ABSTRACT
Starting in the mid-1990s, Muslims from Russia who were dissatisfied with the Russian politics started to move to the North Caucasus, where they hoped to establish a society governed by the rules of Islam. In Daghestan, the leader of this group of traveling Islamists, and of their local hosts, became Bagautdin Kebedov, who maintained close contacts with the Chechen militants such as Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, Shamil Basaev, and Amir ibn al-Khattab. In April 1998, Daghestani and Chechen militants also founded the so-called “Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Daghestan”, the leadership of which was in the hands of the field commander Shamil Basaev. However, the local population surprised them by their forceful resistance. The federal army units on the spot were supported by armed locals, in particular, by volunteers of an Avar organization that bore the name “Imam Shamil Popular Front of Daghestan”, under the leadership of a representative of the Government of Daghestan, Gadzhi Makhachev.
