Shamil Basayev

Shamil Basayev was born in the village of Dyshne-Vedeno, near Vedeno, in south-eastern Chechnya, in 1965{{cite journal|last=Wilhelmsen|first=Julie|title=Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Islamisation of the Chechen Separatist Movement|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|date=January 2005|volume=57|issue=1|pages=35–59|url=http://werzit.com/intel/classes/amu/classes/lc514/LC514_Week_08_The_Islamization_of_the_Chechen_Separatist_Movement.pdf|access-date=30 December 2012|doi=10.1080/0966813052000314101|s2cid=153594637|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429184109/http://werzit.com/intel/classes/amu/classes/lc514/LC514_Week_08_The_Islamization_of_the_Chechen_Separatist_Movement.pdf|archive-date=29 April 2014|url-status=dead}} to Chechen parents from the Belghatoy teip.{{Cite web |url=http://chechenia.8bb.ru/viewtopic.php?id=2208 |title=Ведено |access-date=10 November 2020 |archive-date=10 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201110052020/http://chechenia.8bb.ru/viewtopic.php?id=2208 |url-status=dead }} He was named after Imam Shamil, the third imam of Chechnya and Dagestan and one of the leaders of anti-Russian Chechen-Avar forces in the Caucasian War.

His family is said to have had a long history of involvement in Chechen resistance to foreign occupation, especially Russian rule.

His grandfather fought for the abortive attempt to create a breakaway North Caucasian Emirate after the Russian Revolution.[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article685640.ece Chechen separatist who battled hard for his country.]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

The Basayevs, along with most of the rest of the Chechen population, had been deported to Kazakhstan during World War II in an act of ethnic cleansing on the orders of the NKVD leader Lavrenti Beria. They were only allowed to return when the deportation order was lifted by Nikita Khrushchev in 1957.

Basayev, an avid football player, graduated from school in Dyshne-Vedeno in 1982, aged 17, and spent the next two years in the Soviet military serving as a firefighter. For the next four years, he worked at the Aksaiisky state farm in the Volgograd region of southern Russia before moving to Moscow.

Reportedly, he tried to enroll in the law school of the Moscow State University but failed, and instead entered the Moscow Engineering Institute of Land Management in 1987. However, he was expelled for poor grades in 1988.{{cite web |title=Basaev Shamil (1965–2006) |url=https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/chamil-bassaev/ |website=universalis.fr|date=29 January 2025 }} He worked as a computer salesman in Moscow, in partnership with a local Chechen businessman, Supyan Taramov.{{cite web |title="Мне не дали поймать Хаттаба и Басаева" |url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/168070 |website=kommersant.ru |date=13 February 2001}} Ironically, the two men ended up on opposite sides in the Chechen wars, during which Taramov sponsored a pro-Russian Chechen militia (Sobaka magazine{{'}}s dossier on Basayev reported that Taramov apparently equipped or "outfitted" this group of pro-Russian Chechens; they were also known as "Shamil Hunters").

Basayev had four wives, a Chechen woman who was killed in the 1990s, an Abkhaz woman he met while fighting against Georgia, and a Cossack he was said to have married on Valentine's Day, 2005.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/world/europe/27chechnya.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/B/Basayev,%20Shamil|title=Missing Chechen Was Secret Bride of Terror Leader|author=C. J. Chivers|date=27 August 2008|work=The New York Times}} A fourth secret wife, Elina Ersenoyeva, was apparently forced to marry Basayev under threat of her two brothers' lives, and subsequently hid the identity of her husband from her friends and family. Following revelations about the marriage, Elina was abducted in November 2006, four months after the death of Basayev, allegedly by the Kadyrovtsy ("pro-Kremlin" Chechen forces). She has never been found.{{cite news|title=Chechen woman abducted looking for missing daughter|url=http://news.oneindia.in/2006/10/13/chechen-woman-abducted-looking-for-missing-daughter-1160718903.html|access-date=29 December 2012|newspaper=One India|date=13 October 2006|agency=Reuters|location=Grozny|archive-date=14 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514162943/http://news.oneindia.in/2006/10/13/chechen-woman-abducted-looking-for-missing-daughter-1160718903.html|url-status=dead}}

In May 1995, eleven members of Basayev's family were killed in a Russian air raid including his mother, his two children, a brother and sister. He also lost his home in the same attack, becoming the first Chechen who took revenge outside Chechen lands, in the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis.{{cite news |first=Richard|last=Boudreaux |title=Hostages in Russia's Heartland: Defiance of Russians Flows in the Veins of Lead Hostage-Taker: Guerrilla: Shamil Basayev's family has long fought invaders. But the killings of his mother and 2 children preceded his raid on a city outside Chechnya. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-18-mn-14600-story.html |access-date=3 December 2020 |work=Los Angeles Times}}

He lost a leg in 2000 during the Second Chechen War.{{cite news |last1=Steve Rosenberg |title=Operating on the enemy in the two Chechen wars |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19811823 |access-date=3 December 2020 |publisher=BBC}} His younger brother, Shirvani Basayev, who fought the Russians alongside him, is now living in exile in Turkey.{{cite web |last=Fuller |first=Liz |date=8 July 2016 |title=Chechen Leader Demands Turkey Hand Over 'Terrorists' |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/caucasus-report-kadyrov-demands-turkey-hand-over-terrorists/27846344.html |website=RFERL}}

When some hardline members of Soviet government tried to stage a coup d'état in August 1991, Basayev allegedly joined supporters of Russian President Boris Yeltsin on the barricades around the Russian White House in central Moscow, armed with hand grenades.The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror by Paul J. Murphy, Brassey's Inc. p. 9

A few months later, in November 1991, the Chechen nationalist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev declared independence from the newly formed Russian Federation. In response, Yeltsin announced a state of emergency and dispatched troops to the border of Chechnya. It was then that Basayev began his long career as an insurgent—seeking to draw international attention to the crisis. Basayev, Lom-Ali Chachayev, and the group's leader, Said-Ali Satuyev, a former airline pilot suffering from schizophrenia,{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} hijacked an Aeroflot Tu-154 plane, en route from Mineralnye Vody in Russia to Ankara on 9 November 1991, and threatened to blow up the aircraft unless the state of emergency was lifted. The hijacking was resolved peacefully in Turkey, with the plane and passengers being allowed to return safely and the hijackers given safe passage back to Chechnya.

