Countless people were deeply shocked by the Beslan hostage incident in 2004, one of the most tragic and large-scale hostage-taking incidents in human history. Chechen separatist militants have taken more than 1,200 hostages and committed the first brutal act against children and adolescents, and the mastermind of this kidnapping is Basayev, who has been dubbed the "Wolf of the Caucasus".
Putin hated the terrorist Basayev to the core, and he once told reporters that if he caught *** in the toilet, he would drown him in the toilet. After Basayev was killed by Russia in 2006, Putin breathed a sigh of relief and the world was one less potential threat.
Basayev, a hardliner in Chechnya's illegal armed forces, is known as the "Wolf of the Caucasus" and Russia's henchman. Born in the mountains of southern Chechnya, after graduating from secondary school, he was drafted into the army as a firefighter in the Moscow Air Force General Command, where he retired after two years of service.
Despite being admitted to the Moscow Institute of Land Planning for a degree in land management, he was dropped out of the university in his second year due to poor grades. He had dreamed of becoming a footballer, but that dream was shattered.
The historical feud between Russia and Chechnya originated in the late 18th century, when Tsarist Russia finally incorporated Chechnya into its territory after a long period of fighting.
However, in 1944, the Soviet Union deported the Chechens on charges of collusion with Nazi Germany and sent them to Central Asia and Siberia. Only in the 80s of the last century did the USSR allow Chechens to return to their homeland.
These historical events deeply exacerbated the contradictions between Russia and Chechnya. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Federation refused to recognize the independence of Chechnya, which brought the contradictions to a climax.
Retrospectively, Basayev's ancestors were the best soldiers who participated in the war in the Caucasus. However, they were captured by Chechnya and eventually settled in the Chechen region. It was also here that Basayev planned the first terrorist attack, determined to show Russia what he could do.
In November 1991, he and his accomplices successfully hijacked a Russian passenger plane bound for Turkey in order to blackmail Russia into recognizing Chechnya's independence. Upon his return to Chechnya, he received a heroic welcome and was also sent to Afghanistan to learn guerrilla tactics.
The experience in Afghanistan not only allowed him to master more armed confrontation skills, but also made his thinking more extreme.
After the war in Afghanistan, Basayev set his sights on building a theocratic state that would encompass the entire Islamic world. In 1992, he planned and carried out two hijackings and led his own men during the civil war in Abkhazia, Georgia.
As his popularity in Chechnya grew, he successively served as the head of the Dudayev separatist armed guard of the Chechen Republic, deputy chief of the General Staff, and commander and commander-in-chief of the Chechen illegal armed forces.
In 1994, tensions between Russia and Chechnya intensified, leading to the outbreak of the first Chechen war. During the war, Basayev struggled the Russian army with his excellent guerrilla warfare and sneak attack skills.
However, his loved ones lost more than a dozen lives in this war, which made his hatred of Russia even deeper. In August 1996, the two sides declared a ceasefire, Chechnya was granted unofficial independent status, and illegal ** was held.
In this "**, Basayev was elected "prime minister".
After Putin came to power, his control over the Chechen region was challenged. In order to restore control, he unleashed the Second Chechen War and succeeded in victory. This action further angered Basayev, who orchestrated a series of horrific violence and trained the "Black Widow Suicide Squad".
He also plotted the assassination of the Chechen electors** and continued to carry out various violent and terrorist activities, which deeply troubled the Russian authorities.
In 2000, Putin instructed Russian troops to attack Basayev, and the operation was almost successful.
In this incident, Basayev skillfully used psychological tactics. He occasionally released some hostages who, after successfully escaping, expressed their disgust with the war in Chechnya and asked ** to withdraw their troops.
However, Putin has not changed his resolve. In his public speech, he said that he was willing to negotiate with Chechnya, but resolutely did not change his position on the war in Chechnya. After several days of stalemate, a part of the hostages, seizing the moment when the Chechen militants were lax, managed to organize an escape.
This operation was immediately responded to and supported by the Russian special forces on the periphery. After a fierce exchange of fire, 40 militants were killed, however, the incident resulted in the death of more than 130 hostages, a huge ** that caused global shock.
