Dagestan: Controversial Opposition Figure Killed

[Aidoneus]

Dagestan: Controversial Opposition Figure Killed
Nadirshah Khachilayev was an important figure in turbulent recent history, but why would anyone want to kill him now?
By Enver Kisriev in Moscow (CRS No. 192, 21-Aug-03)

The murder of one of Dagestan’s most colourful and controversial figures, Nadirshah Khachilayev, draws a line under a period of instability in which politics was accompanied by the daily threat of violence.

On August 11, Khachilayev was shot dead outside the gates of his house as he was getting out of his Landcruiser jeep. He was 44. No one has been arrested for the killing so far, though it looks like a professionally-organised hit.

Together with his brother Magomed, Nadirshah Khachilayev was one of the most prominent leaders of Dagestan’s powerful “ethnic parties”. His star had fallen in recent years and he had spent time in prison. But at the zenith of his influence, he was wealthy, he sat in the Russian parliament, and he had hundreds of armed supporters at his disposal.

However, Khachilayev was not a warrior, and not really even a politician. He was a flamboyant figure who built up a reputation that collapsed almost as quickly as he had constructed it.

The Khachilayev brothers rose to fame as Dagestan tried to come to terms with the end of the Soviet Union, and their story is symptomatic of many of its problems.

Economically, the republic stayed one of Russia’s poorest regions in the Nineties – but for a few there were opportunities to get rich quick. Conventional politics was undeveloped, so many would-be politicians aligned themselves with their ethnic community, raising fears that Dagestan would tear itself apart along ethnic lines. There was an upsurge in Islamic activism, alarming Moscow which feared a repeat of the radicalism seen next door in Chechnya. The Khachilayevs were players in all these games.

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http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/cau/cau_200308_192_4_eng.txt

[bemildred]

1. Wonder if this is related:

http://www.democraticunderground.org/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=116&topic_id=1011

It does seems like the Chechnya situation is diffusing into the
neighboring places.

This should keep Pooty-poot from getting too big of a woody over
Shrub's problems in Iraq and Afghanistan.