Mystery surrounded on Tuesday the fate of a former Russian army commander from Chechnya shot in Dubai, with police saying he has died and relatives claiming he is still alive and even doing well.
Sulim Yamadayev, a bitter foe of Chechen leader Ramzam Kadyrov, was shot on Saturday in his building's parking lot in the emirate and died of his wounds on Monday, according to one version attributed to Dubai police.
Another official in the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, said Yamadayev was killed on the spot.
Whatever the case, the official line was that Yamadayev was dead and was probably the victim of a criminal conspiracy.
Dubai police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim was quoted by state news agency WAM as saying "a band from organised crime is behind the murder" and that "police have a thread that may lead to the masterminds of the assassination."
"We expect the Russian authorities' cooperation to reach the perpetrators who planned and carried out the assassination," he said.
But Yamadayev's younger brother, Isa, was quoted by Russia's NTV television on Tuesday as confirming that he is still alive.
"He feels fine," Isa said in a telephone interview from Dubai. "The doctors do not let us talk with him for a long time. They also said nothing threatens his life. Everything will be fine."
For his part, Russian Consul Sergei Krasnogor told the RIA Novosti news agency he had been informed by the police chief that Yamadayev was dead. But he told Interfax news agency he had neither seen the body nor a passport.
Meanwhile, WAM quoted police as saying a Russian man had been arrested and was being questioned in connection with the assassination, but gave no details.
Krasnogor told Russia's NTV television seven people had been arrested and that they all had Slavic names, meaning they could be Russian.
Russian officials in the United Arab Emirates said Yamadayev had been living under the assumed name of Sulaiman Madov.
The confusion coincides with a previously arranged visit to Moscow on Tuesday by UAE prime minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and the possible lifting of an anti-terror operation in place in Chechnya for the past decade.
A former Chechen separatist, Yamadayev switched sides in the late 1990s and became the commander of Vostok, an elite battalion that fought the rebels. He was honoured with Russia's top decoration, the Hero of Russia award.
He was dismissed from the military late last year amid bitter rivalry with Chechen leader Kadyrov, and Russian police issued an arrest warrant against him over the kidnapping of a Chechen businessman in 1998.
Kadyrov himself has vowed that the Chechen security services will help with the investigation and said he had no information about what happened in Dubai.
"I can only judge about what happened from media reports and these reports seem very contradictory," he said.
Ziad Sabsabi, the Chechen representative in Russia's parliamentary upper house said the attack was a "vendetta" by "Islamist extremists" seeking to destabilise Chechnya.
Alexei Malachenko, an analyst with the Carnegie Foundation, said the attack "could have been planned by the entourage of Ramzan Kadyrov" or was a "settling of business accounts."
Russia fought two wars with rebels in Chechnya but the situation has stabilised under Kadyrov, another ex-rebel who has been accused by rights groups of using heavy-handed tactics against opponents.
Due to the improved security situation, Russia's national anti-terrorism council is expected on Tuesday to consider lifting the official state of anti-terror operation in Chechnya that has been in place for the past decade.
Source: AFP Global Edition