{{Main|First Nagorno-Karabakh War}}

Basayev moved to Azerbaijan in 1992,Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/Oy1IuDpFqBs Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200427100439/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy1IuDpFqBs&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy1IuDpFqBs| title = Samil Basayev Qarabağ haqqında... | website=YouTube| date = 2 October 2017 }}{{cbignore}} where he assisted Azerbaijani forces in their unsuccessful war against Armenian fighters in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. He was said to have led a battalion-strength Chechen contingent. According to Azeri Colonel Azer Rustamov, in 1992, "hundreds of Chechen volunteers rendered us invaluable help in these battles led by Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev." Basayev was said to be one of the last fighters to leave Shusha (see Battle of Shusha (1992)). He ordered the withdrawal of the Chechen detachments from Karabakh in 1993, stating that they had entered the region for a Jihad, but saw not a single sign of it.{{Cite web |date=24 July 2000 |title=ШамилЬ Басевв Заявил, Что Армяне Были Лучше Подготовлены В Карабахской Войне |trans-title=Shamil Basaev Stated That The Armenians Were Better Prepared in the Karabakh War |url=https://www.panarmenian.net/rus/news/8323/ |access-date=2023-06-25 |website=PanARMENIAN.Net}}

{{Main|War in Abkhazia (1992–1993)}}

Later in 1992, Basayev traveled to Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, to assist the local separatist movement against the Georgian government's attempts to regain control of the region. Basayev became the commander-in-chief of the forces of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus (a volunteer unit of pan-North Caucasian nationalists, people from the North Caucasus). Their involvement was crucial in the Abkhazian war and in October 1993 the Georgian government suffered a decisive military defeat. It was rumored that the volunteers were trained and supplied by some part of the Russian army's GRU military intelligence service. According to The Independent journalist Patrick Cockburn, "cooperation between Mr Basayev and the Russian army is not so surprising as it sounds. In 1992–93 he is widely believed to have received assistance from the GRU when he and his brother Shirvani fought in Abkhazia, a breakaway part of Georgia." No specific evidence was given.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-planned-chechen-war-before-bombings-727324.html Russia 'planned Chechen war before bombings'] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827150331/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-planned-chechen-war-before-bombings-727324.html |date=27 August 2009}} 29 January 2009 The Independent

The Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported that Basayev was an agent of GRU, and another publication by journalist Boris Kagarlitsky said that "It is maintained, for example, that Shamil Basayev and his brother Shirvani are long-standing GRU agents, and that all their activities were agreed, not with the radical Islamists, but with the generals sitting in the military intelligence offices. All the details of the attack by Basayev's detachments were supposedly worked out in the summer of 1999 in a villa in the south of France with the participation of Basayev and the Head of the Presidential administration, Aleksandr Voloshin. Furthermore, it is alleged that the explosive materials used were not supplied from secret bases in Chechnya but from GRU stockpiles near Moscow."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c5UgAQAAIAAJ&q=basayev+gru+agent|title=The second Chechen War|author=Anne Aldis|year=2000|publisher=Strategic and Combat Studies Institute (in association with Conflict Studies Research Centre)|page=18|isbn=1-874346-32-1|issue= 40 of Occasional (Strategic and Combat Studies Institute) Occasional; no. 40|access-date=14 August 2011}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bu7sAAAAIAAJ|title=The wolves of Islam: Russia and the faces of Chechen terror|author=Paul J. Murphy|year=2004|edition=illustrated|publisher=Brassey's|page=107|isbn=1-57488-830-7|access-date=14 August 2011}} The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta stated that the Basayev brothers "both recruited as agents by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff (GRU) in 1991–92." The Russian newspaper Versiya published a file from the Russian foreign military agency on Basayev and his brother, which stated that "both Chechen terrorists were named as regular agents of the military intelligence organization."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTBpAAAAMAAJ&q=files+impeccable|title=Russia under Yeltsin and Putin: neo-liberal autocracy|author=Boris Kagarlitsky|year=2002|edition=illustrated|publisher=Pluto Press|page=234|isbn=0-7453-1507-0|access-date=14 August 2011}} In a July 2020 interview, the former Russian Federal Security Service chief Sergei Stepashin admitted that Basayev cooperated with military intelligence while fighting against Georgian government in Abkhazia.{{cite news |title=Ex-FSB Head Says Shamyl Basayev Cooperated with Russian Intelligence in Abkhazia |url=https://civil.ge/archives/359380 |access-date=16 July 2020 |work=Civil Georgia |date=14 July 2020}}

Russian special forces joined with the Chechens under Basayev to attack Georgia. A GRU agent, Anton Surikov, had extensive connections with Basayev.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTBpAAAAMAAJ&q=basaev+brothers+militants|title=Russia under Yeltsin and Putin: neo-liberal autocracy|author=Boris Kagarlitsky|year=2002|edition=illustrated|publisher=Pluto Press|page=229|isbn=0-7453-1507-0|access-date=14 August 2011}} Russian military intelligence had ordered Basayev to support the Abkhaz.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvVtAAAAMAAJ|title=The Middle East, abstracts and index, Part 4|author=Library Information and Research Service|year=2006|publisher=Northumberland Press|page=608|access-date=14 August 2011}}

Basayev received direct military training from the GRU since the Abkhaz were backed by Russia. Other Chechens also were trained by the GRU in warfare, many of these Chechens who fought for the Russians in Abkhazia against Georgia had fought for Azerbaijan against Armenia in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gQeZdtqC6EsC&pg=PA36|title=Chechen Jihad: Al Qaeda's Training Ground and the Next Wave of Terror|author=Yossef Bodansky|year=2008|edition=reprint|publisher=HarperCollins|page=36|isbn=978-0-06-142977-4|access-date=14 August 2011}}

The Russians allowed Basayev to travel between Russia and Abkhazia to battle the Georgians.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J4ta_TjGYBAC&pg=PA24|title=The guns of August 2008: Russia's war in Georgia|author1=Svante E. Cornell|author2=S. Frederick Starr|editor=Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr|year=2009|edition=illustrated|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|page=24|isbn=978-0-7656-2508-3|access-date=14 August 2011}}

In an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta on March 12, 1996, Basayev denied the information that he was trained on the basis of the Russian 345th Airborne Regiment: “Not a single Chechen studied there, because they were not accepted.”{{cite web|url=http://samlib.ru/b/blockij_o_m/shamilxbasaew.shtml|title=Шамиль Басаев|author=Олег Блоцкий|date=12 March 1996|accessdate=2017-03-29|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329160528/http://samlib.ru/b/blockij_o_m/shamilxbasaew.shtml|archivedate=2017-03-29}}

Representatives of Chechen separatists have always rejected allegations of Basayev's cooperation with Russian intelligence services, calling them a deliberate attempt to discredit Basayev in the eyes of his supporters.

