Shpigun, Gennady Nikolaevich

Born and raised in the Babayurt district of Dagestan ^[2] .

He worked at the Dagdiesel plant as a milling machine operator . From 1969, he took up social and political work: from 1969 to 1980, he held party positions as secretary of the Caspian city ​​committee of the Komsomol , deputy head of the department of the Dagestan regional committee of the Komsomol , and secretary of the Komsomol committee of the Dagdiesel plant. In 1980, Shpigun received the post of instructor of the department, deputy head of the department of organizational and party work of the Dagestan regional committee of the CPSU ^[3] .

In 1984, he entered the service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR , held the position of Deputy Head of Correctional Labor Institutions, then became Deputy Head of the Political Department, Head of the Human Resources Department, Deputy Minister, and Head of the Service for Work with Personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan ^[3] .

He took part in the First Chechen War ^[4] , was the head of all pre-trial detention facilities on the territory of Chechnya ^[3] . Dzhokhar Dudaev in 1996 included Gennady Shpigun in the "list of those responsible for the Chechen tragedy" ^[5] .

From 1996 to 1998, Shpigun was the chief expert consultant of the department for ensuring the management of forces and equipment in emergency conditions of the Emergency Management Department of the General Staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, then he was promoted to chief inspector. In the same year he was transferred to the post of head of inspection of the Main Organizational and Inspection Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation ^[3] .

In February 1999, Shpigun replaced Adam Aushev, the brother of Ruslan Aushev , as the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Ichkeria . This caused a protest in Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov notified the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia about the undesirability of finding Shpigun in the Republic of Ichkeria ^{[4] [6]} .

Abduction

On March 5, 1999, at the airport of Grozny ^[7], Shpigun boarded an Askhab airline to fly to Moscow to mark March 8 with his wife ^[8] , security remained outside ^[4] . During dispersal, three armed masked men crawled out of the luggage compartment on the runway, two more joined them from the passenger compartment. They dragged the general out and led him away towards the Tersky Range . The pilot turned the plane towards the terminal to report the incident, but then two UAZ vehicles blocked the plane. People came out of them in camouflage uniforms and demanded to let them into the salon. After making sure that neither the general nor their accomplices were already on the plane, they followed the first group ^[8] . On March 17, kidnappers demanded a ransom of $ 15 million for General Shpigun through intermediaries, later they reduced the amount to 7 ^[6] , and after that to 3 million ^[4] . The leadership of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to pay money to the kidnappers ^[9] .

After the abduction, Minister of the Interior Sergey Stepashin gave the officer the floor that Shpigun would be released ^[10] . According to officials, the security forces of both Russia and Ichkeria have repeatedly made attempts to release the abducted general, and meetings were held with representatives of the abductors ^[6] . Various options were proposed, from rocket attacks on militant bases to operations by special forces. The prisoner was often transported from place to place, which excluded the possibility of planning any action ^[4] . From the side of Ichkeria, the actions were hampered by the presence of militant agents in the ranks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ^[6] .

On December 29, 1999, media outlets issued a statement by the elders of Achkhoy-Martan stating that General Shpigun was alive and valued at $ 5 million. It was reported that for some time he was detained in Achkhoy-Martan, later he was transferred to Georgia ^[11] . In favor of this version, the testimony of a resident of Dagestan released from captivity spoke. He claimed that he was detained in the Georgian village of Shatili in the same basement as the abducted general ^[12] . Former Georgian Defense Minister Tengiz Kitovani subsequently confirmed that Gennady Shpigun was detained in the Pankisi Gorge ^[13] . On January 28, 2000, a number of Russian media outlets issued a statement by the head of the North Caucasus Organized Crime Department that Gennady Shpigun was alive and his whereabouts were known ^[14] .

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation reported that the abduction of the general was carried out by order of Shamil Basayev by separatists from the gang of Abdul-Malik Mezhidov ^{[15] [16]} . According to other sources, among the organizers of the abduction were Chechen separatists Baudi Bakuev , Arbi Baraev and the Akhmadov brothers . It was assumed that assistance in the abduction of Shpigun was provided by a “brigadier general,” the head of the border and customs services of Ichkeria, Magomed Khatuyev , who was in charge of a military town in Grozny, where dozens of hostages were held. In addition, it is assumed that the "brigadier general", the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ichkeria, Nasrudi Bazhiev, participated in the organization of the abduction ^{[4] [6]} . Charges of involvement in the abduction were also brought against Boris Berezovsky . It was suspected that Gennady Shpigun knew about Berezovsky’s financial contacts with Chechen gangs, which could have led to the abduction ^[17] .

Body Detection and Funeral

On March 31, 2000, in the vicinity of Itum-Kali village, with the assistance of local residents, the body of a hostage was found, according to them, who had escaped from the militants and was frozen in the forest ^{[17] [18]} . According to the testimony of one of the captured militants, it was abducted General Shpigun, who died of heart problems during the transition from Shatoy to Itum-Kali ^[16] . Genetic examination with an accuracy of 90% showed that the body belongs to Shpigun ^[18] . The body was later identified by the sibling of the general ^[2] .

The fact of the identification of the body of Gennady Shpigun was denied by the representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. So, the Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Rushailo called the information about the belonging of the discovered body to the kidnapped general “stupidity” ^{[9] [19]} , and the search continued ^[20] . So, on the night of April 30, 2000, as a result of a special operation conducted by the Shpigun search task force, a nephew of the mayor of Makhachkala was released in the Bamut area, showing that he was being kept in a neighboring basement with Gennady Shpigun ^[21] .

An editorial in Novaya Gazeta in March 2000 stated that federal authorities paid for the extradition of Shpigun’s body by organizing the treatment of seriously injured Secretary of the Security Council of Ichkeria Doku Umarov in Nalchik and transporting him to Georgia . Moreover, the author refers to several senior officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation ^[22] . The version of Umarov’s involvement in the extradition of Shpigun’s body to the Russian authorities is also expressed in the 2010 publication of MK journalist Marina Perevozkina. She refers to a senior GRU officer Anton Surikov whom she knew, who claimed that it was Umarov who indicated the place of burial of General Shpigun, also provided some other services and for this he was allowed to leave for Georgia ^[23] . In 2014, Vyacheslav Izmailov, a columnist for the Novaya Gazeta , said the same thing in his publication: a deal was concluded with the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, during which Umarov released two Polish hostages, his fighters extradited Shpigun’s body, and in return he got an opportunity to heal and go abroad ^[24] .

Shpigun was buried in June 2000 at the Preobrazhensky cemetery ^[25] in Moscow . At the airport in Makhachkala, before the coffin was sent to Moscow, a funeral ceremony was held, attended by the chairman of the Dagestan National Assembly, Mukhu Aliyev , the leadership of the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a delegation from the Babayurt district ^[2] .

• Medals of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" of two degrees ^[3] ;
• Medal "Veteran of Labor" ^[3] ;
• Medal "For Impeccable Service" of three degrees ^[3] ;
• Anniversary medals ( "100th anniversary of Lenin" , "60 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" ) ^[3] .

The main street of Babayurt was given the name of the deceased ^[2] .

• Ilyasov Z. Dagestan: figures and facts. - Mh. : Dagestan book publishing house , 2005. - 633 p. - ISBN 1000023-85080.
• Podberezkin A. I. Russia - 2000: Chronicle and analytics. - Spiritual Heritage, 2000. - T. 1. - 1143 p. - ISBN 978-5-860-14124-7 .
• Barmin F. Basayevsky dog // Special Forces of Russia . - 2004. - September ( No. 9 (96) ). Archived on April 18, 2013.