2.3. The Islamic Factor in Maskhadov's Relations with the Opposition
The supreme jamaat council voiced its statement over the Grozny-based independent television station Kavkaz December 31, 1998. According to that council, if Maskhadov does use force against the jamaats, as planned, (the Chechen president accused them of complicity in kidnappings, also intending to fight that evil - RIC), in that case Islamic warriors won't fight Moslems and Chechens. On the contrary, they will cross the Russian border, subsequently launching combat operations there. This decision was explained by the fact that Islamic jamaats didn't want to spill the blood of their Moslem brothers in order to benefit Russian secret services and the enemies of Chechen independence.
In its December 19, 1998 issue, the Baku-based Panorama newspaper wrote that Daghestan perceived the afore-said statement by the council of Islamic jamaats (about the possibility of waging hostilities on Russian territory) as a threat to its security. This was disclosed by Akhmednabi Magdigadzhiyev in charge of Daghestan's security council. Any attempted armed incursion into Daghestan will be thwarted; and such invaders will be killed in case of resistance, he added.
In its January 29, 1999 issue, Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye reported that threatening and ltimatum-like leaflets signed by the congress of Chechen-Daghestani nations and the united Daghestani-Chechen jamaats were spread in some Daghestani villages bordering on Chechnya. One such outspoken leaflet, which was entitled "The Motherland Is Calling Its Soldiers Home", set forth radical forces' goals in Chechnya and Daghestan. Such radical forces aim to unleash a new war for the sake of seizing power and subsequently establishing an Islamic state. However, these plans are being hindered by Russian soldiers and law-enforcement officers, in the first place.
Russian and Daghestani secret services were once again accused of inciting North Caucasian tensions, with the jamaats threatening to take adequate action against the former. The leaflet's authors tried to prove to Russian soldiers and militiamen that Daghestan is a foreign country (as far as they are concerned), which is populated by nations having their own traditions, culture and religion. Such nations wish to freely live and work in their villages and cities and to abide by one law, that of mankind's supreme creator. According to the leaflet, any Daghestani village has stockpiled enough weapons that will be laid down only in case of freedom fighters' death. A war will begin, in case Russian soldiers and militiamen don't heed this advice.
As is known, General Gennady Shpigun, who used to serve as the Russian Interior Ministry's envoy in Chechnya, was kidnapped in Grozny March 7, 1999. For his own part, Russia's Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin made a tough-worded statement, saying that the federal centre might well use force against Chechen terrorists for the first time ever.
Grozny responded by informational attacks. Speaking on television, Basayev called on the abductors to hand over Shpigun to the State Council ("shura") to organise a demonstrative judicial process over him and commit him to death penalty.
Vice President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Vakha Arsanov who spoke after him said that the emergency session of the State Council ("shura") made a decision to put on enhanced alert the armed formations of the republic. In the case of military strikes against Chechnya, he promised to take "adequate measures" on the territory of the Russian Federation ("North Ossetia", March 10, 1999).
Information leaked into the press that in the middle of March a graduation ceremony of six groups of demolition specialists was held at the training camp of Khattab 15 kilometres away from the settlement of Vedeno. After receiving their assignments, four groups left the territory of the republic. Their routes include the cities of Volgograd, Saratov, Samara, Voronezh, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow and St. Petersburg.
"Kommersant-Daily" (March 30, 1999). The same material said that on March 29 a coded telegram was received through the channels of the Interior Ministry, which instructed all employees to "enhance the protection of vital facilities, industrial enterprises, educational and medical establishments".
In March the situation on the Chechen administrative border aggravated dramatically.
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