silently and without reproaches, but then, if any of the woman’s sons or their friends tried to offend him, he would hunt down and kill her youngest son.
- Is it clear? - he asked. - Then explain this to your jackals. If any of them did not understand something, you will cry.
“If you kill my son, they will call you “cheer” and take revenge,” the woman remarked indifferently and shrugged her shoulders.

They take revenge on someone who is guilty of something. I also know that before this they announce “chir daheyar” to him. But no one has told me yet, neither about the “cheer”, nor about what I am guilty of. “I haven’t done anything to anyone, but they’re already taking revenge on me,” Arby shrugged in response and chuckled and asked ironically. - What will change if they take revenge on me who is already guilty? For me - nothing. And for you - a lot.
The pause dragged on.
- Why are you keeping silent? - Arby began to get nervous. - Should I kill him right now? I'll kill you! If I'm lucky, I'll kill the second one too. Understand?
“Don’t…” the woman asked, overpowering herself. Her voice trembled, and tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.
- Then I went? - Arby clarified and, receiving an affirmative nod, hid the knife in his pocket.
Passing by the older offender who was kneeling, he kicked him forcefully in the side.
He fell silently. It's awkward, like a sack of potatoes.

“You won’t lay a finger on him again,” the woman said when Arby, who never looked back, disappeared behind the fence of his house. - Moreover, you will greet him if you meet him. Politely, as with an elder.
- Why? - The eldest son, who tried to get up from his knees, was surprised at the last demand.
- Because he has already grown up, but you haven’t yet! - the mother snapped.
Despite the fact that her son could not get to his feet because of his wrists tied behind his back, she never shook hands with him. Anyone who gives victory to a weaker opponent does not deserve respect. Now, if he does not achieve the restoration of lost authority, he will forever remain a loser.
Losers are a burden for the tape. Even at their best, they are just pawns, infantry, cheap cannon fodder. If the tape needs to sacrifice someone, it will sacrifice the losers first. So what if every loser is someone's son?
There are no other rules in packs of wolves.

When Arby returned home and put the knife he had taken the day before in the kitchen table drawer, his mother didn’t ask anything. After waiting for her son to leave the kitchen, she took out the knife and washed it thoroughly.
About two hours later she was called into the yard.
Through the gap between the window frame and the curtain, Arby saw that the mother of his enemies had come to see his mother.
The women talked calmly and, probably for that reason, did not last long. About twenty minutes.
- When your father comes, you will need to tell him to buy you a good knife. “Killing both people and chickens with the same knife is wrong,” said the mother who returned from the street. - And next year I will send you to the karate section. At first it will be hard and painful for you, but no one should see your fear and your tears. And then you will be respected as a warrior. But, most importantly, no one should see your pity. This is the only way you can become a great warrior and the most respected of the amirs.

Two weeks later, Arby turned ten years old, and Uncle Vakha gave him a real knife with a beautiful sheath that fit on his belt.
Arby took the gift he received for granted.
- Do you have any enemies? - he asked his uncle, carefully testing the cutting edge of the well-balanced blade with the pad of his thumb.
“Yes...” admitted the uncle, taken aback by such a question. - Who doesn’t have them? But why do you need this?
- If they kill you, I will have to take revenge. “I want to remember who needs to be stabbed,” Arby told him.
The completely confused uncle could not find an answer and, probably therefore, reduced the conversation to a clumsy joke that for a real Chechen traffic cop, everyone who drove out or entered the road was already an enemy. Even disabled people in wheelchairs. However, noting his nephew’s amazement, he laughed disarmingly:
- Even a herd of sheep is not slaughtered all at once. Otherwise, the next day there will be no meat not only for barbecue, but even for kherza-dulh or zhizhig-chorpa, which contain more potatoes than meat. As long as a Chechen has enemies, he will not go hungry!
- But you won’t forgive them, will you? - the boy clarified.
“Forgiving your bloodline is a worthy act,” said Uncle Vakha. - But I won’t forgive anyone. Nowadays, few people forgive. The time has come, it’s not time for “maslaat”... War...
- What war? - the nephew was amazed. - We don't have any war.
“That’s right,” his interlocutor easily agreed. - Everyone thinks that there is no war, but there is. And smart people are already preparing to take their spoils from this war. This is what they started with. A war within one's own country is the most convenient time for big booty. So what if they call it “perestroika” on TV? The main thing is that there is enough loot for everyone who understands that it has begun. Otherwise, we will have to fight with each other.

