61 Facts About Shamil Basayev

Shamil Basayev held the rank of brigadier general in the Armed Forces of Ichkeria, and was posthumously declared generalissimo.

Shamil Basayev masterminded several of the worst terrorist attacks that occurred in Russia.

Shamil Basayev ordered the Budyonnovsk hospital raid in 1995, the Beslan school siege in 2004, and was responsible for numerous attacks on security forces in and around Chechnya.

Shamil Basayev masterminded the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis and the 2004 Russian aircraft bombings.

Shamil Basayev was killed in a truck explosion during an arms deal in July 2006.

Shamil Basayev was born in the village of Dyshne-Vedeno, near Vedeno, in south-eastern Chechnya, in 1965 to Chechen parents from the Belghatoy teip.

Shamil Basayev was named after Imam Shamil, the third imam of Chechnya and Dagestan and one of the leaders of anti-Russian Chechen-Avar forces in the Caucasian War.

Shamil Basayev's family is said to have had a long history of involvement in Chechen resistance to foreign occupation, especially Russian rule.

Shamil Basayev's grandfather fought for the abortive attempt to create a breakaway North Caucasian Emirate after the Russian Revolution.

Shamil Basayev worked as a computer salesman in Moscow, in partnership with a local Chechen businessman, Supyan Taramov.

Shamil Basayev had four wives, a Chechen woman who was killed in the 1990s, an Abkhaz woman he met while fighting against Georgia, and a Cossack he was said to have married on Valentine's Day, 2005.

In May 1995, eleven members of Shamil Basayev's family were killed in a Russian air raid including his mother, his two children, a brother and sister.

Shamil Basayev lost his home in the same attack, becoming the first Chechen who took revenge outside Chechen lands, in the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis.

Shamil Basayev lost a leg in 2000 during the Second Chechen War.

When some hardline members of Soviet government tried to stage a coup d'etat in August 1991, Shamil Basayev allegedly joined supporters of Russian President Boris Yeltsin on the barricades around the Russian White House in central Moscow, armed with hand grenades.

Shamil Basayev moved to Azerbaijan in 1992, where he assisted Azerbaijani forces in their unsuccessful war against Armenian fighters in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Shamil Basayev was said to have led a battalion-strength Chechen contingent.

Shamil Basayev ordered the withdrawal of the Chechen detachments from Karabakh in 1993, stating that they had entered the region for a Jihad, but saw not a single sign of it.

Later in 1992, Shamil Basayev traveled to Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, to assist the local separatist movement against the Georgian government's attempts to regain control of the region.

Shamil Basayev became the commander-in-chief of the forces of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus.

All the details of the attack by Shamil Basayev's detachments were supposedly worked out in the summer of 1999 in a villa in the south of France with the participation of Shamil Basayev and the Head of the Presidential administration, Aleksandr Voloshin.

Shamil Basayev received direct military training from the GRU since the Abkhaz were backed by Russia.

Shamil Basayev's men were among the last fighters to abandon the city.

Twelve additional members of Shamil Basayev's family were seriously wounded in the attack.

Shamil Basayev led the most infamous such attack, the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis on 14 June 1995, less than two weeks after he lost his family in the air raids.

Shamil Basayev stepped down from his military position in December 1996 to run for president in Chechnya's second presidential elections.

Shamil Basayev briefly served as acting leader of Chechnya during President Maskhadov's trip to the Middle East in 1997.

Shamil Basayev's appointment was symbolic because it took place on the eve of the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of his renowned namesake.

Shamil Basayev subsequently reduced the government's administrative departments and abolished several ministries.

Shamil Basayev stayed in Grozny for the duration of the siege of the city.

Shamil Basayev welcomed assistance from foreign fighters from Afghanistan and other Islamic countries, encouraging them to join the Chechen cause.

The Russian military had made several claims about Shamil Basayev's alleged death in the past.

Around 2 November 2002, Shamil Basayev claimed on a militant website that he was responsible for the Moscow theater hostage crisis in which 50 Chechens held about 800 people hostage; Russian forces later stormed the building using gas, killing the Chechens and more than 100 hostages.

Shamil Basayev tendered his resignation from all posts in Maskhadov's government apart from the reconnaissance and sabotage battalion.

Shamil Basayev defended the operation but asked Maskhadov for forgiveness for not informing him of it.

Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility, published the video of the attack, and said he personally triggered the bombs by remote control.

From June until August 2003 Shamil Basayev lived in the town of Baksan in nearby Kabardino-Balkaria.

In late 2003, Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for terrorist bombings in both Moscow and Yessentuki in Stavropol Krai.

Shamil Basayev said both attacks were carried out by the group operating under his command.

On 9 May 2004, the pro-Russian Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov was killed in Grozny in a bomb attack for which Shamil Basayev later claimed responsibility.

That explosion killed at least six people and wounded nearly 60, including the top Russian military commander in Chechnya, who lost his leg; Shamil Basayev called it a "small but important victory".

In September 2004 Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the Beslan school siege in which over 350 people, most of them children, were killed and hundreds more injured.

Shamil Basayev himself did not participate in the seizure of the school, but claimed to have organized and financed the attack, boasting that the whole operation cost only 8,000 euros.

On 17 September 2004, Shamil Basayev issued a statement claiming responsibility for the school siege, saying his Riyadus-Salihiin "Martyr Battalion" had carried out this and other attacks.

Shamil Basayev blamed it on Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that by Putin giving the order to storm the school he had destroyed and injured the hostages.

Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the attacks against civilians during the previous week, in which a metro station in Moscow was bombed, and two airliners were blown up by suicide bombers.

Shamil Basayev said that during the Beslan crisis he offered Putin "independence in exchange for security".

In May 2005, Shamil Basayev reportedly claimed responsibility for the power outage in Moscow.

The BBC reported that the claim for responsibility was made on a web site connected to Shamil Basayev, but conflicted with official reports that sabotage was not involved.

Shamil Basayev stated each Russian had to feel war's impact before the Chechen war would stop.

On 23 August 2005, Shamil Basayev rejoined the Chechen separatist government, taking the post of first deputy chairman.

Later this year Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for a raid on Nalchik, the capital of the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.

The raid occurred on 13 October 2005; Shamil Basayev said that he and his "main units" were only in the city for two hours and then left.

On 15 June 2006, Shamil Basayev repeated his claim of responsibility for the bombing that killed Akhmad Kadyrov, saying he had paid $50,000 to those who carried out the assassination.

Shamil Basayev said he had put a $25,000 bounty on the head of Ramzan, mocking the young Kadyrov in offering the smaller bounty.

On 27 June 2006, Shamil Basayev was appointed by Dokka Umarov as the Vice President of Ichkeria.

On 10 July 2006, Shamil Basayev was killed near the border of North Ossetia in the village of Ekazhevo, Ingushetia, a republic bordering Chechnya.

Shamil Basayev is assumed to have been the main recipient of the arms, and thus in charge of distributing them.

On 6 October 2007, Shamil Basayev was promoted to the rank of Generalissimo post mortem by Doku Umarov.

Shamil Basayev wrote a book after the First Chechen War, Book of a Mujahideen.

Shamil Basayev appeared in 2018 Russian movie Decision: Liquidation, played by Ayub Tsingiev.