Adam Osmayev is a Chechen volunteer, commander of the battalion named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, whose fighters are fighting in eastern Ukraine on the side of government forces. After a series of attacks and the death of his wife Amina Okueva in one of them, Osmayev stopped communicating with the press, but after some time he finally decided to give an interview to the Radio Liberty project “Donbass.Realities”.
In 2012, Osmayev was arrested in Ukraine on charges of preparing an assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2014 he was singled out. Goes to Donbass. Becomes a fighter in the volunteer battalion named after Dzhokhar Dudayev. In 2015, he heads the division. In 2017, two attempts were made on Adam Osmayev’s life.
It was not immediately possible to arrange a meeting with Adam Osmayev. After the attacks, the Chechen volunteer does not communicate one-on-one with media representatives, since in one of the cases the killer used journalistic activity as a cover.
Since then, body armor has been an integral part of Adam Osmayev's wardrobe.
About safety rules
-Are you wearing body armor now?
Not now. Because I tested you. I know that you are really a journalist. And we're in a safe place now.
Osmayev agreed to meet at the editorial office of Donbass.Realii. And this is rather an exception to the rules that he now strictly adheres to.
“To completely protect yourself, it’s to completely give up publicity, talk less about your plans to strangers, be very careful with any meetings, with any gifts.”
About Chechens in Donbass
There are no Osmayevs in Donbass now either. Previously, at least three volunteer units were known, the basis of which were Chechens: the battalion named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, the battalion named after Sheikh Mansur and the Shalen Zgrai unit.
And although there are significantly fewer Chechen volunteers on the front line, the units have not stopped their activities, Osmayev assures.
“Now it is less public, because there is no need for it. Because there is cooperation with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, cooperation that also does not need this advertising. Therefore, everything is happening quietly.”
About the first attempt and investigation
The first attack on Adam Osmayev in Ukraine occurred in June 2017. Then the volunteer’s wife, Amina Okueva, managed to neutralize the attacker, who turned out to be Russian citizen Arthur Krinari. Osmayev considers him a killer who acted on orders from the Russian authorities. But investigators still have no evidence to support this version.
“You just need to understand the legal subtleties: they cannot present what they cannot prove. Such crimes are very difficult to prove if there is no confession from the person himself.”
Krinari denies any wrongdoing. In the indictment, prosecutors cite personal enmity as the motive for the assassination attempt on Osmayev. And no mention of the “Russian trace”.
“I have never met this man - Krinari - before, I have never seen him, I have not had any dealings with him. Why did he suddenly decide to kill me? Everything is obvious to me.”
About Amina Okueva and the second attack
In October last year, the attack on Osmayev was repeated. Unidentified persons fired a dozen bullets from automatic weapons at the car in which the volunteer was traveling.
“Before a turn, the speed slows down - a classic military ambush. And they shoot you almost point-blank. You don’t need a lot of intelligence for this.”
Osmaev was wounded, and his wife, Amina Okueva, who was in the car with him, died.
“I still drove some distance, because the engine was shot through and the car had difficulty, but still passed. I began to provide first aid to Amina, although she no longer showed signs of life. All this was already useless, because one of the hits was in head."
At the time of the attack, the couple were without state security, which was assigned to them after the first attempt. At that time, her employment had expired. But Adam Osmayev did not insist on an extension.
"She left like a warrior. We knew what could await us on this path. Amina even said that she would better cover me, because I also suggested that she step away from me for a while, because I understood that it was primarily up to me hunting. But she refused. She said that she wanted to be close, she wanted to cover me."
About the investigation into the murder of Okueva
Eight months after the murder of Amina Okueva, Kyiv police still have no suspects. The situation is similar in the case of the murder of another Chechen volunteer Timur Makhauri. His car was blown up in the center of Kyiv in September 2017.
“Of course, I understand that I would like everything to be quickly investigated, but I am not in favor of haste. I just understand that this is a rather complicated process. Ukraine is in a state of war, all law enforcement structures are shaken. Let’s hope that they will be better work".