According to Paul J. Murphy, "Russian military intelligence turned a blind eye to the 1991 terrorist arrest warrant against Basayev to train him and his detachment in Abkhazia, and the Russians even helped direct Basayev's combat operations" and "long after the war, Basayev praised the professionalism and courage of his Russian trainers in Abkhazia – praise that led some of his enemies in Grozny, even President Maskhadov, to later call him a "longtime GRU agent".{{cite book|title=The wolves of Islam: Russia and the faces of Chechen terror|author=Paul J. Murphy|year=2004|edition=illustrated|publisher=Brassey's|page=15|isbn=1-57488-830-7}}{{cite news|url=http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=19327&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=218|title=The Specter of Terror Begins to Haunt Russia|author=Stanislav Lunev|newspaper=Prism|volume=2|issue=2|date=26 January 1996|access-date=15 August 2011}}

In 1993 Basayev lead the CMPC corps of North Caucasian volunteers, according to allegations made by Georgian tabloids, the volunteers led by him had decapitated Georgian civilians.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oS7hTe97azgC&q=basayev+beheaded+georgians&pg=PA37|title=Chechen Jihad: Al Qaeda's Training Ground and the Next Wave of Terror|author=Yossef Bodansky|year=2008|edition=reprint|publisher=HarperCollins |page=37|isbn=978-0-06-142977-4|access-date=14 August 2011}} After an investigation by a commission composed of Russian deputies, as well as a commission led by UNPO lawyer and investigator Michael van Praag, they could not find any proof for such an incident ever taking place. The tabloid in question also admitted in November that they had no proof to confirm that such an incident had taken place.{{Cite web |title=Четверть века назад: Гагрская битва |url=https://www.ekhokavkaza.com/a/28778119.html |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=Эхо Кавказа |date=6 October 2017 |language=ru}}

Having already been noticed in Afghanistan, where he fought as a young man, and then in Abkhazia in Georgia, Basayev would further attract the attention of Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, the ISI: under Pakistani command, and after meeting many powerful personalities of the army, including the DG ISI Javed Ashraf Qazi, he would be one of the 1,500-strong Afghan mujahideen contingent which fought the Armenians during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and in April 1994, the ISI would eventually arrange "a refresher course for Basayev and some of his NCOs in guerrilla warfare and Islamic learning in the Amir Munawid Camp in Khost province in Afghanistan", with Basayev also having further specialized training in Pakistan proper, in cities like Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Muridke, near Lahore. They were also given Stingers, anti-tank rockets and advanced explosives, which would be later used to shoot down Russian combat airplanes and dozens of helicopters. Ultimately, hundreds of Chechens would be trained in Khost, under the ISI as well as the Pakistan-based Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Ansar, and one of its commanders, Abu Abdullah Jaffa, once in Pakistan's Northern Light Infantry, would work closely with Basayev over the years, as for instance he's supposed to be the one who planned the invasion of Dagestan.Hein Kiessling, Faith, Unity, Discipline: The Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, Oxford University Press (2016), pp. 126–127

Basayev's own account of his activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan is as such, as given in a September 2003 interview to The Globe and Mail:

I was interested in the Afghan experience on the defence engineering constructions, air defense system and mine-explosive works. Therefore, I went first to Peshawar (Pakistan). There, I lived with some Tajiks and through them I agreed for training for 200 Chechens. I sold at home some captured weaponry, seized in June from Labazanov’s band in then Groznyi, took also some money from my acquaintances and transported the first group of 12 people to Afghanistan. There I spent a night in the training camp and in the morning I returned to Karachi to meet the second group. But at the airport they aroused a suspicion because of their number and they didn’t have their passports in their hands. The Russians raised a large noise and in the week they sent us back.{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Brian Glyn |title=Ethno-Nationalism, Islam and the State in the Caucasus: Post-Soviet Disorder |publisher=Routledge |year=2007 |editor-last=Gammer |editor-first=Moshe |pages=170 |chapter=Allah’s foot soldiers: an assessment of the role of foreign fighters and Al-Qa‘ida in the Chechen insurgency}}

;1994–1995

{{Main|Battle of Grozny (November 1994)|Battle of Grozny (1994–1995)}}

The First Chechen War began when Russian forces invaded Chechnya on 11 December 1994, to depose the government of Dzhokhar Dudayev. With the outbreak of war, Dudayev made Basayev one of the front-line commanders. Basayev took an active role in the resistance, successfully commanding his "Abkhaz Battalion." The unit inflicted major losses on Russian forces in the Battle of Grozny, Chechnya's capital, which lasted from December 1994 to February 1995. Basayev's men were among the last fighters to abandon the city.

;1995

After capturing Grozny, the momentum changed in favor of the Russian forces, and by April Chechen forces had been pushed into the mountains with most of their equipment destroyed. Basayev's "Abkhaz Battalion" suffered many casualties, particularly during battles around Vedeno in May and their ranks sank to as low as 200 men, critically low on supplies.

Around this time, Basayev also suffered a personal tragedy. On 3 June 1995, during a Russian air raid on Basayev's hometown of Dyshne-Vedeno, two bombs targeted the home of Basayev's uncle, killing six children, four women as well as his uncle. Basayev's wife, child and his sister Zinaida were among the dead. Twelve additional members of Basayev's family were also seriously wounded in the attack.The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror by Paul J. Murphy, Brassey's Inc. Page 20 One of his brothers was also killed in fighting near Vedeno.

In an attempt to force a stop to the Russian advance, some Chechen forces resorted to a series of attacks directed against civilian targets outside the area that they claimed. Basayev led the most infamous such attack, the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis on 14 June 1995, less than two weeks after he lost his family in the air raids. Basayev's large band seized the Budyonnovsk hospital in southern Russia and the 1,600 people inside for a period of several days. At least 129 civilians died and 415 were wounded during the crisis as the Russian special forces repeatedly attempted to free the hostages by force. Although Basayev failed in his principal demand for the removal of Russian forces from Chechnya, he did successfully negotiate a stop to the Russian advance and an initiation of peace talks with the Russian government, saving the Chechen resistance by giving them time to regroup and recover. Basayev and his fighters then returned to Chechnya under cover of human shields.

