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News & Analysis

Israeli connection to Chechnya resurfaces again

Maksud Djavadov

The October 18 confession by leader of the pro-independence forces in the North Caucasus of direct Zionist influence on their struggle might be the beginning of the movement’s self cleansing process. A video announcement by Doku Umarov, leader of the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus (IEC), posted on October 18, criticized four senior field commanders for their withdrawal of allegiance to him in August 2010.

He condemned the four commanders for abandoning the concept of expanding the war against Russia to the entire North Caucasus region. It was not Umarov’s criticism of the renegade commanders that was the most important part of his latest message. The implicit admission by Umarov that an Israeli citizen and a Russian billionaire fugitive, Boris Berezovsky had exercised influence over the Chechen resistance forces is the most important part of his speech that was ignored by Western media outlets.

In the latest video, Umarov condemned the renegade commanders for their willingness to open negotiations with Russia through the exiled Chechen politician Ahmed Zakayev, currently living in the UK and who is backed by Berezovsky. Umarov said that the process of negotiations was never in favor of the Chechens and was always used as a method to lure and kill leaders of the independence struggle.

Umarov further stated: “these persons, we know whom we speak about [Aslanbek Vadalov, Khusein Gakayev and Tarkhan Gaziyev], cannot calm down today. They know that when their masters, Berezovsky and others, realize that they have no influence on the Mujahideen, that they have no “joker”, they will be kicked out of the club. Therefore, these persons are doing today everything possible to obscure the brains of the Mujahideen in order to cheat them. I swear by Allah, I do not take offense at these Mujahideen, because these persons [Berezovsky-Zakayev] also deceived me. I swear by Allah, they deceived me! Until 2007, when I relied completely on Allah and rejected their services and broke ties with these people, these people were deceiving me.”

Berezovsky’s connection to the conflict in Chechnya is not new. One of his career paths in Russia included payment of ransom for kidnappings by various Chechnya-based warlords. Berezovsky’s ransom payments projected him into the Russian public scene as a “compassionate” public servant. However, many analysts believe that these payments were nothing but carefully designed plans between Berezovsky and naïve militia leaders in Chechnya whom Berezovsky used for his political goals.

The fact that Umarov admitted that until 2007 pro-independence leadership was in contact with Berezovsky’s group confirms that the Zionists played a role in discrediting Chechnya’s pro-independence movement. Most probably the movement in the North Caucasus itself is not aware of how Israel and its proxies manipulated the movement for their own interests.

If the current internal divisions force the movement to look deeper into its takfiri ideas and their un-Islamic methodology of conducting the struggle, they might realize that Berezovsky and those from whom they get their dubious “fatwas” are members of the same club.


Article from

Crescent International Vol. 39, No. 9

Dhu al-Qa'dah 24, 14312010-11-01


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