But despite delays in the investigation of the attacks and the constant threat to life, Osmayev says he has no intention of leaving Ukraine.
“This is a huge price, but I paid it and am ready to pay it again, being a believer. Moreover, I know that we stand for the truth. We did not attack anyone - neither Ichkeria, nor Ukraine. We are only defending our land. Of course, "This is extremely difficult, but this is life, there is no war without losses. Let's hope that we will defend what we are fighting for."
FULL PROGRAM "DONBASS.REALI"
Adam Aslambekovich Osmayev was born on May 2, 1981 (according to other sources, 1984) in the city of Grozny. His father Aslambek Osmayev had an oil business, and his mother Laila was a housewife. In addition to Adam, the couple had other children - two sons, Ramzan and Islam, as well as a daughter, Khava. Novaya Gazeta wrote about Adam Osmayev as coming from a “very influential family of mountain Chechens”: it was noted that his uncle, Amin Osmayev, became chairman of the Supreme Council of Chechnya in 1995, and then, from 1996 to 1998, was the head The House of Representatives of the People's Assembly of the Chechen Republic (a pro-Russian government body, in parallel with which the parliament of Ichkeria existed), and was an ex-officio member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation in 1996-1998.
According to Novaya Gazeta, in 1996 the Osmayevs moved to Moscow, where Adam, using his uncle’s connections, entered the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (Amin Osmayev himself reported in 2007 that he had “three brothers and seven sisters , who have “about 50-60 children,” so he “barely remembers” Adam). At the same time, the Interfax agency, citing sources in the security forces of the Chechen Republic, reported that Osmayev left the territory of the Chechen Republic “approximately” in 2005, “after which he lived in Moscow for a long time.” The media also published information about Adam’s brother Ramzan: Novaya Gazeta noted that he graduated from the Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and worked as an operative at the Arbat police station. According to the publication, in the capital the brothers led a normal lifestyle for “children of rich parents” and “spent all their free time in bars and discos.”
In 2007, the press published statements according to which Osmayev graduated from a “prestigious university in the UK.” However, in 2012, the media, in particular the Kommersant newspaper, confirming that since 1999 Osmayev had studied economics at The University of Buckingham in England, reported that he never graduated from the university because was expelled for poor academic performance. Representatives of the university also confirmed that Osmayev entered the university, but according to their information, he dropped out of school in the same 1999. Osmayev did not have a scholarship, and he had to pay for his studies himself (according to The Moscow Times, the cost of two years of bachelor's studies at Buckingham University could be about 50 thousand dollars). According to Kommersant, Osmayev visited a mosque abroad, where he probably met other Chechens living in this country, who taught him mine explosives. Amin Osmayev suggested that it was in England that his nephew came under the influence of the Wahhabis.
On the night of May 9, 2007, the Federal Security Service (FSB) managed to prevent a terrorist attack in Moscow. It was noted that in a VAZ-2107 car parked on Profsoyuznaya Street, security forces found a radiotelephone, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, 20 kg of plastic and a 20-liter canister of gasoline and two computer system units, one of which contained a box of metal balls "In the summer of the same year, the FSB named the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov as the target of the terrorist attack.
Four Chechens were suspected of involvement in organizing the terrorist attack: Lors (Lorson) Khamiev, Ruslan Musaev, Umar Batukaev and Osmayev, who, according to Kommersant, at that time worked as a “top manager of one of the trading companies.” The investigation named the “closest associate” of the Chechen terrorist Doku Umarov, Chingiskhan Gishaev (call sign “Abdul Malik”; was killed in Chechnya on January 19, 2010) as the organizer of the failed terrorist attack.
