Abstract
To begin a discussion of the hostage trade we need to discard the two most popular explanations for it. The explanation prevalent in Russia is that Chechens have a cultural or historical predilection for hostage taking, and that it’s somehow in our blood. The second notion, popular among the Chechens, is that the hostage trade represented a conspiracy by the Russian Security Service (Federanaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, FSB). In my view it’s wrong to assume that the leadership of the Interior Ministry (Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del, MVD) or the FSB hatched a devious scheme to instill the hostage trade into Chechnya. These are both exaggerations and simplifications when the truth is much more complicated. To examine some of the key features of the ugly history of the hostage trade, we can pick out some of the more famous cases, specifically those cases about which I had some first-hand information.
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Notes
Alexander Cherkassov, “Hostage Taking in the North Caucasus in the late 1990s: Historical roots,” July 3, 1999; website of Human Rigths Center, memo.ru.
There are very few credible sources about the hostage trade. In addition to the author’s recollections two additional sources were used to cross-reference material in this chapter. One is the articles and interviews with Vyacheslav Izmailov, a Novaya gazeta correspondent. The second source is “Confidential Memorandum on Criminality in the North Caucasus, Its Impact on Humanitarian Operations, and Possible Responses in Case of Crisis,” which was written in 2000 by the staff of international NGOs operating in Chechnya and contains a detailed chronology of incidents and primary data from the field. Boris Berezovsky said that he participated in the release of hostages in an interview with a Russian newspaper. Aleksandr Prokhanov, “With Berezovksy in London… (a conversation between Prokhanov and Berezovsky)” Zavtra, October 1, 2002 (http://www.zavtra.ru/cgi/veil/data/zavtra/02/463/21.html)
This can be seen in the very tragic case of a French photographer, Brice Fleutiaux, who was held in captivity for six months, wrote a book about his ordeal, and soon after its publication committed suicide—never having revealed the identity of his abductors. Fleutiaux was abducted at the start of the war while entering Chechnya from Georgia. After his release, Fleutiaux told journalists that his kidnapper had posed as his liberator. “The civilian asked me, ‘But who kidnapped you?’ ” recalls Fleutiaux. “I said, ‘The big guy.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘No, it’s not possible.’ I looked back at him, then said, ‘No … I mean … no … I don’t remember.’ So afterwards, all the time when people asked me, ‘Who kidnapped you?’ I’d say, ‘I don’t want to speak about it, I don’t remember, it’s not my problem, I just want to get released.’ “They were saying they had released me from the guy who kidnapped me, but the guy who kidnapped me was there. So I just played the game.” Anthony Lloyd, “Sleeping with the enemy,” The Times (London), September 23, 2000 (via Nexis) and
Brice Fleutiaux, Otage en Tchechenie (Paris: Robert Lafont, 2001).
Tom DeWaal, “Berezvosky Blames Putin for Chechen War,” IWPR Caucasus Reporting Service, October 31, 2002.
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© 2010 Ilyas Akhmadov and Miriam Lanskoy
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Akhmadov, I., Lanskoy, M. (2010). The Hostage Trade. In: The Chechen Struggle Independence Won and Lost. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117518_6
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