“Nokhchi Borz,” the uncle remarked, clicking his tongue, when the boy, satisfied with the answer, went to his room, and the adults returned to their adult conversations. - He’s not even fifteen yet, but he’s already thinking about the honor of his tape. It will go far!

Arby's father died when his son was barely eleven years old. Two years later, the mother also died. Before her death, she once again reminded her son not to be afraid of anything or anyone. The mother died with a light heart - she knew that they would not leave her son. Arby had someone to take care of - he had an uncle who once gave him a plastic machine gun and a real knife, and he had his tape. Her confidence was reinforced by the fact that according to Vainakh customs, nephews and cousins ​​on the maternal and sister lines (shicha and myakhcha) in the family of the eldest man are equal to their own children. That is why the Vainakhs often designate many of their relatives with the Russian word “brother,” although they are not half-brothers at all. This confuses Europeans greatly, but for Chechens it is part of their worldview.
A few years later, it turned out that the far-sighted and ambitious uncle had his own plans for his orphaned nephew, and their relationship fatally determined the future dizzying career of a pathological killer.
In the nineties, Arbi barely graduated from high school in Urus-Martan and, like thousands of young Chechens in those years, was left without work. He had no job and no prospects for the future. After marrying my nephew for a couple of months, the same “Uncle Vakha” hired him for his first job after graduating from school. Arbi was identified by a traffic policeman at the intersection of the Caucasus highway, at the entrance to Urus-Martan. In the still Soviet Checheno-Ingushetia, this was more than a “grain” place. Money and prestige. For a real man.
The secret of such successful employment was simple - Vakha Arsanov, the maternal uncle who took care of the orphan, was a high-ranking employee of the Traffic Police Department of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
Soon Arby, who started as a simple guard sergeant, became a sergeant major.

In 1991, with the beginning of the stupid and incomprehensible Chechen revolution, Vakha Arsanov was entrusted with the formation of the so-called “national guard”. A huge number of his protégés - former traffic police officers - became its basis.
And who said that traffic cops with their mentality are not guards?
It's not even a guard, it's a legion!
The nephew, infinitely devoted to his uncle, became his personal bodyguard. The seventeen-year-old sergeant was distinguished by exceptional physical strength and a certain narrowness of outlook. He clearly did not bother assessing the legality of the orders given by his uncle. He simply carried them out. Arby idolized his uncle and was ready to unconditionally believe in any ideas he uttered.
If he had been a little more independent, a little more unpredictable, he wouldn't have stood a chance. A tool is called a tool because its owner uses it as he wants and at a time convenient for himself, and not for the tool. But physical strength, endurance and dog-like devotion made the “all-weather” Arbi Baraev one of the best “bodyguards” in Chechnya, and a few years later Arsanov handed him over as a personal bodyguard to then Vice President Zelimkhan Yandarbiev.
- Can he kill a person? Anyone I can point to? What if this is needed? - Zelimkhan asked Vakha.
- Just tell me! He'll kill you like a chicken! There are no people for him unless they are his relatives! - Vakha Arsanov assured his friend.