On 23 November, Basayev announced on the Russian NTV television channel, that four cases of radioactive material had been hidden around Moscow. Russian emergency teams roamed the city with Geiger counters, and located several canisters of caesium, which had been stolen from the Budennovsk hospital by the Chechen militants. The incident has been called "the most important sub-state use of radiological material."{{Cite book|title=Chechnya: From Past to Future|editor=Richard Sakwa|publisher=Anthem Press|year=2005|page=235 |chapter=Western views of the Chechen Conflict|isbn=978-1-84331-165-2}}

;1996

{{Main|Battle of Grozny (August 1996)}}

By 1996 Basayev had been promoted to the rank of General and Commander of the Chechen Armed Forces. In July 1996 he was implicated in the death of the rogue Chechen warlord Ruslan Labazanov.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}}

In August 1996, he led a successful operation to retake the Chechen capital Grozny, defeating the Russian garrison of the city.{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article478220.ece |title=The day I met the terrorist mastermind |work=The Sunday Times |date=4 September 2004 |access-date=29 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523052255/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article478220.ece |archive-date=23 May 2011 }} Yeltsin's government finally moved for peace, bringing in former Soviet–Afghan War General Aleksandr Lebed as a negotiator. A peace agreement was concluded between the Chechens and Russians, under which the Chechens acquired de facto independence from Russia.

Basayev stepped down from his military position in December 1996 to run for president in Chechnya's second (and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria's first and only ever internationally monitored) presidential elections. Basayev came in second place to Aslan Maskhadov, obtaining 23.5% of the votes. Allegedly Basayev found the defeat very painful.{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}

In early 1997 he was appointed deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya by Maskhadov. He briefly served as acting leader of Chechnya during President Maskhadov's trip to the Middle East in 1997.{{Cite news |agency=Greensboro|date=1997-04-05|title=Russia Likely to be Upset by Acting Chechen Leader|language=en-US|url=https://greensboro.com/russia-likely-to-be-upset-by-acting-chechen-leader/article_cfb07243-2782-58bb-8144-27535ad59ac1.html|access-date=2023-02-10}} In January 1998 he became the acting head of the Chechen government for a six-month term, after which he resigned. Basayev's appointment was symbolic because it took place on the eve of the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of his renowned namesake. Basayev subsequently reduced the government's administrative departments and abolished several ministries. However, the collection of taxes and the Chechen National Bank's reserves shrank, and theft of petroleum products increased seriously.

Maskhadov worked with Basayev until 1998, when Basayev established a network of military officers, who soon became rival warlords. As Chechnya collapsed into chaos, Basayev's reputation began to plummet as he and others were accused of corruption and involvement in kidnapping; his alliance with Khattab also alienated many Chechens. By early 1998 Basayev emerged as the main political opponent of the Chechen president, who in his opinion was "pushing the republic back to the Russian Federation." On 31 March 1998, Basayev called for the termination of talks with Russia; on 7 July 1998, he sent a letter of resignation from his post as the Chechen Prime Minister. During these years he wrote Book of a Mujahiddeen, an Islamic guerrilla manual.

{{Main|War of Dagestan|Russian apartment bombings}}

In December 1997, after Movladi Udugov's Islamic Nation party had called for Chechnya to annex territories in

neighbouring Dagestan, Basayev promised to "liberate" neighbouring Dagestan from its status as "a Russian colony."{{cite web|url=http://www.fplib.org/friends/news/omri/1997/12/971218I.html |title=Chechnya repeats territorial claims on Dagestan |publisher=Fplib |date=December 1997 |access-date=4 November 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726062612/http://www.fplib.org/friends/news/omri/1997/12/971218I.html |archive-date=26 July 2011 }}

According to Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko's book Death of a Dissident, Kremlin-critic Boris Berezovsky said that he had a conversation with the Chechen Islamist leader Movladi Udugov in 1999, six months before the beginning of fighting in Dagestan.Alex Goldfarb, with Marina Litvinenko Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB, The Free Press, 2007, {{ISBN|1-4165-5165-4}}, p. 216. A transcript of the phone conversation between Berezovsky and Udugov was leaked to one of Moscow tabloids on 10 September 1999."Death of a Dissident", p. 189. Udugov proposed to start the Dagestan war to provoke the Russian response, topple the Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov and establish new Islamic republic of Basayev-Udugov that would be friendly to Russia. Berezovsky asserted that he refused the offer, but "Udugov and Basayev conspired with Stepashin and Putin to provoke a war to topple Maskhadov ... but the agreement was for the Russian army to stop at the Terek River. However, Putin double-crossed the Chechens and started an all-out war."

It was also alleged that Alexander Voloshin, a key figure in the Yeltsin administration, paid Basayev to stage the Dagestan incursion,{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.ru/HISTORY/FELSHTINSKY/naslednik.txt |title='The Operation "Successor"' (in Russian) |publisher=Lib|access-date=4 November 2010}} and that Basayev was working for the Russian GRU at the time.[http://prima-news.ru/eng/news/articles/2005/3/11/31434.html Western leaders betray Aslan Maskhadov] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114034635/http://prima-news.ru/eng/news/articles/2005/3/11/31434.html |date=14 January 2009 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=416&issue_id=3848&article_id=2371430|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061016222317/http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=416&issue_id=3848&article_id=2371430|url-status=dead|title=Chechen Parliamentary Speaker: Basayev was G.R.U. Officer, The Jamestown Foundation|archivedate=16 October 2006}}{{cite web|last=Fuller|first=Liz |url=http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/03/533b2aa8-dfbd-4837-9dfe-ec64e3206aa6.html |title='Analysis: Has Chechnya's Strongman Signed His Own Death Warrant?'|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|date=1 March 2005|access-date=4 November 2010}} According to the BBC, conspiracy theories are part of the staple diet of Moscow politics.

In August 1999, Basayev and Khattab led a 1,400-strong group of militants in an unsuccessful attempt to aid Dagestani Wahhabists to take over the neighboring Republic of Dagestan and establish an Islamic republic and start an uprising. By the end of the month, Russian forces had managed to repel the invasion.

