The Russians found him in a bunker in the flatland village of Tolstoy-Yurt, near Grozny. According to one version, realizing his hopelessness, the president asked his nephew and bodyguard Viskhan Khadzhimuratov not to let him be captured alive. Armed with a Makarov, the relative carried out the Chechen leader’s last request.
The elderly Maskhadov spent 5 years in hiding. All this time he did not leave Chechnya, whose territory is smaller than the Rivne region. The entire army and all the special services of Russia were looking for him, using the latest means of surveillance and detection. The president did not just hide. He constantly moved around the republic, held command meetings, communicated with emissaries abroad and gave interviews to the media.
In an audio message to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Crimea, Ilyas Akhmadov recorded on 18 January 2001, Maskhadov gave a comprehensive description of Putin:
“Ilyas, we shouldn’t forget this, we should always talk about it, that today a real maniac has come to power in Russia. Just a real maniac! An ordinary lieutenant colonel of the special service. An absolute scoundrel. He is simply a hypocrite, to the point of impossibility! He stops at nothing, absolutely nothing is sacred to this man! One day he can say one thing in front of his people, and the next day say: “I didn’t say that.”
The apt words of an underground operative – without access to situation rooms and a staff of analysts at his disposal. At that time, the rest of the world, including Ukraine, was still blinded by the halo of a “promising leader” and a “reliable partner.”
The living president of the Chechen Republic was a lump in the throat of the occupiers and their puppets. After all, in the eyes of the international community, Maskhadov remained the legitimate leader of Chechnya, elected in competitive and internationally recognized elections in 1997. Recognized even by Russia. The president’s stay-at-home, and not in exile, added moral strength to the Chechen resistance.
Maskhadov fought, but until the end of his life, he did not lose faith in diplomacy. Two months before his death, he declared a unilateral ceasefire, which was observed by all field commanders. And this destroyed another thesis of Russian propaganda: that Maskhadov no longer controls anything and does not represent anyone.
On 25 February 2005, in a message to Javier Solana (then the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy), President Maskhadov recalled that he had closely followed the events of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
In his opinion, a large role in its successful conclusion belonged to the European Union. So Europe can be strong and effective if it decides to act persistently and in a coordinated manner. Maskhadov would like the same effectiveness and strength to help end the war and genocide in Chechnya…
Maksym Maiorov
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