Inquiries:

Vainakhs are Chechens and Ingush.
Prophet Issa - in the Islamic tradition, Jesus Christ is recognized and considered as one of the ten first prophets, but at the same time he is not attributed a divine essence.
Mamelukes (from the Arabic Mamluk - slave, white slave) - warrior-slaves first began to be used in the Baghdad Caliphate during the reign of the Abassid caliph al-Mutazim (833-842), but soon this phenomenon spread widely in the Muslim world. The Mamelukes were recruited from the children of Turks, Georgians, Circassians, etc., sold into slavery (or captured during raids). Initially, they became famous as the guards of the last Egyptian sultans of the Ayyubid dynasty. But in 1250, the Mamelukes overthrew Turan Shah (the last of the Ayyubids), seized power in Egypt and elected their own sultan. In 1260, they defeated the Mongols who invaded Palestine and Syria and expelled the remnants of the crusaders from these countries. In the 13th-16th centuries. The Mameluke army served the Cairo Sultanate. As a mercenary army, they managed to fight on the side of many Middle Eastern rulers and even on the side of Napoleon I. The last remnants of this army were almost completely destroyed during the retreat of Napoleon I’s army from Russia during the Patriotic War of 1812.
Both in old and modern history, the facts of such predatory raids on various regions of the same Stavropol region are well known.
Adat is the so-called “customary” law, established by custom, and a set of traditional norms of behavior of the North Caucasian highlanders, passed on from generation to generation. Compliance with adats is absolutely obligatory, and failure to comply is punishable. As the peoples of the North Caucasus became Islamized, the norms of Islamic law - Sharia - began to be added to adats.
In case of non-reconciliation of bloodlines, blood feud in the Caucasus can continue for tens and hundreds of years, until the complete destruction of one of the clans.
Kuig bekhki (Chechen) - guilty hand. According to the adat, only the person at whose hands someone died can be persecuted by bloodlines. Thus, in the case of a contract killing, all blame rests solely with the perpetrator.
Chir (Chechen) is the proper name for the custom of blood feud.
Chir dakheyar (Chechen) - the name of the procedure for declaring blood feud.
Kherza-dulkh and zhizhig-chorpa are dishes of Chechen cuisine, for the preparation of which lamb, potatoes, vegetables, herbs and hot seasonings are used.
Maslaat (Arabic) - reconciliation of bloodlines.
Nokhchi Borz (Chechen) - Chechen wolf.
According to the rules established in the custom of blood feud, only a man who has reached the age of fifteen can take revenge and be the object of revenge. The participation of women in blood feud is specifically stipulated by custom and, as a rule, excluded from actual practice.
Vakha Arsanov is the uncle of the famous Chechen field commander Arbi Barayev. At the time of the events described, Vakha Arsanov was a high-ranking traffic police officer of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. A few years later he will become vice-president of Ichkeria and Aslan Maskhadov’s closest assistant.

Arbi Alautdiinovich Baraev (1973 - June 23, 2001) - an active participant in the separatist movement in Chechnya in the 1990s, supported the creation of a “Sharia” state in Chechnya.

In the structure of the armed formations of the ChRI, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, and headed the so-called Islamic Special Purpose Regiment, created by him with the assistance of some senior leaders of the ChRI (disbanded in 1998 on the orders of the President of the ChRI, Aslan Maskhadov, who simultaneously deprived Barayev of his military rank).

After the end of the first Chechen war, in 1997-1999, he became known as a terrorist and bandit, a murderer and the leader of a gang of slave traders and kidnappers, at whose hands more than a hundred people suffered in Chechnya and neighboring regions.

Becoming

Born in the village of Alkhan-Kala. After graduating from school, he worked as a traffic policeman in Urus-Martan, where he was assigned by his maternal uncle, Vakha Arsanov, who worked in the traffic police department of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1991, Vakha Arsanov, creating the so-called national guard, brought into it, among other former traffic police colleagues, his nephew, who became one of his bodyguards. Later, he joined the security of the former head of the Gudermes traffic police of Ichkeria, Sultan Gelikhanov, who headed the National Security Service of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (according to other sources, he was the bodyguard of Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, who raised him to be an ardent supporter of “pure Islam” (later there will be people like him in Chechnya call them “Wahhabis”).

Family: father - Allautdi Baraev, mother - Sasana Khamidovna Arsanova, uncle - Vakha Arsanov, nephew - Doka Umarov (son of Arsanova), sister Larisa, brothers Suleiman, Islam, Vakha, Bukhari, nephew - Movsar Suleymanov.

