Labazanov, Ruslan Hamidovich

Ruslan Labazanov was born in the Kazakh SSR in 1967 ^{[2] [3] [4]} . Belonged to the Chechen teip Nokhch-Keloy ^[5] .

He graduated from college number 10, was a candidate for master of sports in boxing. After school, he served in the Belarussian Military District , in Bobruisk ^[3] , in a sports company . After the army he entered the Faculty of Sports Medicine at the Krasnodar Institute of Physical Education ^{[3] [2]} . After graduation, he worked in Krasnodar as a Kyokushin instructor ^[4] . He served as president of the Kuban Martial Arts Association ^[3] . During this period he created a gang and was engaged in racketeering ^[6] .

In 1990, Labazanov was arrested in Rostov-on-Don on suspicion of murder ^{[2] [4]} , there he was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for premeditated murder without aggravating circumstances ^[1] , according to another version - for robberies ^[3] . In early 1991, his transfer was started to serve his sentence at the place of residence of relatives in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , during which he ended up in a Grozny pre-trial detention center ^[1] .

In Ichkeria

In October 1991, he led a riot in a pre-trial detention center, which led to the release of prisoners. The members of the negotiating group sent to a rebellious detention center to remove women and juvenile convicts who prevented from firing from there, Yu. M. Luchinsky and A. S. Kulikov described him as a sports, well-dressed guy who speaks Russian without an accent, and noted his unquestioned authority among the participants in the riot, which reached the point that he alone kept the convicts from reprisal against the parliament ^{[1] [7]} . When a month later, on November 8, Boris Yeltsin tried to introduce a state of emergency in Chechnya, Labazanov created an armed detachment of Dudaev’s supporters from former prisoners ^[3] . Dudayev praised the decisive and charismatic authority , for which he made his detachment his personal guard ^{[8] [9] [10]} . Labazanov himself became an adviser to the president of CRI ^[11] on ethnic issues ^[3] and received the rank of captain of the guard ^[3] .

According to some reports, in 1992-1993 he was engaged in illegal arms sales in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. He became famous as the Chechen Robin Hood , robbing the rich and distributing the loot to the poor ^{[3] [7] [12] [13] [14]} . At this time, Labazanov’s detachment became one of the most trained and disciplined in Ichkeria ^[11] . Labazanov’s subordinates respected him, he was a tough but fair commander ^[12] , for example, a soldier of the detachment was punishable by death for drunkenness ^[11] , since Ruslan categorically did not accept alcohol and smoking ^[12] . Labazanov himself in the squad was nicknamed “ Rambo ” ^[3] .

In Opposition

In March 1994, he quarreled with Dudaev, the conflict came to an exchange of fire ^[6] , as a result of which Labazanov ended up in the intensive care unit of the Grozny Central Hospital with bullet wounds ^[3] . After discharge, he criticized the rule of Dudaev and joined the opposition ^[15] . Labazanov’s main accusation against Dudaev was to indulge the interests of gangsters in Ichkeria ^[6] . March 23 in a statement by the State Duma of the Russian Federation was recognized as one of the most important participants in the political process in Ichkeria ^[15] . In May 1994 ^[4] announced the creation of the Niyso party ^[3] , which criticized the Dudaev regime ^[4] . It was with this name that the leader of the party Labazanov publicly positioned himself. Having captured a multi-storey residential building in the 4th Grozny microdistrict, Labazanov formed his headquarters in it and turned the house into a fortress, reinforcing it with concrete slabs and fortified firing points ^[16] .

On June 2, Labazanov and his supporters made an armed raid on Radio House ^{[6] [17]} . On June 12, opposition supporters staged a rally in Sheikh Mansour Square in the center of Grozny, demanding the immediate resignation of the president and vice president of the country ^[3] . During the rally, several people from Labazanov’s detachment started a shootout with representatives of the local police outside the building of the CRI Interior Ministry ^[18] . The next day, June 13, Dzhokhar Dudayev sent troops to take Labazanov’s headquarters ^[3] . During the rout of the Grozny Niyso base, which lasted 12 hours ^[16] , the apartment building in which it was located was seriously damaged, civilians and participants in the clash were killed on both sides. A cousin and close friend of Labazanov in this battle were captured and executed by decapitation ^[11] , and their heads with the head of another soldier were put on public display ^[6] on Minutka Square ^[16] . The leading role in the operation was played by the "Abkhazian battalion" under the command of Shamil Basayev ^{[19] [20] [21]} . After the events of June 13, Labazanov declared blood feud on President Dudayev ^{[11] [6] [10]} .

In August of that year, Labazanov established close contacts with the main groups of opponents of the Dudaev regime and entered the military leadership of the opposition, leading one of the detachments of the anti-Dudaev militia ^[7] . Created a base in the city of Argun , established control over the city ^[22] , as well as over the neighboring Vedeno and Shali districts ^[10] . Having gained a foothold, Labazanov began to publicize information about how the Dudaev’s government, not without the participation of the president himself, traded oil in 1992-1993. According to him, after the transfer of money for oil products, the latter disappeared without a trace. The investigation, which began each time, pretty quickly ended after the death of the investigators. In support of his words, he provided his documents signed by the President of Ichkeria ^[16] . The then Minister of Petroleum Industry of the CRI, Adam Albakov, with whom open hostility began on this ground with Labazanov, also fell under accusations of fraud with petroleum products. According to some reports, one of the Albakov brothers was killed during this fight ^[11] .