Khamiev was detained in Grozny a few days before May 9, Musaev and Batukaev were arrested in Moscow directly on Victory Day. Osmayev was also detained and was in custody for three days, but the FSB investigator considered that he would be involved in the case as a witness and released Osmayev on his own recognizance. Novaya Gazeta also presented another version: according to its information, Osmayev was released “after his father visited a high-ranking prosecutor.” According to media reports, later, despite a written undertaking not to leave, Osmayev left for the UK. Later, the media published information that Osmayev was arrested in absentia in the same 2007, and later put on the international (according to other sources, federal) wanted list. In 2009, Khamiev, found guilty of participating in illegal armed groups and preparing an assassination attempt on a statesman, was sentenced to 8 years in prison, Batukaev received 5 years in prison for illegal possession of weapons and using a forged document, and Musaev was acquitted.
At the beginning of 2012, Adam and Aslanbek Osmayev were mentioned in the Ukrainian media as members of the group of “the famous field commander of Chechen militants Askhab Bidaev.” According to press reports, Doku Umarov’s “helpers” contacted Adam Osmayev in England and suggested that he organize a new terrorist attack. Osmayev agreed and, using a fake passport, came to Ukraine, where for some time, according to some sources, he worked as a consultant in a Ukrainian trading company and lived in Odessa in a rented apartment on Tiraspolskaya Street.
It was reported that together with Osmayev, his friends were involved in preparing the terrorist attack - a native of Chechnya, Ruslan Madayev (born in 1986) and a citizen of Kazakhstan, Ilya Pyanzin (born in 1984). They learned mine explosives by constructing bombs from store-bought materials. However, on January 4, 2012, a homemade low-power bomb exploded in Madayev’s hands and he died. As a result of the explosion, Pyanzin received injuries and burns, and Osmayev injured his hands. The latter managed to escape.
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Firefighters initially decided that gas had exploded in the apartment, but after parts of explosive devices were discovered, employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) joined the investigation. Shortly after the explosion, Ukrainian media, citing sources in law enforcement agencies, reported that a laptop was found in the apartment, the memory of which contained “a mass of extremist literature, a map of Odessa, dotted with notes,” as well as photographs of the Musical Comedy Theater and the Sports Palace. The latter circumstance gave operatives reason to believe that the terrorists planned to blow up these very institutions. However, other operatives, including the head of the criminal investigation department of the Odessa Regional Internal Affairs Directorate Andrei Pinigin, claimed that no laptop was found. Some Ukrainian media, citing sources in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, generally reported that hired killers lived in the apartment, who were preparing an assassination attempt on one of the major Odessa businessmen, and the information about the preparation of the terrorist attack was a “duck” - in this way, the security forces wanted to portray that the investigation went according to false trail.
In the same year, according to Russian media, Pyanzin cooperated with the investigation and said that together with Madayev, he came to Odessa from the United Arab Emirates “with clear instructions from representatives of Doku Umarov,” while Osmayev was preparing them to conduct sabotage activities. According to Channel One, in his testimony, Pyanzin said that he and his accomplices planned to commit a terrorist attack - an attempt on the life of the Prime Minister and presidential candidate of Russia in the 2012 elections, Vladimir Putin.
On February 4, Adam Osmayev, together with his father, was detained by the Alpha units of the SBU and FSB (in total, about 100 people took part in the operation) in a rented apartment on Bazarnaya Street in Odessa. It was noted that they were found thanks to Osmayev’s mobile phone call from Odessa to Kabardino-Balkaria, which was detected by the special services. At the same time, on February 6, the SBU press service officially reported that Adam Osmayev was detained with two accomplices. According to Ukrainian media, the detained Aslanbek Osmayev was also wanted in Russia “for armed raids and preparation for terrorist attacks.” However, according to other sources, he simply came to visit his son and had nothing to do with “Adam’s affairs,” so he was soon released.
