An influential warlord Rizvan Chitigov (aka Marine, American, Chemist) was killed in Chechnya yesterday. He was considered the third person in the Chechen resistance after Shamil Basayev and Dokku Umarov. Having terminated a special training course in the U.S., Chitigov, aka Marine, returned to Chechnya to command a tank battalion during the first Chechen war. During the second Chechen war, as the Federal Security Service (FSB) claims, he sent Shaheeds to Russian cities and planned terrorist attacks involving poison-gases.Rizvan Chitigov, 38, was born and grew up in the village of Shali, Chechnya. Nearly the good half of the locals are relatives and friends of Chitigov. On the one hand it was good for him, since being outlawed he could always find shelter there. On the other hand, it was bad. The point is that, Shali is traditionally a peaceful village, therefore many of the warlord's friends have become his enemies in the recent years.
So, it is no wonder that Chitigov's wish to visit Shali about which he told one of his accomplices became known to many other people. Among those were Shali residents who work at the Criminal Investigation Department. "We knew that Chitigov who was spending winter in Baku, was to come last Sunday," one of the local detectives says. "So we got prepared to meet him: we invited Kadyrov's Special Forces unit [former Chechen president Akhmat Kadyrov's security service. — Kommersant]. But we didn't know for sure where exactly Chitigov would put up at. We laid ambushes at several places simultaneously, but on Sunday night we started getting worried — he was nowhere to be seen. We thought: have we frightened him away or just missed him?"