In early September, a series of bombings of Russian apartment blocks took place, killing 293 people. Russia quickly blamed the attacks on Chechen militants without any evidence.{{cite web |title=How the 1999 Russian apartment bombings led to Putin's rise to power |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-1999-russian-apartment-bombings-led-to-putins-rise-to-power-2018-3?r=US&IR=T |website=Insider |access-date=28 January 2023}} Basayev, Ibn Al-Khattab and Achemez Gochiyaev were named by Russia as key suspects. Basayev and Khattab denied any involvement in the attacks, with Basayev stating whoever committed them are not human.{{cite book |last1=Akhmadov |first1=Ilyas |last2=Lanskoy |first2=Miriam |title=The Chechen Struggle: Independence won and Lost |page=162}} According to a Russian FSB spokesman, Gochiyaev's group was trained at Chechen militant bases in the towns of Serzhen-Yurt and Urus-Martan, where the explosives were prepared. The group's "technical instructors" were two Arab field commanders, Abu Umar and Abu Djafar, and Al-Khattab was the bombings' brainchild.[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1277191/RUSSIA-THE-FSB-VOWS-TO.html Russia: The FSB Vows to Capture the Remaining Co-Conspirators] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110829202922/http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1277191/RUSSIA-THE-FSB-VOWS-TO.html |date=29 August 2011 }} IPR Strategic Business Information Database. 13 January 2004 Two members of Gochiyayev's group that carried out the attacks, Adam Dekkushev and Yusuf Crymshamhalov, have been sentenced to life term each in a special-regime colony.{{cite web|url=http://www.russiajournal.com/node/17004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122021504/http://www2.russiajournal.com/node/17004 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=22 November 2008 |title=Apartment houses-blasts defendants sentenced to life imprisonment |publisher=Russiajournal.com |access-date=4 November 2010}} According to FSB, Basayev and Al-Khattab masterminded the attacks.{{cite web |url=http://eng.terror99.ru/publications/076.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021023181528/http://eng.terror99.ru/publications/076.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 October 2002 |title=Alleged suspect for 1999 bombings hiding in Georgia: Russian FSB |publisher=Terror 99 |access-date=4 November 2010 }} Al-Khattab has been killed, but Gochiyaev remains a fugitive.

Although Basayev and Khattab denied responsibility, the Russian government blamed the Chechen government for allowing Basayev to use Chechnya as a base. Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov denied any involvement in the attacks, and offered a crackdown on the renegade warlords, which Russia refused. Commenting on the attacks, Shamil Basayev said: "The latest blast in Moscow is not our work, but the work of the Dagestanis. Russia has been openly terrorizing Dagestan, it encircled three villages in the centre of Dagestan, did not allow women and children to leave."{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/449325.stm|title=Russia's bombs: Who is to blame?|work=BBC News|date=30 September 1999|access-date=4 November 2010}} Al-Khattab, who was reportedly close with Basayev, said the attacks were a response to what the Russians had done in Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi, two Dagestani villages where followers of the Wahhabi sect were living until the Russian army bombed them out.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/russia-caught-in-sects-web-of-terror-1120524.html|title=Russia caught in sect's web of terror |newspaper=The Independent|date=19 September 1999|access-date=4 November 2010|location=London|first=Helen|last=Womack}} A group called the Liberation army of Dagestan claimed responsibility for the apartment bombings.{{cite web|url=http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/arag/document-listings/russian/J21%20-%20Complete.pdf|title=Dr Mark Smith, A Russian Chronology July 1999 – September 1999|access-date=4 November 2010|archive-date=5 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305100638/http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/arag/document-listings/russian/J21%20-%20Complete.pdf|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|author1=А. Новосельская |author2=С. Никитина |author3=М. Бронзова |url=http://www.ng.ru/events/1999-09-10/vzryv.html|title=Взрыв жилого дома в Москве положил конец спокойствию в столице|publisher=NG|date=10 September 1999|access-date=4 November 2010}}{{Cite book|title=Islam in Russia: The Politics of Identity and Security|author1=Sileen Hunter|author2=Jeffrey L. Thomas|author3=Alexander Melikishvili|author4=J. Collins|year=2004 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-1283-0}}

Michael Radu of the Foreign Policy Research Institute said "Basayev managed to radically change the world's perception of the Chechen cause, from that of a small nation resisting victimization by Russian imperialism into another outpost of the global jihad. In the process, he also significantly modified the very nature of Islam in Chechnya and Northern Caucasus, from a traditional mix of syncretism and Sufism into one strongly influenced by Wahhabism and Salafism—especially among the youth. With Wahhabism came expansionism."Radu, Michael. "[http://www.fpri.org/enotes/20060714.russia.radu.shamilbasayevdeath.html Shamil Basayev: Death of a Terrorist] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061107203042/http://www.fpri.org/enotes/20060714.russia.radu.shamilbasayevdeath.html |date=7 November 2006 }}." Foreign Policy Research Institute. 14 July 2006. Retrieved 31 October 2011.

;1999

Basayev stayed in Grozny for the duration of the siege of the city. His threats of "kamikaze" attacks in Russia were widely dismissed as a bluff.{{citation needed|reason = Location, statements and the reception all need a source|date=April 2023}}

;2000

{{Main|Battle of Grozny (1999–2000)}}

During the Chechens' retreat from Grozny in January 2000 Basayev lost a foot after stepping on a land mine while leading his men through a minefield. The operation to amputate his foot and part of his leg was videotaped by Adam Tepsurgayev and later televised by Russia's NTV network and Reuters, showing his foot being removed by Khassan BaievKhassan Baiev, Ruth Daniloff. The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire. Walker & Company. 2004. {{ISBN|0-8027-1404-8}}. (Khassan Baiev is a surgeon who amputated leg of Shamil Basayev after his injury on a mine field and operated on Salman Raduev and Arbi Barayev himself. However, Barayev promised to kill Baiev because he always also helped wounded Russian soldiers if necessary). using a local anaesthetic while Basayev watched impassively.

