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.

March 11, 2005

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