Participation in the Chechen conflict

During the First Chechen War, Barayev was subordinate to the field commander Khizir Alkhazurov, but then formed his own detachment, which Zelimkhan Yandarbiev called the “Islamic Special Purpose Regiment.” In June 1995, he took part in Shamil Basayev’s raid on Budennovsk. In 1996, he became subordinate to the Arab mercenary Khattab, actively supporting his actions to impose “Wahhabism” and Sharia law in Chechnya.

Even then, many local supporters of Chechen independence disagreed with foreign “volunteers” in their opinions about the further path of development of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Arbi Barayev, like Shamil Basayev, to whom Arbi Barayev was fanatically devoted, took the side of the Arab mercenaries. Disagreements between separatist leaders resulted in armed clashes between militant groups on the ground. In July 1998, Arbi Baraev, on the instructions of Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, organized a rebellion in Gudermes, suppressed by a detachment of Ruslan Gelayev. For this, CRI President Aslan Maskhadov stripped Barayev of the rank of brigadier general and disbanded the “Islamic Special Purpose Regiment.” However, the personnel were not disarmed, and in fact the armed group continued to function.

Since the mid-1990s, Baraev himself and his henchmen, like many in the “independent” Chechnya of those years, began a profitable private business - kidnapping people whom they killed if they did not receive the required ransom. This activity continued after the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements. Hostages for whom ransom was not paid on time were tortured and killed, and Barayev became so famous for his cruelty that other kidnappers even began to act under his “brand” [source not specified 319 days], i.e. with Barayev’s consent, they informed the relatives that the kidnapped person was supposedly with Barayev, after which the latter hurried to pay the ransom. The money was shared with Barayev. Barayev and his subordinates, in particular, are accused of kidnapping the representative of the Russian President in Chechnya Valentin Vlasov, the murder of an employee of the Russian representative office in Grozny Akmal Saitov, the abductions of ITAR-TASS photojournalist Vladimir Yatsina, NTV journalists, Radio Russia employees, soldiers and officers of the Russian army. Barayev himself personally tortured and killed prisoners and hostages.

One of the latest crimes was the kidnapping of four foreign communications engineers - three Englishmen and a New Zealander Peter Kennedy, Darren Hickey, Rudolf Pesci and Stanley Shaw, whom Barayev personally beheaded after several months of imprisonment.

In June 2001, Barayev was killed along with his comrades, according to the official version, as a result of a special operation by the FSB. According to another version, on June 23, 2001, in Alkhan-Kala, 10 kilometers from Grozny, Barayev was captured by a GRU unit. At the same time, the Chechens had to storm the building of the military commandant’s office, where Barayev and his guards took refuge in order to avoid arrest. After their capture, Barayev and four of his associates were interrogated by GRU officers for 11 hours (the interrogation was recorded on a video camera) and then were shot.

, Checheno-Ingush ASSR, RSFSR, USSR

Arbi Alautdinovich Baraev(May 27 - June 23) - participant in the separatist movement in Chechnya in the 1990s, supported the creation of a “Sharia” state in Chechnya.

In the structure of the CRI bandit formations, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, and headed the so-called Islamic Regiment of Special Purpose, created by him with the assistance of some senior leaders of the CRI (disbanded in 1998 on the orders of the President of the CRI Aslan Maskhadov, who simultaneously deprived Barayev of his military rank).

After the end of the first Chechen war, in 1997-1999, he became known as a terrorist and bandit, a murderer and the leader of a gang of slave traders and kidnappers, at whose hands more than a hundred people suffered in Chechnya and neighboring regions.