According to Channel One, Osmayev also cooperated with the investigation (it was noted that he agreed to testify in the hope that he would be tried in Ukraine and not in Russia. The suspect said that he was recruiting future militants, with the help which were planned to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia. Osmaev named Putin as one of the targets of the terrorist attacks, the assassination attempt on whom, according to him, was planned to be carried out soon after the presidential elections. It was reported that the terrorists' intention to blow up Putin's motorcade was confirmed by video footage found on Osmaev's laptop of special escort vehicles driving through Moscow premiere. According to Channel One, Osmayev also said that part of the explosives needed to carry out the terrorist action were already in Russia - back in 2007, he and other participants in the failed assassination attempt on Kadyrov buried them near the railway along which the Aeroexpress train runs. to Vnukovo airport. FSB officers managed to find a barrel of saltpeter and detonators in the indicated location. Osmayev told Channel One that he planned to carry out the terrorist attack using an anti-aircraft cumulative mine.
A television story about the suppression of the attempt on Putin's life by Osmayev and his accomplices, which was shown by Channel One on February 27, 2012, caused a mixed reaction in society. Many Russian political scientists noted that it was not by chance that he appeared a week before the presidential elections; they saw in this “someone’s zeal and desire to curry favor with the future president,” and some even questioned the fact that a terrorist attack was being prepared: for example, political strategist Marat Gelman called him “his "a kind of gift" to the Russian prime minister from Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who himself "will need Putin's support when he has elections." At the same time, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed information about the impending terrorist attack, and the press service of Channel One called the people “mentally ill” who connected the appearance of the story about Osmayev and his accomplices with the elections.
The namesake of Adam Osamaev was also mentioned in the media. Thus, in June 2005, the press wrote about the detention in the Achkhoy-Martan region of Chechnya of a certain gang member Adam Osmayev, who was part of Adam Dadaev’s group and received an order from him to carry out a terrorist attack. Subsequently, information about what happened to the mentioned Osmayev was not published (Dadaev was killed in June 2007). Meanwhile, in 2011, the “List of organizations and individuals in relation to which there is information about their involvement in extremist activities or terrorism,” published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, included a native of the Achkhoy-Martan district of Chechnya, Osmayev Adam Zhamalailovich, born in 1978.
Suspected of preparing a terrorist attack against Vladimir Putin
A Russian citizen, detained in February 2012 on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act in Odessa. In the same month, he admitted to preparing an assassination attempt on the 2012 presidential candidate Vladimir Putin.
Adam Aslambekovich Osmayev was born on May 2, 1981 (according to other sources, 1984) in the city of Grozny. His father Aslambek Osmayev had an oil business, and his mother Laila was a housewife. In addition to Adam, the couple had other children - two sons, Ramzan and Islam, as well as a daughter, Khava. Novaya Gazeta wrote about Adam Osmayev as coming from a “very influential family of mountain Chechens”: it was noted that his uncle, Amin Osmayev, became chairman of the Supreme Council of Chechnya in 1995, and then, from 1996 to 1998, was the head House of Representatives of the People's Assembly of the Chechen Republic (a pro-Russian government body, in parallel with which the parliament of Ichkeria existed,), and was an ex-officio member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation in 1996-1998, , , , , .
According to Novaya Gazeta, in 1996 the Osmayevs moved to Moscow, where Adam, using his uncle’s connections, entered the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (Amin Osmayev himself reported in 2007 that he had “three brothers and seven sisters , who have “about 50-60 children,” so he “barely remembers” Adam). At the same time, the Interfax agency, citing sources in the security forces of the Chechen Republic, reported that Osmayev left the territory of the Chechen Republic “approximately” in 2005, “after which he lived in Moscow for a long time.” The media also published information about Adam’s brother Ramzan: Novaya Gazeta noted that he graduated from the Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and worked as an operative at the Arbat police station. According to the publication, in the capital the brothers led a normal lifestyle for “children of rich parents,” and “spent all their free time in bars and discos.”
