The former head of one of Chechnya's shadowy puppet "security forces" was gunned down in cold blood in Moscow by "law enforcement officers" who purportedly "were trying to detain him on suspicion of abductions and killings in Chechnya", Russian officials said.
Movladi Baisarov was shot Saturday while allegedly "resisting officers" on a main avenue in the capital, Moscow "prosecutor's office" spokeswoman Petrenko said. A "prosecutor" at the scene, Bobinova, claimed "he had pulled out a grenade when police tried to arrest him after he got out of a car", the AP reported.
Baisarov headed a force that reportedly provided security for the top Moscow puppet Akhmad Kadyrov, who was executed by Chechen Mujahideen in 2004, but had been on increasingly bad terms with Kadyrov's son Ramzan, a puppet "prime minister".
The body of a "man resembling Baisarov" lay in the street on Moscow's Lenin Avenue late Saturday, the face bloodied and a pool of blood around the head and shoulder. Police milled around the corpse, still clad in a leather coat and a light scarf.
Baisarov's history reflects the volatile web of shifting allegiances and rivalries among Russian puppets in Chechnya.
According to the weekly newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti, Baisarov's force in recent years had been under the control of the Russian terrorist entity FSB, which is the main successor of the KGB and was formerly headed by Putin.
However, the newspaper said, the unit the force was attached to was dissolved early this year, and in October "police" and "prosecutors" in Chechnya said they were seeking to detain Baisarov on "suspicion of involvement in the killings of 10 people". According to the Gasprom-owned Ekho Moskvy radio, the alleged victims - all members of a single family or their acquaintances - were abducted in 2004 and their bodies found last month.
Baisarov's death appeared to underscore the growing power of Kadyrov, who has close ties with the Kremlin and is more influential than a puppet "Chechen president", technically his superior. Ekho Moskvy radio said that Baisarov had come to Moscow to get away from Kadyrov, and Russian media cited "prosecutors" as saying Chechen "special police" took part in Saturday's execution.
Baisarov had denied responsibility for the killings, blaming Kadyrov for his troubles with the authorities and contradicting Kadyrov's claims to be bringing order to Chechnya, Ekho Moskvy reported.
A political commentator predicted on the radio station earlier this month that the conflict between Kadyrov and Baisarov would end "with one or the other dead." So the Russian masters killed their former Chechen slave who became superfluous.
The Russians are expected to get rid some day of Kadyrov the same way as they did with Baisarov.
KC
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