Becoming

Participation in the Chechen conflict

Even then, many local supporters of Chechen independence disagreed with foreign “volunteers” in their opinions about the further path of development of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Arbi Barayev, like Shamil Basayev, to whom Arbi Barayev was fanatically devoted, took the side of the Arab mercenaries. Disagreements between separatist leaders resulted in armed clashes between militant groups on the ground. In July 1998, Arbi Barayev, on the instructions of Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, organized a revolt in Gudermes, suppressed by a detachment of Ruslan Gelayev. For this, CRI President Aslan Maskhadov stripped Barayev of the rank of brigadier general and disbanded the “Islamic Special Purpose Regiment.” However, the personnel were not disarmed, and in fact the armed group continued to function.

Since the mid-1990s, Barayev himself and his henchmen, like many in independent Chechnya of those years, engaged in a profitable private business - kidnapping people whom they killed if they did not receive the required ransom. This activity continued after the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements. Hostages for whom ransom was not paid on time were tortured and killed, and Barayev became so famous for his cruelty that other kidnappers, even with Barayev’s consent, informed relatives that the kidnapped person was supposedly with Barayev, after which the latter rushed to pay the ransom. The money was shared with Barayev. Barayev and his subordinates, in particular, are accused of kidnapping the representative of the Russian President in Chechnya Valentin Vlasov, the murder of an employee of the Russian representative office in Grozny Akmal Saitov, the abductions of ITAR-TASS photojournalist Vladimir Yatsina, NTV journalists, Radio Russia employees, soldiers and officers of the Russian army. Barayev himself personally tortured and killed prisoners and hostages.

One of the latest crimes was the kidnapping of four foreign communications engineers - three Englishmen and a New Zealander Peter Kennedy, Darren Hickey, Rudolf Pesci and Stanley Shaw, whom Barayev personally beheaded after several months of imprisonment.

However, we must pay tribute to Barayev’s determination. He was a unique person in his own way: in five years he climbed the career ladder from traffic police foreman to brigadier general (analogous to our rank of lieutenant general)! It’s time to be included in the Guinness Book of Records. Moreover, the 27-year-old Chechen owes such a rapid ascent not to his brilliant mind, talents or valor of heart, but to the human blood he shed: since January 1995, he has personally tortured more than two hundred people! Moreover, with the same sadistic sophistication he mocked a Russian priest, an Ingush policeman, a Dagestani builder, and subjects of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain.

Death

According to the official version, in June 2001 he was liquidated by employees

USSR USSR
ChRI

1990-1991
1991-2001

In the structure of the CRI bandit formations, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, and headed the so-called Islamic Special Purpose Regiment, created by him with the assistance of some senior leaders of the CRI (disbanded in 1998 on the orders of the CRI President Aslan Maskhadov, who simultaneously deprived Barayev of his military rank).

After the end of the first Chechen war, in 1997-1999, he became known as a terrorist and bandit, a murderer and the leader of a gang of slave traders and kidnappers, at whose hands more than a hundred people suffered in Chechnya and neighboring regions.

Becoming

Participation in the Chechen conflict

Even then, many local supporters of Chechen independence disagreed with foreign “volunteers” in their opinions about the further path of development of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Arbi Barayev, like Shamil Basayev, to whom Arbi Barayev was fanatically devoted, took the side of the Arab mercenaries. Disagreements between separatist leaders resulted in armed clashes between militant groups on the ground. In July 1998, Arbi Baraev, on the instructions of Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, organized a rebellion in Gudermes, which was suppressed by a detachment of Ruslan Gelayev. For this, CRI President Aslan Maskhadov stripped Barayev of the rank of brigadier general and disbanded the “Islamic Special Purpose Regiment.” However, the personnel were not disarmed, and in fact the armed group continued to function.

Since the mid-1990s, Barayev himself and his henchmen, like many in independent Chechnya of those years, engaged in a profitable private business - kidnapping people whom they killed if they did not receive the required ransom. This activity continued after the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements. Hostages for whom ransom was not paid on time were tortured and killed, and Barayev became so famous for his cruelty that other kidnappers, even with Barayev’s consent, informed relatives that the kidnapped person was supposedly with Barayev, after which the latter rushed to pay the ransom. The money was shared with Barayev. Baraev and his subordinates, in particular, are accused of kidnapping the representative of the Russian President in Chechnya Valentin Vlasov, the murder of an employee of the Russian representative office in Grozny Akmal Saitov, the abductions of ITAR-TASS photojournalist Vladimir Yatsina, NTV journalists, employees of Radio Russia, soldiers and officers of the Russian army. Barayev himself personally tortured and killed prisoners and hostages.