Despite this injury, Basayev eluded Russian capture together with other Chechens by hiding in forests and mountains. He welcomed assistance from foreign fighters from Afghanistan and other Islamic countries, encouraging them to join the Chechen cause. He also ordered the execution of nine Russian OMON prisoners on 4 April 2000; the men were killed because the Russians had refused to swap them for Yuri Budanov, an arrested army officer accused of raping and killing an 18-year-old Chechen girl.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chechen-fighters-kill-nine-captured-russian-soldiers-719431.html |title=Chechen fighters kill nine captured Russian soldiers – Europe, World |work=The Independent |date=6 April 2000 |access-date=19 October 2010 |location=London |first=Patrick |last=Cockburn |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090908151525/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chechen-fighters-kill-nine-captured-russian-soldiers-719431.html |archive-date=8 September 2009}}

;2001

{{Main|Battle of Vedeno}}

According to the US State Department, Basayev trained in Afghanistan in 2001. The US also alleges that Basayev and Khattab sent Chechens to serve in Al-Qaeda's "055" brigade, fighting alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.{{Cite book|title=Chechnya: From Past to Future|editor=Richard Sakwa|publisher=Anthem Press|year=2005|pages=208–209|chapter=Globalization, 'New Wars', and the War in Chechnya|isbn=978-1-84331-165-2}}

On 2 June 2001, it was reported General Gennady Troshev, then-commander-in-chief of Russian forces in Chechnya, had offered a bounty of one million dollars to anyone who would bring him the head of Basayev.

In August, Basayev commanded a large-scale raid on the Vedensky District. A deputy commander of Russian forces in Chechnya claimed Basayev was wounded in a firefight.{{cite news|last=Wines |first=Michael |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904E4DA1531F930A1575BC0A9679C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fB%2fBasayev%2c%20Shamil |title=Chechnya: Rebel Said To Be Wounded |location=Russia; Chechnya (Russia) |work=The New York Times |date=23 August 2001 |access-date=4 November 2010}}

;2002

{{Main|Moscow theater hostage crisis|2002 Grozny truck bombing}}

In January 2002, Basayev's father, Salman, was reputedly killed by Russian forces.{{cite web|url=http://www.watchdog.cz/index.php?show=000000-000008-000001-000093&lang=1 |title=Shamil Basayev's father was killed in Chechnya |publisher=Watchdog.cz |access-date=4 November 2010}} This has not been independently confirmed. Shamil's younger brother, Shirvani, was reported killed by the Russians in 2000, but is, according to numerous accounts, actually living in exile in Turkey where he is involved in coordination of the activities of the diaspora.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}}

In May, the Russian side declared Basayev "dead".The Russian military had also made several claims about Basayev's alleged death in the past.{{cite news|last=Tavernise |first=Sabrina |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E0D81431F932A35756C0A9649C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fB%2fBasayev%2c%20Shamil |title=Chechen Declared Dead, May 1, 2002 |location=Russia; Chechnya (Russia) |work=The New York Times |date=1 May 2002 |access-date=4 November 2010}}{{better source needed| reason = who on the Russian side claimed that he was dead? MOD? or a low-level regional commander?|date=April 2023}}

Around 2 November 2002, Basayev claimed on a militant website that he was responsible for the Moscow theater hostage crisis (although the siege was led by Movsar Barayev) in which 50 Chechens held about 800 people hostage; Russian forces later stormed the building using gas, killing the Chechens and more than 100 hostages. Basayev also tendered his resignation from all posts in Maskhadov's government apart from the reconnaissance and sabotage battalion. He defended the operation but asked Maskhadov for forgiveness for not informing him of it. {{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} The answer to who was behind the hostage taking, however, is not so clear – some dissidents claim, including Alexander Litvinenko, was that the FSB was behind the Moscow theater incident.

On 27 December 2002, Chechen suicide bombers rammed vehicles into the republic's government headquarters in Grozny, bringing down the four-story building and killing about 80 people. Basayev claimed responsibility, published the video of the attack, and said he personally triggered the bombs by remote control.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/11/db1101.xml |title=Shamil Basayev |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=11 July 2006 |access-date=4 November 2010 |location=London}}

;2003

{{Main|2003 Znamenskoye suicide bombing|2003 Stavropol train bombing|2003 Red Square bombing}}

On 12 May 2003, suicide bombers rammed a truck loaded with explosives into a Russian government compound in Znamenskoye, northern Chechnya, killing 59 people. Two days later a woman got within six feet of Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of the Moscow-appointed Chechen administration, and blew herself up killing herself and 14 people; Kadyrov was unhurt. Basayev claimed responsibility for both attacks; Maskhadov denounced them.

From June until August 2003 Basayev lived in the town of Baksan in nearby Kabardino-Balkaria. Eventually, a skirmish took place between when local policemen came to check the house he was staying in. Basayev escaped the incident.{{cite web|first=Luiza | last=Orazayeva|date = 5 August 2004|title=Basayev hided in Kabardino-Balkaria for two months|url=https://eng.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/3525 |website=Caucasian Knot |access-date=28 January 2023}}

On 8 August 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell designated Shamil Basayev as a threat to U.S. security and citizens, saying that Basayev "has committed or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States".{{cite web|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/South/08/08/us.chechnya.terrorist/|title=U.S. names Chechen leader a security threat|website=cnn.com|date=8 August 2003}} In February, the U.S. State Department designated three Chechen groups with links to al-Qaeda, including the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, stating that Osama bin-Laden had sent "substantial" amounts to its founders Basayev and Ibn al-Khattab.{{cite web|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/02/28/chechens.terror/|title=U.S. puts 3 Chechen groups on terrorist list|website=cnn.com|date=28 February 2003}} The United Nations Security Council also placed Basayev on its official list of terrorists after the U.S. designation.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4727935.stm|title=Obituary: Shamil Basayev|website=BBC News|date=10 July 2006}}

In late 2003, Basayev claimed responsibility for terrorist bombings in both Moscow and Yessentuki in Stavropol Krai. He said both attacks were carried out by the group operating under his command.{{cite web|url=http://www.gazeta.ru/2004/03/02/oa_113618.shtml |title=Unknown rebel group claims Moscow metro blast, March 2, 2004 |publisher=Gazeta.ru |date=14 September 2004 |access-date=4 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924040445/https://www.gazeta.ru/2004/03/02/oa_113618.shtml |archive-date=24 September 2015}}

;2004

{{Main|February 2004 Moscow Metro bombing|2004 Grozny stadium bombing|2004 Nazran raid|2004 Russian aircraft bombings|Beslan school siege}}

File:Beslan school no 1 victim photos.jpg

On 9 May 2004, the pro-Russian Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov was killed in Grozny in a bomb attack for which Basayev later claimed responsibility. That explosion killed at least six people and wounded nearly 60, including the top Russian military commander in Chechnya, who lost his leg; Basayev called it a "small but important victory".

Basayev was accused of commanding the 21 June raid on Nazran in the Russian republic of Ingushetia. In fact, he was shown in a video made of the raid, in which he led a large group of militants. Around 90 people died in this attack, mostly local servicemen and officials of the Russian security forces including the republic's acting interior minister. The Ministry building was burned down.

