Moscow has armed and equipped a local army loyal to Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel leader, and given it the task of keeping control. Ahmed Zakayev, a veteran leader of the Chechen Resistance and now the Prime Minister in exile of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, gave an interview. “Let me remind your readers that notorious Aiman al Zawahiri spent half a year in Russia in 1997, just before he went to Afghanistan to join Osama bin Laden.”
