PanArmenian News Analysis
March 14 2005
BAKU – A MEETING POINT FOR CHECHEN RADICALS
Determined to continue his father’s job, Aslan Maskhadov’s son has
found asylum in the capital of Azerbaijan.
The three-day mourning for the killed Ichkerian president Aslan
Maskhadov has come to an end. The ceremony was held in Baku where
Anzor Maskhadov, the son of the late president lives. In honor of his
father, he bought the biggest bull in market, slaughtered it and gave
out to the poor. According to Baku mass media, Anzor, together with
Maskhadov’s widow and the “leaders of official representations of
Chechnian Republic of Ichkeria in Azerbaijan and Europe” received
condolences from hundreds of people. The presence of all those people
on the hospitable land of Azerbaijan cannot but arise questions among
Russians whom Baku leaders assure of friendship and brotherhood.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Recently, in his interview to “Interfax” agency,
the head of state frontier service Elchin Guliev stated with
responsibility that no person named Anzor Maskhadov entered the
territory of Azerbaijan. The chief of police of Baku Mageram Aliev
also assures that the Chechen leader’s son has never been to
Azerbaijan. It turns out that high-ranking officials have simply told
lies because according to independent sources the former field
commander Anzor Maskhadov lives and works in Baku since 2003.
Thumbing through his biography it will be quite easy to guess what he
is doing in Azerbaijan.
Twenty-nine year old Anzor started to fight against Russians yet
during the first Chechen campaign. At first, he formally was an
ordinary fighter but very soon, his father started to entrust his
group with quite responsible missions. During one of the diversionary
sallies he was wounded. Noticing the talent of commander in his son,
Aslan Maskhadov sent him to training in a military academy in
Malaysia. According to Russian mass media he was at the same time the
“representative of the government of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria” in
Kuala-Lumpur and provided shade turnover of state funds for funding
terrorism. Anzor’s business did not limit in gold and precious stones
trade. According to “Komsomolskaya Pravda” paper in February 2003, he
decided to multiply the money trusted to him thanks to porn industry.
In January 2002 in Sacramento, he registered a porn website with a
monthly entrance fee of 39.9 dollars.
For some course of time, Anzor lived in Turkey but then he realized
that in no other country would he feel as comfortable as in
Azerbaijan where Chechen emissaries had established a regional
headquarters. In Baku Maskhadov junior worked in active cooperation
with the “leader of the representation of Chechen Republic of
Ichkeria” Ali Asaev. Soon, his mother, 16-year-old Fatima, his wife
and three children also moved to Azerbaijan. The formal status of
Maskhadov in Azerbaijan – correspondent of Turkish network edition
“InternetAJANS.com”. Anyway, it is hard to believe that he earns his
living by publishing his articles on the website. Possibly, Anzor had
several grounds to suppose that after his father’s death he would be
proclaimed the successor of his father as it was after the murder of
Akhmad Kadirov, the head of pro-Russian Chechnian regime. “I will
replace my father. I have already established contact with his
assistants abroad,” said Anzor Maskhadov in his interview to “Reiter”
news agency on the next day after the events in Tolsta-Urta.
Nevertheless, he did not manage to come to power.
Official Moscow has more than once expressed surprise about the
comfortable conditions that are provided in Baku for Chechen figures.
Not setting any hopes on the cooperation with local security organs,
Russian special services have liquidated nine notorious terrorists
during the last four years. Among them were Vakha Ibragimov who
represented Djakhar Dudayev in the negotiations with the leadership
of Afghan “Taliban” movement, field commander Magomed Kariev, former
bodyguard of Aslan Maskhadov Khizir Talkhadov, field commander and
assistant of Emir Khatab Magomedali Magomedov. According to Baku
“Echo” paper in August 2004, Russian special services were intending
to capture Anzor Maskhadov in Baku, but for some reason later on,
they gave up that idea.
It is getting more and more difficult for Russian authorities to
suppress their indignation on the free activity of Chechen terrorists
in Baku. This can be noticed in the latest statements of the deputy
head of the committee on regional policy of the upper chamber of
Russian parliament Valerie Kadakhov who is very well aware of the
“Azeri tracks” of Chechen terrorists because he has taken part in the
investigation of the tragedy in Beslan. During the last conference of
the Russian-Azerbaijanian inter-Parliamentary commission he stated,
“Headquarters of Aslan Maskhadov is located on the territory of
Azerbaijan and I do not believe that Baku authorities fight against
terrorism”. In the course of preparations to the operation in Beslan
school Kadakhov got assured that the terrorists were coordinated from
Baku. “To get people out we agreed to get in touch with the forces
controlling terrorists. The only telephone call was from Baku” the
Russian deputy mentioned. In addition, Kadakhov said, “I would advise
not to irritate Russia. We have had a lot of losses…” Azerbaijan
did not listen to the advice again. Meanwhile, the patience of Moscow
of course has limits.
Artyom Yerkanyan