In September 2004 Basayev claimed responsibility for the Beslan school siege in which over 350 people, most of them children, were killed and hundreds more injured.{{Cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200409/s1201684.htm |title=Chechen warlord behind Russian school siege |publisher=ABC News |date=17 September 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040919040430/http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200409/s1201684.htm |archive-date=19 September 2004}} The Russian government put up a bounty of 300m rubles ($10m) for information leading to his capture.{{Cite news

|title=Russian-Chechen War Turns into Bounty Race|publisher=The Moscow News|date=10 September 2004}} Basayev himself did not participate in the seizure of the school, but claimed to have organized and financed the attack, boasting that the whole operation cost only 8,000 euros. On 17 September 2004, Basayev issued a statement claiming responsibility for the school siege, saying his Riyadus-Salihiin "Martyr Battalion" had carried out this and other attacks. In his message, Basayev described the Beslan massacre as a "terrible tragedy". He blamed it on Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that by Putin giving the order to storm the school he had destroyed and injured the hostages.{{cite web|date=17 September 2004 |url=http://www.afpc.org/rrm/rrm1192.shtml |title=Putin: Western governments soft on terror |publisher=American Foreign Policy Council |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223161118/http://www.afpc.org/rrm/rrm1192.shtml |archive-date=23 February 2008}}{{Cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/17/russia.beslan/|title=Chechen claims Beslan attack|publisher=CNN|date=17 September 2004}}

Basayev also claimed responsibility for the attacks against civilians during the previous week, in which a metro station in Moscow was bombed (killing 10 people), and two airliners were blown up by suicide bombers (killing 89 people). Basayev dubbed these attacks "Operation Boomerang". He also said that during the Beslan crisis he offered Putin "independence in exchange for security".{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3665136.stm|title=Excerpts: Basayev claims Beslan|work=BBC News|date=17 September 2004}}

;2005

{{Main|2005 raid on Nalchik}}

On 3 February 2005, UK's Channel 4 announced that it would air Basayev's interview. In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the broadcast could aid terrorists in achieving their goals and demanded that the Government of the United Kingdom call off the broadcast. The British Foreign Office replied that it could not intervene in the affairs of a private TV channel and the interview was aired as scheduled.{{Cite news|title=Another Beslan?|publisher=Channel 4|date=3 February 2005}} The same day, Russian media reported that Shamil Basayev had been killed;{{Cite news |url=http://kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=1&id=689111 |title=Basaev Didn't Save Face |work=Kommersant |date=11 July 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721100305/http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=1&id=689111 |archive-date=21 July 2006 }} it was the sixth such report about Basayev's demise since 1999.

In May 2005, Basayev reportedly claimed responsibility for the power outage in Moscow.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4588039.stm|title=Basayev claims Moscow power cut|work=BBC News|date=27 May 2005}} The BBC reported that the claim for responsibility was made on a web site connected to Basayev, but conflicted with official reports that sabotage was not involved.

Even though Basayev had a $10 million bounty on his head, he gave an interview to Russian journalist Andrei Babitsky in which he described himself as "a bad guy, a bandit, a terrorist ... but what would you call them?", referring to his enemies. Basayev stated each Russian had to feel war's impact before the Chechen war would stop. Basayev asked "Officially, over 40,000 of our children have been killed and tens of thousands mutilated. Is anyone saying anything about that? ... responsibility is with the whole Russian nation, which through its silent approval gives a 'yes'."{{Cite news|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/International/story?id=990187&page=1|title=Chechen Guerrilla Leader Calls Russians 'Terrorists' / Mastermind of Beslan School Massacre Vows to Fight for Chechen Freedom|publisher=ABC News|date=29 July 2005}} This interview was broadcast on U.S. television network ABC's Nightline program, to the protest of the Russian government; on 2 August 2005, Moscow banned journalists of the ABC network from working in Russia.{{Cite news|url=http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/08/bd6cbe20-5fd8-4d0f-96a5-b1d20554233f.html|title=Russia: Moscow Says It Will Punish U.S. TV Network Over Basaev Interview|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|date=3 August 2005}}

On 23 August 2005, Basayev rejoined the Chechen separatist government, taking the post of first deputy chairman.{{cite web |url=http://www.charlestannock.com/pressrel.asp?id=320 |title=Time to get tough on Chechen government-in-exile, September 2, 2005 |publisher=Charlestannock.com |date=2 September 2005 |access-date=4 November 2010 |archive-date=21 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321131314/http://www.charlestannock.com/pressrel.asp?id=320 |url-status=dead }} Later this year Basayev claimed responsibility for a raid on Nalchik, the capital of the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. The raid occurred on 13 October 2005; Basayev said that he and his "main units" were only in the city for two hours and then left. There were reports that he had died during the raid, but this was contradicted when the separatist website, Kavkaz Center, posted a letter from him.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}}

;2006

In March 2006, Prime Minister of Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, claimed that upwards of 3,000 police officers were hunting for Basayev in the southern mountains.{{Cite news|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/03/13/014.html |title=Thousands of Police Hunt for Basayev in Mountains |work=The Moscow Times |date=13 March 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060521033328/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/03/13/014.html |archive-date=21 May 2006}} On 15 June 2006, Basayev repeated his claim of responsibility for the bombing that killed Akhmad Kadyrov, saying he had paid $50,000 to those who carried out the assassination. He also said he had put a $25,000 bounty on the head of Ramzan, mocking the young Kadyrov in offering the smaller bounty.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

On 27 June 2006, Shamil Basayev was appointed by Dokka Umarov as the Vice President of Ichkeria. On 10 July 2006, in his last statement at 1.06 pm Moscow time, Kavkaz Center quoted him as thanking the Mujahideen Shura Council for executing the three captured Russian diplomats in Iraq and calling it "a worthy answer to the murder by Russian terrorists from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation of the Chechen diplomat, ex-president of CRI, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev".{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

On 10 July 2006, Basayev was killed near the border of North Ossetia in the village of Ekazhevo, Ingushetia, a republic bordering Chechnya.{{cite web|url=http://www.1tv.ru/news/world/99581 |title=Боевики, подорвавшиеся на собственной взрывчатке, планировали провести теракт |publisher=1TV |date=10 July 2006 |access-date=27 April 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018193027/http://www.1tv.ru/news/world/99581 |archive-date=18 October 2015 }}

According to the Interior Ministry and Prosecutor of Ingushetia, a group of three cars and two KAMAZ trucks (one pulling the other by a rope) gathered at the spot of an unfinished estate on the outskirts of the village in the early morning hours of 10 July.{{cite web |url=http://kommersant.ru/doc/689415 |title=Шамиля Басаева узнают по рукам и ноге |publisher=Коммерсанть |date=12 July 2006 |access-date=29 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809082924/http://kommersant.ru/doc/689415 |archive-date=9 August 2011 }} According to a handful of witnesses, men in black uniforms came in and out from the wooded area adjacent to the estate that runs to the border of North Ossetia; the men were carrying boxes, shifting them from one vehicle to another, when a massive explosion occurred.