Despite the heavy losses, Basayev's terrorist ambitions did not subside. One of the most notorious incidents was the hostage incident at Secondary School No. 1 in Beslan, Republic of North Ossetia, in 2004.
At the opening ceremony, Basayev held 1,200 teachers, students and parents hostage, demanded that Russia withdraw from Chechnya, and threatened to retaliate by killing children if the militants were killed or wounded.
According to statistics, 335 people were killed and more than 500 injured in Beslan, most of the victims were teenagers and children, and this kind of atrocity against adolescents is rare in human history.
Despite the $10 million bounty offered by Putin and Russia** for Basayev's capture, his terrorist activities continue to occur frequently. This is just as the United States has been trying to fight Basayev and others, whose attack on the police station of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in 2005 resulted in the deaths of 139 people, showing that their terrorist activities will inevitably lead to significant human activity**.
Under Putin's instructions, the Russian army has carried out many "targeted killing" operations and has also "entered the mountains to suppress bandits" many times, but has never successfully completed the task. Basayev has multiple stand-ins and has repeatedly tricked the Russians into believing that they have killed him.
Soon after, Basayev would appear in public view with the newspaper of the day, carrying a submachine gun, and even once, while recording**, he pulled out the dagger he carried with him and stabbed his prosthetic leg to prove that he was a "real person" and not a stand-in.
His public appearances, after a number of "oolong incidents", were undoubtedly a merciless mockery of the Russian authorities, much to the embarrassment of Moscow.
In the middle of the night on July 9, 2006, Putin woke up from "good news" when he was reported to him by the head of Russia's Federal Security Service, Patrushev, that Russian security forces had successfully killed Chechen separatist Basayev and several other militants in the Ingushetia region.
It is said that Basayev tried to plan a terrorist attack in the Ingushetia region and tried to sabotage the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg in order to exert "political pressure" on Putin and try to achieve "Chechen independence."
However, his actions were not successful, and instead ended his life. The news, which excites Putin, is a major victory for Russia in the fight against terrorism and eases the pressure on him in Chechnya.
There have always been different opinions about Basayev's death. According to Russian officials, he was killed by Russian security forces using "fixed-point tracking missiles".
Russian security services claim they have locked on Basayev's cell phone signal, and that his convoy was loaded with munitions that night and was heading towards the city of Nazran. However, for some unknown reason, he suddenly took out his mobile phone, which he had not used for a long time, near the village of Ekazawa, and gave his accomplices an answer to the call, which lasted only a few minutes.
Although Basayev's call was brief, it was enough for Russian security forces to lock down his position. At that time, Russia allegedly had already used fixed-point homing missiles, precisely targeting his vehicle.
This advanced system is able to distinguish between multiple similar vehicles, allowing for accurate identification and attack of the target vehicle. Thus, the Russian security forces managed to kill Basayev.
However, there have been doubts about Russia's claims. Some believe that the use of mobile phones at this critical time is inconceivable, while others doubt the possibility that Russia used "targeted killings" to kill Basayev.
It was claimed that Russia had long ago secretly sent elite undercover agents to infiltrate Basayev's side and gain his trust. Under the careful planning of undercover agents, Basayev was deceived by Russia** pretending to be an arms dealer, buying arms and preparing to launch a terrorist attack at the G-8 summit.
However, Russia** took the opportunity to plant a time bomb in Basayev's convoy, and used the cover of darkness to detonate the bomb, successfully blowing Basayev to pieces.
Some insist that Basayev's death may have been an accident because his convoy was loaded with large quantities of munitions, including accident-prone grenades. It may have been the bumps in the vehicle that caused the accident of the munitions**, which in turn triggered the entire convoy**, as a result of which Basayev was killed on the spot.
In any case, the results of Basayev's skull, prosthetic limbs and DNA identification have been confirmed, and he disappeared from the world in July 2006.
For countless civilians, Basayev's death is undoubtedly a great benefit, after all, it symbolizes that the world's terrorist forces have been weakened, and their daily lives are correspondingly less potentially threatening.
However, it is important to know that Basayev's death does not mean the complete collapse of the Chechen separatist forces, and likewise, the Chechen *** will not stop there, which undoubtedly points to the still long way ahead for Putin's anti-terrorist operation.