In 2007, the press published statements according to which Osmayev graduated from a “prestigious university in the UK.” However, in 2012, the media, in particular the Kommersant newspaper, confirming that since 1999 Osmayev had studied economics at The University of Buckingham in England, reported that he never graduated from the university because was expelled for poor academic performance. Representatives of the university also confirmed that Osmayev entered the university, but according to their information, he dropped out of school in the same 1999. Osmayev did not have a scholarship, and he had to pay for his studies himself (according to The Moscow Times, the cost of two years of bachelor's studies at Buckingham University could be about 50 thousand dollars). According to Kommersant, Osmayev visited a mosque abroad, where he probably met other Chechens living in this country, who taught him mine explosives. Amin Osmayev suggested that it was in England that his nephew came under the influence of the Wahhabis.
On the night of May 9, 2007, the Federal Security Service (FSB) managed to prevent a terrorist attack in Moscow. It was noted that in a VAZ-2107 car parked on Profsoyuznaya Street, security forces found a radiotelephone, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, 20 kg of plastic and a 20-liter canister of gasoline and two computer system units, one of which contained a box of metal balls ". In the summer of the same year, the FSB named the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov as the target of the terrorist attack.
Four Chechens were suspected of involvement in organizing the terrorist attack: Lors (Lorson) Khamiev, Ruslan Musaev, Umar Batukaev and Osmayev, who, according to Kommersant, at that time worked as a “top manager of one of the trading companies.” The investigation named the “closest associate” of the Chechen terrorist Doku Umarov, Chingiskhan Gishaev (call sign “Abdul Malik”; was killed in Chechnya on January 19, 2010), as the organizer of the failed terrorist attack.
Khamiev was detained in Grozny a few days before May 9, Musaev and Batukaev were arrested in Moscow directly on Victory Day. Osmayev was also detained and was in custody for three days, but the FSB investigator considered that he would be involved in the case as a witness and released Osmayev on his own recognizance. Novaya Gazeta also presented another version: according to its information, Osmayev was released “after his father visited a high prosecutor’s office.” According to media reports, later, despite a written undertaking not to leave, Osmayev left for the UK. Later, the media published information that Osmayev was arrested in absentia in 2007, and later put on the international (according to other sources, federal) wanted list. In 2009, Khamiev, found guilty of participating in illegal armed groups and preparing an assassination attempt on a statesman, was sentenced to 8 years in prison, Batukaev received 5 years in prison for illegal possession of weapons and using a forged document, and Musaev was acquitted.
At the beginning of 2012, Adam and Aslanbek Osmayev were mentioned in the Ukrainian media as members of the group of “the famous field commander of Chechen militants Askhab Bidaev.” According to press reports, Doku Umarov’s “helpers” contacted Adam Osmayev in England and suggested that he organize a new terrorist attack. Osmayev agreed and, using a fake passport, came to Ukraine, where for some time, according to some sources, he worked as a consultant in a Ukrainian trading company and lived in Odessa in a rented apartment on Tiraspolskaya Street.
It was reported that together with Osmayev, his friends were involved in preparing the terrorist attack - a native of Chechnya, Ruslan Madayev (born in 1986) and a citizen of Kazakhstan, Ilya Pyanzin (born in 1984). They learned mine explosives by assembling bombs from materials bought at the store. However, on January 4, 2012, a homemade low-power bomb exploded in Madayev’s hands and he died. As a result of the explosion, Pyanzin received injuries and burns, and Osmayev injured his hands. The latter managed to escape.
Firefighters initially decided that gas had exploded in the apartment, but after parts of explosive devices were discovered, employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) joined the investigation. Shortly after the explosion, Ukrainian media, citing sources in law enforcement agencies, reported that a laptop was found in the apartment, the memory of which contained “a mass of extremist literature, a map of Odessa, dotted with notes,” as well as photographs of the Musical Comedy Theater and the Sports Palace. The latter circumstance gave operatives reason to believe that the terrorists planned to blow up these very institutions. However, other operatives, including the head of the criminal investigation department of the Odessa Regional Internal Affairs Directorate Andrei Pinigin, claimed that no laptop was found. Some Ukrainian media, citing sources in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, generally reported that hired killers lived in the apartment, who were preparing an assassination attempt on one of the major Odessa businessmen, , , and the information about the preparation of the terrorist attack was a “duck” - thus the security forces wanted to portray that the investigation went on the wrong track, .
