A trap for the Devil: how Shamil Basayev was eliminated

Exactly 20 years ago, on the night of July 10, 2006, Shamil Basayev was killed. The elimination of Russia's most wanted terrorist is still one of the most closed in the history of the special services. The editorial staff had at their disposal unique photographs of the Trojan Horse special operation, shedding light on an unprecedented trap for the most dangerous man in Russia at that time. As a man who began the path of defending democracy in 1991, he became the "main enemy of the country" and the number one target for the special services, according to Izvestia.

Biography of a terrorist

Shamil Basayev was born in 1965 in the village of Dyshne-Vedeno in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. He belonged to the influential Chechen teip Yalkhoroy. In his youth, he dreamed of becoming an investigator and tried unsuccessfully several times to enter the Faculty of Law at Moscow State University.

In August 1991, Basayev turned up at the walls of the White House in Moscow, speaking on the side of the defenders of democracy against the Emergency Committee. But already in November of the same year, he committed his first terrorist act — hijacked a passenger plane to Turkey.

Then there were wars in Nagorno—Karabakh on the side of Azerbaijan and in Abkhazia on the side of the Abkhaz resistance. As General Gennady Troshev recalled, the "Basayev janissaries" were particularly cruel, slaughtering families completely. There is evidence that it was during this period that Basayev was trained in extremist camps on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Budennovsk, Dubrovka, Beslan

The raid on Budennovsk in June 1995 brought bloody fame to Basayev. Then his squad seized the city hospital with thousands of hostages. 130 civilians became victims of the terrorist attack. This was only the first episode in a chain of monstrous crimes.

And here is the full chronology of the terrorist attacks organized by Basayev.:

• 2002 — seizure of the theater center on Dubrovka (129 dead);

• 2002 — explosion at the Government House in Grozny (72 victims);

• May 9, 2004 — assassination of Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov;

• June 2004 — raid on Ingushetia (97 dead);

• August 2004 — explosions of two passenger planes (89 victims);

• September 2004 — seizure of a school in Beslan (more than 330 dead, half of them children).

After Beslan, a reward of 300 million rubles was awarded for information about Basayev's whereabouts. The terrorist himself only scoffed in response, stating that he was ready to provide information about himself personally.

The Trojan Horse

By 2006, Basayev was in desperate need of weapons. The special services have developed a multi-way combination: through agents in the Middle East, the militants were offered a large shipment of weapons.

As FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev later reported to the president, "this became possible due to the creation of an operational position abroad, primarily in those countries where weapons were collected, which were subsequently transported to Russia to commit terrorist attacks."

The cargo, a KAMAZ truck with rockets, passed through several countries and regions. At a key moment in the operation, while the militants accompanying the cargo were sleeping after a drugged dinner, FSB officers opened the caches, copied and photographed all the contents, and then planted an explosive device with a radio fuse in the car.

The uniqueness of the plan lay in the fact that Basayev was not killed during the clash — he was forced to come to the death trap himself. The terrorist personally examined the weapon, unaware that he was standing at the charge. He got into an escort car that was supposed to follow the truck. As soon as the column moved, a powerful explosion occurred. The Zhiguli car that Basayev was in was near the epicenter.

The explosion in Ekazhevo and classified details

On the night of July 10, 2006, a KAMAZ truck exploded on the outskirts of the village of Ekazhevo in Ingushetia. The power of the explosion reached one hundred kilograms in TNT equivalent — the entire arsenal detonated. All that remained of the terrorist were fragments suitable for DNA identification.

His closest assistants, Isa Kushtov, Tarkhan Ganizhev, Mustafa Tagirov and Salambek Umadov, died along with Basayev.

The details of the operation are still classified. The separatists tried to present Basayev's death as an accident, but experts are unanimous: a man with many years of experience in subversive work could not allow "careless handling" of explosives.

President Vladimir Putin called Basayev's elimination "well-deserved retribution for our children in Beslan, Budennovsk, and for all the terrorist attacks they committed."

The destruction of "terrorist number one" has radically changed the balance of power in the North Caucasus. This marked the beginning of the end of the era of large-scale bandit terror, which had kept the whole country in fear for decades.

However, the world will probably not know exactly how this brilliant multi-way operation was carried out for many years to come.