It is believed that the partially completed estate, which contained empty new buildings, was being used as an insurgent reception and distribution point for large quantities of weapons purchased from abroad. It is also believed that the most "anticipated" part of the incoming shipment was located in the KAMAZ trucks, but because one of them broke down the weaponry had to quickly be transferred into the cars.

Basayev is assumed to have been the main recipient of the arms, and thus in charge of distributing them. With the back tailgate of one of the trucks open, Basayev allegedly asked that a mine be placed on the ground for inspection, at which point it exploded. An Ossetian forensic specialist who examined Basayev's remains stated that, "The man…died of mine-blast injuries. The explosive device was quite powerful…and the victim was in close proximity to the epicenter. Most likely, the bomb lay on the ground, and the victim was bending over it."

Basayev's upper torso was recovered at the epicenter of the blast, while smaller pieces of his remains were scattered over the distance of a mile. Included among the smaller pieces was Basayev's prosthetic lower right leg, which led FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev to confidently assert that Basayev was dead even before positive identification.

Russian officials stated that the explosion was the result of a special targeted killing operation. According to the official version of Basayev's death, the FSB, following him with a drone, spotted his car approach a truck laden with explosives that the FSB had prepared, and by remote control triggered a detonator that the FSB had hidden in the explosives.{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/10/russia.basayev/index.html|publisher=CNN|title=Mastermind of Russian school siege killed; Report: Chechen warlord dies in blast set by Russian agents|date=10 July 2006|access-date=23 May 2010}}{{cite news|url=http://www.runewsweek.ru/theme/?tid=73&rid=1229 |script-title=ru:Ликвидация с вариациями |work=Russian Newsweek |date=23 July 2006 |language=ru |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928020301/http://www.runewsweek.ru/theme/?tid=73&rid=1229 |archive-date=28 September 2007 }}

Interfax, quoting Ingush Deputy Prime Minister Bashir Aushev, reported that the explosion was a result of a truck bomb detonated next to the convoy by Russian agents.{{cite news

|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/10/russia.basayev/index.html|publisher=CNN|title=Mastermind of Russian school siege killed – 10 July 2006|access-date=23 May 2010}} According to a Russian edition of Newsweek,{{Cite news|url=http://www.runewsweek.ru/theme/?tid=73&rid=1229 |title=Ликвидация с вариациями (in Russian) |work=Russian Newsweek |date=23 July 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928020301/http://www.runewsweek.ru/theme/?tid=73&rid=1229 |archive-date=28 September 2007 }} Basayev's death was a result of an FSB operation, whose primary aim was to prevent a planned terrorist attack in Chechnya or Ingushetia the days before the G8 summit in St Petersburg. The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, said: "He is a notorious terrorist, and we have very clearly and publicly announced what is going to happen to notorious terrorists who commit heinous crimes of the type Mr. Basayev has been involved in."{{cite web|url=http://www.nysun.com/foreign/qatar-presents-new-resolution-on-israel/35972/|author=Benny Avni|title=Qatar Presents New Resolution on Israel|work=The New York Sun|date=13 July 2006|access-date=24 May 2010|archive-date=10 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610173518/http://www.nysun.com/foreign/qatar-presents-new-resolution-on-israel/35972/|url-status=dead}} In February 2014, a Turkish court convicted a Chechen national Ruslan Papaskiri aka Temur Makhauri with the killings of several Chechen separatists on Turkish soil. The pro-Chechen separatist Imkander organization held a press conference claiming that Turkish investigators believed that Makhauri had prepared the explosives laden truck that killed Basayev.{{cite news|url=http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=42023&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=2ce7df0dedfbb8cbb1b41267dad2a80e#.Uw_LioX-p18|title=Leaked Video Details the Activities of Russian Hit Squads Abroad|newspaper=Jamestown |publisher=Jamestown Foundation

|date=27 February 2014}}

On 29 December 2006, forensic experts positively identified Basayev's remains.{{Cite news|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/12/29/019.html |title=Experts Positively Identify Basayev |work=The Moscow News|date=29 December 2006 }}{{Dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} On 6 October 2007, Basayev was promoted to the rank of Generalissimo post mortem by Doku Umarov.[http://www.chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2007/12/31/01.shtml Clarity in Chechen resistance], SIA Chechen Press, 31 December 2007 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122100428/http://www.chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2007/12/31/01.shtml |date=22 January 2009 }}

Basayev wrote a book after the First Chechen War, Book of a Mujahideen. According to the introduction, in March 2003 Basayev obtained a copy of The Manual of the Warrior of Light by Paulo Coelho. He wanted to draw benefits to the Mujahideen from this book and decided to "rewrite most of it, remove some excesses and strengthen all of it with verses (ayats), hadiths and stories from the lives of the disciples." Some sections are specifically about ambush tactics, etc.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OFx_BAAAQBAJ|title=Contemporary Esotericism|last2=Granholm|first2=Kennet|last1=Asprem|first1=Egil|date=11 September 2014 |publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317543565}}

In September 2024, it became known that a portrait of Shamil Basayev was featured in the “Heroes of Abkhazia” exhibition at the State Museum in Abkhazia. The museum was restored with Russian financial investments in 2013. After the incident was reported in the Russian media, the exhibition was closed.{{Cite web|url=https://jam-news.net/a-portrait-of-shamil-basayev-displayed-in-an-abkhazian-museum-outrage-from-russia-the-exhibition-was-closed/|title = A portrait of Shamil Basayev was displayed in an Abkhazian museum. After outrage from Russia, the exhibition was closed|website = JAM News| date=25 September 2024 }}

Basayev appeared in 2018 Russian movie Decision: Liquidation, played by Ayub Tsingiev.{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8816130/|title = Reshenie o likvidatsii|website = IMDb}}

{{Portal|Russia|Biography}}

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