Hillary Read

“[Akhmad] Kadyrov was killed by an explosion in Grozny’s stadium Dynamo on May 9, 2004 and both Maskhadov and I had very subdued reactions. All he said was that “Allah will judge us.” All I said was, “This is another casualty of this war.” It’s inappropriate to speak ill of the dead. The other reason we didn’t celebrate his death was that it didn’t change the situation; we knew that the Kremlin would find another representative. The personality of this person was not of primary importance as it turned out. Simple decency could have so easily been returned when Maskhadov was killed a year later, and I continue to marvel at how badly his memory was treated.”
― Ilyas Akhmadov, The Chechen Struggle: Independence Won and Lost

“Gelayev’s odyssey lasted over a month, as he and his men zigzagged between Russian posts in the mountains. They climbed impossible peaks with no alpine gear, they lowered their horses and supplies by ropes, and miraculously they all made it. On several occasions they encountered Russian forces and in one case engaged in a real battle near the Osset village of Galashki.”
― Ilyas Akhmadov, The Chechen Struggle: Independence Won and Lost

“As far as I’m concerned, only an enemy could do something as provocative as initiating relations with the Taliban.”
― Ilyas Akhmadov, The Chechen Struggle: Independence Won and Lost

“Shamil [Basayev] sounded exhausted; the fact that he was speaking to me this way over the telephone indicated that he was desperate for conversation; he needed to let off steam and complain to someone. He couldn’t speak this way to the other men who were in the trenches with him”
― Ilyas Akhmadov, The Chechen Struggle: Independence Won and Lost