Today is the seventh anniversary of our 2nd President, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev’s death.

On February 13, 2004, Russian secret service agents organized the assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Doha, the capital city of Qatar, where Yandarbiyev lived as the personal guest of a sheikh. As Yandarbiyev was going home with his 13-year old son, Daud after Friday prayers, a bomb, which was placed under his jeep, exploded. Zelimkhan was seriously wounded and died in the hospital as a shaheed, inshaAllah. After the assassination, three Russian agents (one of them being a diplomatic mission representative of Russia in Qatar), were immediately arrested. However, Aleksander Fetisov, the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Qatar, was released a few weeks later. The two other murderers, Anatoly Yablochkov and Vasily Pugachyov confessed that the order came directly from Russia’s Defense Minister, Sergei Ivanov. During the trial, the two killers were represented by a lawyer who worked at the law office of Vladimir Putin’s close friend, Nikolai Yegorov. After deliberating, the Qatar court sentenced them to life in prison. However, after a few months Qatar agreed to extradite them to Russia. The two Russian murderers were welcomed in Moscow as heroes and then released.

Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was known among the Chechen people for his humility, simplicity and courage. He occupies an important place in the memories of the Chechen nation and history. Yandarbiyev played an important role in the liberation of Chechens as a founder of the Vainakh Democratic Party and 2nd President of the country.

Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was not just a politician; he was also a talented poet. Our 2nd president was truly a man of thought as well as a humanist.

The Chechen people will always remember him as a true son of his nation.

We miss you Zelimkhan!

We pray for you and offer our condolences once again to the Chechen People and your family.

Let Allah accept your gazavat!
Dala g1azot k1obal doyla tsunan!

Waynakh Online

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco