Word: dudayev
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...rallying to resume their leadership roles among the rebels. A man identifying himself as the Chechen commander Salman Raduyev said Thursday that rebels were responsible for two recent bus bombings in Moscow and that he planned to carry out another, unspecified order from top rebel leader Dzhokar Dudayev. Russian officials had reported both men killed in fighting last spring, but their bodies were never found. While the man identifying himself as Raduyev looked very different, he attributed his changed appearance to plastic surgery following extensive face wounds caused by shots from Russian troops. "Many people had speculated that Raduyev...
...Chechnya strategy also seems to have included killing the charismatic rebel leader, Jokhar Dudayev, a feat that was accomplished on April 21 when Russian electronic-warfare experts reportedly zeroed in on Dudayev's satellite phone and called in air strikes. Satarov won't directly confirm that the killing was timed to aid Yeltsin's campaign, but he gleefully acknowledges that "it wins votes for us." He also admits the Yeltsin campaign high command "discussed all this in advance" and knew when the killing would be attempted. He does, however, lament that "we haven't turned Dudayev's death...
...With or without Dudayev," Yeltsin said last week, "we shall wind up everything in Chechnya with peace." That still seems a far-off objective. Yeltsin's March 31 announcement of a cease-fire and an attempt at new negotiations brought no apparent slowdown in the fighting. Nevertheless, early last week with visiting President Bill Clinton at his side, Yeltsin insisted that "military actions are not going on" in Chechnya. Was he lying or out of touch with reality...
Yeltsin had called for contacts, through middlemen, with Dudayev. Even though the Chechen chief is dead and the fighting continues, such feelers with rebel leaders are still possible. But for the moment the outlook is not good. Dudayev's successor seems to be his vice president, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, who has a reputation as an ideologue and a believer in war to the end. Russian human-rights advocate Sergei Kovalyov, who has spent months in Chechnya, calls the new chief "a fanatic...
Some Russians expect Yandarbiyev to be forced out soon by another strongman, possibly the battlefield commander Shamil Basayev, who was named last week to handle any future parleys with Moscow. But if the Chechens stand firm on Dudayev's basic demand--full independence--there will be little to discuss with the Kremlin. In spite of Yeltsin's peace maneuvers, it seems likely he will carry the burden of Chechnya into the election...