On September 5, 1994, Labazanov’s detachment in Argun was defeated by the Dudaevites ^{[23] [24] [25]} under the command of Ruslan Gelayev ^{[26] [27]} . There is evidence that the backbone of the strike forces that defeated Labazanov’s detachments in Grozny and Argun again formed the “Abkhaz battalion”, and Shamil Basayev ^{[19] [21]} was declared to be involved in the operation. In this battle, formations controlled by Dudaev were first used by aviation and heavy armored vehicles. Labazanov’s detachment broke into Dagestan in battle, losing about 20 people killed ^[6] , and then joined Ruslan Khasbulatov’s Peacekeeping Group in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt ^{[3] [28]} .

In October-November, Labazanov participated in hostilities on the side of the Provisional Council of Chechnya . On October 15, a group under his command entered Grozny and captured the Dudaev’s palace , but did not encounter any resistance ^[29] . After that, when Dudaev’s forces launched a counterattack, Labazanov’s detachment was thrown in encirclement (Avturkhanov’s detachment suddenly retreated ^[30] , it is believed that by order from Moscow ^[31] ), after which Labazanov ceased to trust the opposition’s comrades-in-arms ^[12] . During the main assault on Grozny on November 26, 1994, Labazanov’s detachment was supposed to enter the city through Minutka Square , from there approach the president’s palace ^[32] . The detachment advanced late ^[33] and came under massive shelling. When the last two tanks were shot down on the approaches to the palace, Labazanov had to give a command to withdraw ^[34] . During this period, he began to wear the insignia of the colonel , although it is not known who assigned him this title ^[7] . There were rumors in the press that the title of FSB colonel was assigned to him by Sergey Stepashin ^[12] or someone from the ranks of the Russian army ^{[4] [10]} .

First Chechen War

During the First Chechen War, Labazanov repeatedly became an intermediary between Russian troops and formations controlled by Dudaev ^[12] . In March 1995, Labazanov met in Chervlennaya with General Kulikov , whom he had known from the riot in the pre-trial detention center. At the request of the latter, Labazanov conducted propaganda work among the Chechens who supported Dudayev, before the Russian army attacked Argun ^[7] . Among other things, in his propaganda work, he tried to use elders and religious leaders, but, according to him, they did not take any part in making decisions and easily followed the instructions of others ^[35] . In response to assistance in disarming part of the Dudaev units by Russian troops, one of the three ^[36] wives of Labazanov who was pregnant ^[7] was evacuated ^[7] at the time of need.

Doom

By the summer of 1995, Labazanov moved away from politics ^[11] . A few days before his death, an attempt was made on him, which ended in failure. And on May 31, 1996, he was found shot dead in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt ^{[28] [37]} . There were many versions about the causes and perpetrators of the murder ^[10] . According to one of them, which was especially popular among Chechen separatist and Russian opposition circles, he was shot dead by his own bodyguard ^[25] or by someone else from his supporters ^[8] . According to another, he was killed by Arbi Baraev on the orders of Shamil Basayev ^[38] .

In Russian

• Muzayev T. Chechen Republic: authorities and political forces. - M .: Panorama , 1995 .-- 177 p.
• Kolev A.N. Chechen trap: The path to inevitability . - M .: Library of Congress of Russian Communities, 1997. - 208 p. - 1000 copies. Archived March 4, 2016 on Wayback Machine
• Cherkasov A. Russia - Chechnya: a chain of errors and crimes / ed. O.P. Orlov. - Links, 1998 .-- 398 p. - ISBN 978-5-787-00021-4 .
• Mikhailov A.G. Chechen Wheel . - bookscafe.net, 2000 .-- 97 p. - ISBN 978-5-89048-100-9 .
• Sukhov I. Chechnya, shadow and official: a special information review. - Center for Political Information , 2001. - 125 p.
• Grodno N. N. The Unfinished War: A History of Armed Conflict in Chechnya. - Mn. : Harvest , 2004 .-- 672 p. - (Military Historical Library). - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 978-985-13-1454-4 .
• Golovlev A. A. Essays on Chechnya (nature, population, recent history). - Vector-S, 2007. - 295 p. - ISBN 978-5-913-08014-1 .
• Grodno N. N. The first Chechen. The history of armed conflict. - Mn. : Modern School, 2008. - 720 p. - ISBN 978-985-513-326-2 .
• Zenkovich N.A. 1994. Russia. One step away from decay. - SPb. : OLMA Media Group , 2010 .-- 608 p. - ISBN 978-5-373-03710-5 .
• Zelev A. Yu. L — S // Famous Chechens and Ingush. Encyclopedia. - samlib.ru, 2012.
• Kulikov A.V. Heavy stars . - M .: War and Peace, 2002 .-- 565 p. - ISBN 978-5-894-00003-9 .
• Prokopenko I.S. Chechen trap: between betrayal and heroism . - Litres , 2015 .-- 1756 p. - ISBN 978-5-457-19467-0 .

In foreign languages

• Tishkov V. Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in and after the Soviet Union: The Mind Aflame / PRIO , UNRISD . - L .: SAGE Publications , 1997 .-- 334 p. - ISBN 0-7619-51849 . (eng.)
• Eldin M. The Sky Wept Fire: My Life as a Chechen Freedom Fighter . - L .: Portobello Books , 2011 .-- 304 p. - ISBN 978-1-846-27392-6 . (eng.)
• Askerov A. Historical Dictionary of the Chechen Conflict . - N. Y .: Rowman & Littlefield , 2015 .-- 310 s. - ISBN 978-1-4422-4925-7 . (eng.)