In the same year, according to Russian media, Pyanzin cooperated with the investigation and said that together with Madayev, he came to Odessa from the United Arab Emirates “with clear instructions from representatives of Doku Umarov,” while Osmayev was preparing them to conduct sabotage activities. . According to Channel One, in his testimony, Pyanzin said that he and his accomplices planned to commit a terrorist attack - an attempt on the life of the Prime Minister and presidential candidate of Russia in the 2012 elections, Vladimir Putin.
On February 4, Adam Osmayev, together with his father, was detained by the Alpha units of the SBU and FSB (in total, about 100 people took part in the operation) in a rented apartment on Bazarnaya Street in Odessa. It was noted that they were found thanks to Osmayev’s mobile phone call from Odessa to Kabardino-Balkaria, which was detected by the special services, , , . At the same time, on February 6, the SBU press service officially reported that Adam Osmayev was detained with two accomplices. According to Ukrainian media, the detained Aslanbek Osmayev was also wanted in Russia “for armed raids and preparation for terrorist attacks.” However, according to other sources, he simply came to visit his son and had nothing to do with “Adam’s affairs,” so he was soon released.
According to Channel One, Osmayev also cooperated with the investigation (it was noted that he agreed to testify in the hope that he would be tried in Ukraine and not in Russia). The suspect said that he was recruiting future militants with the help of whom it was planned to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia. Osmayev named Putin as one of the targets of terrorist attacks, the assassination attempt on whom, according to him, was planned to be carried out shortly after the presidential elections. It was reported that the terrorists’ intention to blow up Putin’s motorcade was confirmed by video footage found on Osmaev’s laptop of the prime minister’s special escort vehicles passing through Moscow, , , . According to Channel One, Osmayev also said that part of the explosives needed to carry out the terrorist attack were already in Russia - back in 2007, he and other participants in the failed assassination attempt on Kadyrov buried them near the railway along which the Aeroexpress train runs to the airport Vnukovo. FSB officers managed to find a barrel of saltpeter and detonators in the indicated location. Osmayev told Channel One that he planned to carry out the terrorist attack using an anti-aircraft cumulative mine.
On March 21, 2012, information appeared in the press that the SBU had brought charges against Osmayev and Pyanzin. If at first the law enforcement agencies in Odessa charged them only with Article 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal handling of weapons and explosives), then after the case was transferred to Kiev for investigation by the main investigative department of the SBU, Part 1 of Article 258-3 of the Criminal Code (creation of a terrorist organization) was added to this article. group or terrorist organization), as well as part 2 of Article 258 of the Criminal Code (terrorist act). At the same time, the investigation believed that the goal of the terrorist group was the “physical elimination of the top officials” of the Russian Federation, as well as destabilization of the situation in this country.
On August 14, 2012, the Court of Appeal of the Odessa Region made a final decision on the extradition of Osmayev to Russia. However, a week later, this process was suspended due to a ban by the European Court of Human Rights, which granted the petition of lawyers who argued that Osmayev could be subjected to torture in Russia and pointed out a number of violations during the investigation of his case in Ukraine. At the same time, the ECHR did not have time to consider the complaint of Pyanzin’s lawyers, and on August 25 he was handed over to the Russian special services at the border and sent to Moscow.
The television story about the suppression of the attempt on Putin's life by Osmayev and his accomplices, which was shown by Channel One on February 27, 2012, caused a mixed reaction in society. Many Russian political scientists noted that it was not by chance that he appeared a week before the presidential elections; they saw in this “someone’s zeal and desire to curry favor with the future president,” and some even questioned the fact that a terrorist attack was being prepared: for example, political strategist Marat Gelman called him “his a kind of gift" to the Russian Prime Minister from Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who himself "will need Putin's support when he has elections." At the same time, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed information about the impending terrorist attack, and the press service of Channel One called the people who connected the appearance of the story about Osmayev and his accomplices with the elections “mentally unhealthy.”
