Doku Khamatovich Umarov (, ; ; 13 April 1964 – 7 September 2013), often known as Dokka Umarov, was a Chechen militant in the North Caucasus. Umarov was a major military figure in both wars in Chechnya during the 1990s and 2000s, before becoming the leader of the greater insurgency in the North Caucasus. He was active mostly in south-western Chechnya, near and across the borders with Ingushetia and Georgia.
During the late 1990s, after Chechnya's first war against Russia, Movladi Udugov's status as war hero enabled him to take the post of the breakaway Republic's Security Minister. Between 2006 and 2007, following the death of his predecessor Sheikh Abdul Halim, Umarov became the underground President of Ichkeria of the unrecognized government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the post that Umarov eventually abolished himself when he renounced and abandoned Chechen nationalism in favour of Caucasian pan-Islamism and jihadist ideology.
The political mantle of Chechen nationalist separatism was formally taken over by the self-exiled Akhmed Zakayev, Umarov's former wartime comrade and friend turned political rival. Having quit the position of Chechen separatist leader, Umarov subsequently became the self-proclaimed Emir of the entire North Caucasus region of Russia, declaring it a putative Islamic state of the Caucasus Emirate. In 2010, Umarov abortively resigned from the position and appointed Aslambek Vadalov as the new Emir of the Caucasus Emirate, but soon afterwards issued a statement annulling the previous declaration and stating he would remain in his position"Chechen rebel chief denies quitting". Al Jazeera, August 2010; accessed 21 March 2014. and rebel Sharia court ruled in favour of Umarov over the rift, following which most other Russian rebel leaders re-swore allegiance to him.
For years, Umarov had been the top terrorist leader in Russia. He had taken responsibility for several attacks on civilian targets since 2009, including the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings and the 2011 Domodedovo International Airport bombing.Chechen terrorist says he ordered Moscow Metro attacks, BBC; retrieved 31 March 2010; accessed 19 March 2014. In 2012, Umarov ordered his followers to halt attacks on the civilian population of Russia, while leaving military and security personnel as legitimate targets.Caucasus Insurgency Head Backs Halt Of Terror Attacks On Russian Civilians. RFE/RL. 3 February 2012. In July 2013, however, he announced the end of this moratorium and calling on Islamic insurgents in the Caucasus and beyond to forcibly prevent the holding of the Sochi 2014 Olympics.Caucasus Emirate Leader Calls On Insurgents To Thwart Sochi Winter Olympics, RFE/RL; retrieved 16 February 2014. Umarov was internationally wanted by the governments of Russia and the United States. In 2011, the United Nations Security Council's Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee added Umarov to the list of individuals allegedly associated with al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
On 18 March 2014, Umarov's death was reported by the Caucasus Emirate-associated Islamist website Kavkaz Center, which offered no details but did say his death was confirmed by the Command of the Caucasus Emirate. He was announced to be replaced by the Caucasus Emirate's senior Sharia judge Ali Abu Mukhammad, who then officially confirmed the death of Umarov in a video posted on YouTube. According to a report posted on Kavkaz Center, Umarov was poisoned on 6 August 2013 and died at dawn on 7 September 2013. On 25 September 2017, Russian media reported that the body of Umarov had possibly been found in a remote mountainous area in Ingushetia.Тело Доку Умарова, предположительно, обнаружено в Ингушетии
Early life Umarov was born in April 1964 in the small village of Kharsenoi (Kharsenoy) in the southern Shatoysky District region of the Chechen–Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, into what he described as an intelligentsia family belonging the Malkoy teip (the same clan as the warlord Arbi Barayev and Chechnya's former foreign minister Ilyas Akhmadov). According to some sources, Umarov might have been convicted during his teenage years between 1980 and 1982 for either hooliganism, negligent homicide, or manslaughter. Umarov studied at the Oil Institute in Grozny, graduating with a degree in construction engineering. He later left the republic for the other parts of the Soviet Union and was reportedly working in the construction in Moscow when the First Chechen War began in December 1994. There were also reports that he was engaged in "semi-criminal activities" in Tyumen Oblast.
Personal life Dokka Umarov was married, and believed to have six children, the youngest of whom was born in 2006. Two of Umarov's brothers, Isa and Musa, have been killed in combat. Since 2003, several of Umarov's relatives,James Hughes, Chechnya: From Nationalism to Jihad, 2007 (p. 120) including all of his immediate family, have been kidnapped by "unidentified armed men"; some were promptly released, but the others have disappeared and may be dead.Doku Umarov's father killed in Chechnya , Caucasian Knot, 20 April 2007; accessed 18 March 2014.
