Link Between Separatists And Al-qaeda Discounted

Publication: North Caucasus Weekly Volume: 5 Issue: 17

A startling admission can be found buried deep within a recent interview given by a high ranking official of the administration of Akhmad Kadyrov. The official, Deputy Premier Adlan Magomadov, who also serves as Kadyrov’s representative in Moscow, was unable to provide any evidence of concrete links between Chechen separatists and Al-Qaeda.

Viktor Vasiliev of Rodnaya gazeta asked Magomadov in the interview published by that newspaper on April 23, “How closely, in your view, is Chechen separatism tied with Al-Qaeda?” The deputy premier’s replied that “…I am not in possession of any data about ties between the terrorists in Chechnya and Al-Qaeda.”