One of the latest crimes was the kidnapping of four foreign communications engineers - three Englishmen and a New Zealander Peter Kennedy, Darren Hickey, Rudolf Pesci and Stanley Shaw, whom Barayev personally beheaded after several months of imprisonment.

However, we must pay tribute to Barayev’s determination. He was a unique person in his own way: in five years he climbed the career ladder from traffic police foreman to brigadier general (analogous to our rank of lieutenant general)! It’s time to be included in the Guinness Book of Records. Moreover, the 27-year-old Chechen owes such a rapid ascent not to his brilliant mind, talents or valor of heart, but to the human blood he shed: since January 1995, he has personally tortured more than two hundred people! Moreover, with the same sadistic sophistication he mocked a Russian priest, an Ingush policeman, a Dagestani builder, and subjects of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain.

Death

According to the official version, in June 2001 he was liquidated by employees of the Special Purpose Center along with his accomplices, as a result of a special operation by the FSB. During the cleansing of Baraev’s native village, he and two comrades were found in a cache, following a tip from an informant. As a result of the shootout, Evgeniy Valerievich Zolotukhin (senior grenade launcher of the 8th special forces detachment “Rus”, Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously)) was killed and several officers were wounded, all the terrorists were destroyed.

Personal life

He was married to Zura Barayeva, who was killed on October 26, 2002 during the operation to free hostages captured in the theater center on Dubrovka during a showing of the musical “Nord-Ost”, where she led a female squad of terrorists.

Former hostage Irina Filippova described her as follows:

Write a review of the article "Baraev, Arbi Alautdinovich"

