Salman Betyrovich Raduyev (or Raduev; Russian: Салма́н Бетырович Раду́ев; 13 February 1967 – 14 December 2002) was a Chechen militant and separatist field commander, from 1994 to 1999, who masterminded and was responsible for the Kizlyar hostage taking raid.
"[2] Georgi Derluguian also called him "the enfant terrible" of Chechen resistance due to his eccentric behavior outside his military career: he wore a uniform decorated by what he claimed to be the insignia of Genghis Khan, a black military beret like that of Saddam Hussein, an Arab keffiyeh around his neck and aviator sunglasses to hide his face which had been heavily reconstructed after multiple surgeries due to the injuries he sustained as a militant.
On 9 January 1996, Raduyev (allegedly copying Shamil Basayev's 1995 Budyonnovsk attack in Chechnya) led a large-scale Kizlyar hostage-taking raid in the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan, where his men took at least 2,000 civilians hostage.
The raid, which made Raduyev world-famous, escalated into an all-out battle that ended with the complete destruction of the border village of Pervomayskoye, and led to other Chechen leaders criticizing the attack.
On 7 March 63 out of 101 deputies of the Parliament of Estonia sent condolences to Dudayev expressing "deep sympathy with the Chechen people" on "the loss of commander Raduyev",[10] sparking a row with the Russian Duma.
[13] Raduyev, whose face was deformed due to injuries, and now hidden behind the bushy red beard and black sunglasses, was the only field commander to announce openly that the "war without rules" with Russia would continue despite the signing of the peace agreement.
This rally ended in a shootout, resulting in the deaths of both the commander of Raduyev's militia, Vakha Dzhafarov, and of the Chechen security forces chief Lechi Khultygov.
He claimed that Dudayev, who had died in 1996, was still alive[13] and issuing orders to him from "a secret NATO base in Turkey" with the goal of the "liberation" of the entire North Caucasus.
[27] In September 1999, at the start of the Second Chechen War, Raduyev organized a rally in Grozny attended by 12,000 people where he urged residents to stay home and prepare to defend the city.
[28] His militia was reported to be virtually destroyed by a series of serious setbacks during the early fighting in late 1999, and he stopped talking about planning and organizing new attacks afterward.
The circumstances surrounding the death of Raduyev are not clear, and according to his family and others he was murdered in prison after he refused to talk about the accusations against Akhmed Zakayev, then arrested in Denmark.
[36] Kommersant daily said that "the real reason for Raduyev's death will probably never be known", while Vremya Novostei suggested that after being forced to give all the information requested from him, he was "no longer needed" by the Russian authorities and killed.