The namesake of Adam Osmayev was also mentioned in the media. Thus, in June 2005, the press wrote about the detention in the Achkhoy-Martan region of Chechnya of a certain gang member Adam Osmayev, who was part of Adam Dadaev’s group and received the task from him to carry out a terrorist attack. Subsequently, information about what happened to the mentioned Osmayev was not published (Dadaev was killed in June 2007). Meanwhile, in 2011, the “List of organizations and individuals in relation to which there is information about their involvement in extremist activities or terrorism,” published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, included a native of the Achkhoy-Martan district of Chechnya, Osmayev Adam Zhamalailovich, born in 1978.
At the time of his arrest, Osmaev’s common-law wife was Amina Okueva, who lived in Odessa and was a surgeon by training. She represented his interests in court.
Used materials
Yuri Senatorov. The European Court did not have time to extradite. - Kommersant, 08/27/2012. - No. 158/P (4943)
The European Court's ban on Osmayev's extradition took Russia by surprise. - Polit.ru, 21.08.2012
Petr Sokovich, Sergei Mashkin. All borders have opened for the terrorist. - Kommersant, 15.08.2012. - № 150 (4935)
Alexander Savochenko. The court in Odessa made the final decision to extradite Osmayev to the Russian Federation. - RIA News, 14.08.2012
They want to extradite terrorist Osmayev, accused of assassinating Putin, to Russia, but he may not live to see trial. - Today (Ukraine), 10.08.2012
The court authorized the arrest in absentia of the defendants in the case of the assassination attempt on Putin. - RAPSI, 09.04.2012
Ekaterina Vinokurova. The first channel presents the assassination attempt. - Gazeta.Ru, 27.02.2012
Anton Vernitsky. The intelligence services of Ukraine and Russia thwarted the plans of terrorists who were preparing an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin. - First channel, 27.02.2012
The person suspected of involvement in preparing the assassination attempt on Putin was not listed as a militant. - Interfax, 27.02.2012
Alexander Zhukov. Were the Chechens detained in Odessa taken to Russia? - , 02/07/2012
Alexander Zhukov. Chechen terrorists in Odessa were given away by a telephone. - Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine, 06.02.2012
In Odessa, the SBU tracked down the terrorist activities of foreigners, who were shocked by interstate conflicts. - Security Service of Ukraine (ssu.gov.ua), 06.02.2012
In Odessa, "Alpha" stormed the apartment where the "terrorist from Tiraspol" was hiding. - Dumskaya.net
Resolution of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. On recognition of the powers of members of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, 01/23/1996. - No. 2-SF
Osmaev Amin Akhmedovich. - Federation Council of the Russian Federation (council.gov.ru). - Version from 03/01/2012
Edilbek Khasmagomadov. Chechen parliamentarism: history and modernity. - Parliament of the Chechen Republic (parlamentchr.ru). - Version from 03/06/2012
When we ask him about the man who shot him in the lung, 36-year-old Adam Osmayev just smiles. “It’s hard for me to say anything good about him, but it took a lot of courage to try to kill us like that,” he says in a relaxed tone, surrounded by two bodyguards, sitting in a Tatar restaurant in the Ukrainian capital. “He’s a devil, of course, but you can’t deny his determination!” The man in question is Artur Denisultanov, a Chechen bandit believed to be working for President Ramzan Kadyrov. He introduced himself as a journalist for the French newspaper le Monde and interviewed Osmayev and his wife Amina Okueva several times in order to lull their vigilance. The fourth time, he pulled out a Glock and tried to shoot them at point-blank range in the car. Seeing the weapon, Adam grabbed it by the barrel, but it was too late: shots rang out.