Notes

Links

An excerpt characterizing Baraev, Arbi Alautdinovich

There was no engagement and Bolkonsky’s engagement to Natasha was not announced to anyone; Prince Andrei insisted on this. He said that since he was the cause of the delay, he must bear the entire burden of it. He said that he was forever bound by his word, but that he did not want to bind Natasha and gave her complete freedom. If after six months she feels that she does not love him, she will be within her right if she refuses him. It goes without saying that neither the parents nor Natasha wanted to hear about it; but Prince Andrei insisted on his own. Prince Andrei visited the Rostovs every day, but did not treat Natasha like a groom: he told her you and only kissed her hand. After the day of the proposal, a completely different, close, simple relationship was established between Prince Andrei and Natasha. It was as if they didn't know each other until now. Both he and she loved to remember how they looked at each other when they were still nothing; now both of them felt like completely different creatures: then feigned, now simple and sincere. At first, the family felt awkward in dealing with Prince Andrei; he seemed like a man from an alien world, and Natasha spent a long time accustoming her family to Prince Andrei and proudly assured everyone that he only seemed so special, and that he was the same as everyone else, and that she was not afraid of him and that no one should be afraid his. After several days, the family got used to him and, without hesitation, continued with him the same way of life in which he took part. He knew how to talk about the household with the Count, and about outfits with the Countess and Natasha, and about albums and canvas with Sonya. Sometimes the Rostov family, among themselves and under Prince Andrei, were surprised at how all this happened and how obvious the omens of this were: the arrival of Prince Andrei in Otradnoye, and their arrival in St. Petersburg, and the similarity between Natasha and Prince Andrei, which the nanny noticed on their first visit Prince Andrei, and the clash in 1805 between Andrei and Nikolai, and many other omens of what happened were noticed by those at home.
The house was filled with that poetic boredom and silence that always accompanies the presence of the bride and groom. Often sitting together, everyone was silent. Sometimes they got up and left, and the bride and groom, remaining alone, were still silent. Rarely did they talk about their future lives. Prince Andrei was scared and ashamed to talk about it. Natasha shared this feeling, like all his feelings, which she constantly guessed. One time Natasha started asking about his son. Prince Andrei blushed, which often happened to him now and which Natasha especially loved, and said that his son would not live with them.
- From what? – Natasha said in fear.
- I can’t take him away from my grandfather and then...
- How I would love him! - Natasha said, immediately guessing his thought; but I know you want there to be no excuses to blame you and me.
The old count sometimes approached Prince Andrei, kissed him, and asked him for advice on the upbringing of Petya or the service of Nicholas. The old countess sighed as she looked at them. Sonya was afraid at every moment of being superfluous and tried to find excuses to leave them alone when they didn’t need it. When Prince Andrei spoke (he spoke very well), Natasha listened to him with pride; when she spoke, she noticed with fear and joy that he was looking at her carefully and searchingly. She asked herself in bewilderment: “What is he looking for in me? He's trying to achieve something with his gaze! What if I don’t have what he’s looking for with that look?” Sometimes she entered into her characteristic insanely cheerful mood, and then she especially loved to listen and watch how Prince Andrei laughed. He rarely laughed, but when he laughed, he gave himself entirely to his laughter, and every time after this laugh she felt closer to him. Natasha would have been completely happy if the thought of the impending and approaching separation did not frighten her, since he too turned pale and cold at the mere thought of it.
On the eve of his departure from St. Petersburg, Prince Andrei brought with him Pierre, who had never been to the Rostovs since the ball. Pierre seemed confused and embarrassed. He was talking to his mother. Natasha sat down with Sonya at the chess table, thereby inviting Prince Andrey to her. He approached them.
– You’ve known Bezukhoy for a long time, haven’t you? - he asked. - Do you love him?
- Yes, he is nice, but very funny.
And she, as always speaking about Pierre, began to tell jokes about his absent-mindedness, jokes that were even made up about him.
“You know, I trusted him with our secret,” said Prince Andrei. – I have known him since childhood. This is a heart of gold. “I beg you, Natalie,” he said suddenly seriously; – I’ll leave, God knows what might happen. You might spill... Well, I know I shouldn't talk about it. One thing - no matter what happens to you when I’m gone...
- What will happen?...
“Whatever the grief,” continued Prince Andrei, “I ask you, m lle Sophie, no matter what happens, turn to him alone for advice and help.” This is the most absent-minded and funny person, but the most golden heart.
Neither father and mother, nor Sonya, nor Prince Andrei himself could foresee how parting with her fiancé would affect Natasha. Red and excited, with dry eyes, she walked around the house that day, doing the most insignificant things, as if not understanding what awaited her. She did not cry even at that moment when, saying goodbye, he kissed her hand for the last time. - Don't leave! - she just said to him in a voice that made him think about whether he really needed to stay and which he remembered for a long time after that. When he left, she didn't cry either; but for several days she sat in her room without crying, was not interested in anything and only sometimes said: “Oh, why did he leave!”
But two weeks after his departure, just as unexpectedly for those around her, she woke up from her moral illness, became the same as before, but only with a changed moral physiognomy, just as children with a different face get out of bed after a long illness.

The health and character of Prince Nikolai Andreich Bolkonsky, in this last year after his son’s departure, became very weak. He became even more irritable than before, and all the outbursts of his causeless anger mostly fell on Princess Marya. It was as if he was diligently looking for all her sore spots in order to morally torture her as cruelly as possible. Princess Marya had two passions and therefore two joys: her nephew Nikolushka and religion, and both were favorite topics for the prince’s attacks and ridicule. Whatever they talked about, he turned the conversation to the superstitions of old girls or the pampering and spoiling of children. - “You want to make him (Nikolenka) an old girl like yourself; in vain: Prince Andrey needs a son, not a girl,” he said. Or, turning to Mademoiselle Bourime, he asked her in front of Princess Marya how she liked our priests and images, and joked...