Sulim Yamadayev, leader of Chechnya’s Eastern Battalion, is, according to Mark Franchetti of the Sunday Times, a man driven by his desire to kill Shamil Basayev. 

For Yamadayev, killing the rebel leader is not only a question of honour. He is also driven by an ardent desire for revenge.

“I only have one nightmare: that someone should get to Basayev before me,” he said, sipping tea and adjusting the pistol strapped to his waist.

“Hunting him down has become my mission, should it be the last thing I do in my life. He is evil and I won’t stop until I have rid our republic of him. The knot is tightening around his neck and it’s only a matter of time before we get to him.”

Yamadayev’s quest is profoundly personal. Two years ago his brother Dzhabrail, who led the unit that was to become the Eastern Battalion, was killed at the age of 33 in Vedeno after Basayev’s men planted a powerful bomb under the couch where he slept.

Franchetti spent several days with Yamadayev, and the story he has to tell is certainly an eye-opener.  Particularly his conversation with a Russian interrogator…

“After a few days here people like him start to talk, and eventually end up singing like birds and crying like babies,” he said. “If he took part in the murder of those poor four women he will pay dearly for his crimes.”

Also, it’s clear from Franchetti’s report that hunting Basayev is not the only way Yamadayev occupies his time:

Yamadayev is guarded around the clock by more than a dozen Chechens with long black beards, AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades. His headquarters, which he recently kitted out with flat-screen televisions at his own expense, is guarded by armoured personnel carriers.

Even when he is 1,000 miles away in Moscow, he is constantly shadowed by armed guards.

He seems to me to be living proof of what is wrong with Russia’s Chechnya campaign - Generals on the ground are using the opportunity to get rich at their countrymen’s expense.