Nevertheless, all this gave Amina time. “I only had a few seconds, I pulled out the weapon and shot at him,” she points to the Makarov pistol hidden under her jacket, which she never leaves. Denisultanov, who received four wounds, was taken to the hospital and then taken into custody. But how did they allow themselves to be fooled like that, since the Ukrainian authorities warned them about the impending assassination attempt, and they themselves do not part with their weapons and check in the morning to see if a bomb was planted in the car overnight?
“We had our doubts, but he turned out to be a phenomenal actor and perfectly portrayed a slightly homosexual-looking European journalist who speaks Russian with a slight French accent,” Osmayev replies with a note of admiration in his voice. The perfect cover to get closer to targets whom the war has brought into the spotlight and pushed to put their fame in the service of the common fight against “Russian imperialism”, both in Ukraine and in Chechnya.
Context
Suspect in assassination attempt on Putin asks for asylum in Georgia
First Information Caucasian 23.08.2012An insidious attempt on the lives of Ukrainian patriots
112.ua 02.06.2017Ramzan Kadyrov is by no means a fool
The Washington Post 06.04.2016Adam Osmayev is the son of a Chechen businessman who fell into disgrace after Ramzan Kadyrov came to power in 2005. Since 2015, he has headed the Dudayev battalion, which has gathered many Chechen volunteers in Ukraine. At the peak of the conflict, it included 200 fighters who sought to continue the fight against Russia, as well as Ramzan Kadyrov's people (he sent them to pro-Russian separatists). As a young man, he lived in the UK for six years, where he studied at the prestigious Wycliffe College and entered the University of Buckingham. He is talkative and smiling, and looks at his years in England with ironic detachment. His relaxed attitude, of course, may seem amateurish, but only in comparison with the serious and decisive attitude of his wife. “She’s fanatically dedicated,” their friend warns.
Amina Okueva, whose blue eyes are highlighted by the hijab covering her head, speaks with cool confidence. She spent her childhood in Odessa, Moscow and Grozny, and at the age of 20 she fled the war in Chechnya. The experience came as a shock to her. In Ukraine, she entered the Odessa National Medical University, graduating from there and receiving a diploma in surgery. In 2009, she married Adam, who had recently settled in the city. The course of their lives was disrupted again in February 2012, when he was detained and sent to jail on the strange charge of plotting an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin. The extradition to Russia was prevented by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
“I told myself that I needed to fight the government that sent my husband to prison, to get the case re-examined and maybe even get him released.” When protests against President Yanukovych began in the country in November 2013, Amina went to the Maidan. She remained there until the end of the revolution in February 2014, took part in clashes with the police, and cared for the wounded. After the start of the war in the east of the country, she without hesitation enlisted in a volunteer battalion to continue the fight with arms in hand. Doesn't this contradict the Hippocratic oath? Amina just laughs. “I didn’t say it. Swearing by pagan gods is against my faith.” She recognizes that a doctor should save lives, not take them, but deals with the ethical dilemma by combining both at the same time: a sniper rifle in one hand, a bag of blood in the other.
On November 18, 2014, the court finally decided to release her husband. They went together to the Dudayev battalion. Apparently, the assassination attempt on June 1 was a consequence of their participation in the battles, as well as their ardent rejection of President Kadyrov. “Everyone knows that he is persecuting oppositionists all over the world,” Okueva says, recalling killings in Dubai, Turkey and Austria. It is not clear why it was decided to strike now, because at the moment the Dudayev battalion is only its own shadow. Despite repeated requests, he was never integrated into the Ukrainian army or the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which de facto prevents him from operating. Be that as it may, after the incident, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, gave Amina Okueva a very controversial gift: a Glock pistol.
The assassination attempt was a good opportunity for the government to remind about the international side of the conflict now that the world community's interest in Ukraine has faded. “This incident could give a new status to Adam and Amina, unless, of course, they forget that they owe Avakov and abandon their political plans,” notes an expert on Ukrainian politics. Amina was a candidate in the local elections in Odessa in 2014, running against the current majority. Today she calls it a mistake: “I support what our government is doing and I don’t think I can make a difference in politics.” The message was clearly received
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