Shortly after the Beslan hostage-taking raid in 2004, during which Umarov's close relatives were held for several days at Khankala military base near Grozny, Prosecutor General of Russia Vladimir Ustinov suggested the practice of taking rebel leaders' relatives hostage. In 2005, the Russian leading human rights group Memorial blamed pro-Moscow Chechen forces (Kadyrovtsy) for a policy of abductions of the rebels' relatives. On 5 May 2005, a group of masked attackers kidnapped Umarov's wife, his one-year-old son, and his 74-year-old father, Khamad (Hamad). According to the rebel sources, Umarov's family was abducted by the employees of the Oil Regiment (Neftepolk, headed by Adam Delimkhanov) and held in the Kadyrov family's private prison in the village of Tsentoroi. On 24 February 2005, Umarov's younger brother Ruslan was kidnapped by armed men and then allegedly tortured by the Federal Security Service (FSB) at Khankala base.Authorised abuse , Caucasian Knot, 24 March 2005.
Umarov's wife and son were later freed, but his elderly father and the younger brother both "disappeared"; in April 2007, Umarov stated that his father had been murdered in captivity. Ojciec przywódcy czeczeńskiego powstania zamordowany, Gazeta Wyborcza, 20 April 2007. In August 2005, Umarov's sister, Natalia Khumaidova, was abducted in the Chechen town of Urus-Martan;"Umarov's Sister Is Abducted" , The Moscow Times, 15 August 2005.Senior rebel's relative abducted , Caucasian Knot, 12 August 2005. she was released days later, after local residents protesting for her return rallied and blocked a federal highway. In 2003–2004, his cousin Zaurbek Umarov and nephew Roman Atayev were reportedly detained in Chechnya and Ingushetia, and then "disappeared".
First Chechen War and interwar period Umarov said he returned to Chechnya to fulfill what he called his patriotic duty. During the 1994–1996 war, he took part in the fighting against the intervention of Russian federal forces, initially serving under the command of Ruslan Gelayev in the special force popularly known as Gelayev's Spetsnaz (Gelayevskiy Spetsnaz). In 1996, Umarov left the unit because of disagreements with Gelayev and joined the command of Akhmed Zakayev, who had also left Gelayev's ranks to lead the splinter unit Wolf (Borz). In the course of the war, in which his unit was expanded into a battalion and then a regiment, Umarov was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and won two of Chechnya's highest awards for valor and bravery: Hero of the Nation (Kyoman Turpal) and Honor of the Nation (Kyoman Syi).Statement of Presidential Administration of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Chechenpress, 21 June 2006."Chechnya: A Look At Slain Leader's Legacy And Successor", RFE/RL, 21 June 2006.
Following the Khasav-Yurt Accord that ended the war in 1996 and the presidential election of Aslan Maskhadov in January 1997, Umarov was named by Maskhadov to head the Chechen Security Council, tasked with helping to contain growing chaos in the ruined republic. In that position, he intervened in July 1998 to quash armed clashes between Chechen moderates and Islamic extremists in the city of Gudermes. However, Umarov was forced to resign from this post, and the council was disbanded due to his failure to stabilise the situation in Chechnya and persistent rumors of his alleged participation in the practice of taking hostages for ransom (possibly in relationship with Arbi Barayev, who was widely accused of being a kidnapper).
Second Chechen War Umarov began his participation in the Second Chechen War in September 1999, as a field commander, again cooperating closely with Ruslan Gelayev during the Russian siege for Grozny. In early 2000, Umarov sustained a serious wound to his face and jaw as he was leaving the surrounded Grozny, and was hospitalized in a neutral country, probably Georgia (or possibly in southern Russia in a secret cooperation with elements within Russian secret services, as it was alleged by Novaya Gazeta journalist and former Russian military officer Vyacheslav Izmailov), alongside the also injured and evacuated Zakayev. After his convalescence (including undergoing extensive plastic surgery), Umarov raised and led a militia force in Georgia's remote Pankisi Gorge before his return to Chechnya in the summer of 2002.
Back in Chechnya, Umarov became the replacement of Isa Munayev on the post of the commander of Southwestern Front (comprising an estimated 1,000 fighters by 2004), the military region southwest of Grozny that bordered on Georgia and Ingushetia. He was regarded as an ally of Shamil Basayev, then based in the south-eastern Vedensky District.
In 2003, Umarov led his men in the heavy fighting around the town of Shatoy and, according to the Russian sources, ordered the bombing of Ingushetia's FSB headquarters in the Ingush capital of Magas and the attack on electrical infrastructure facilities in the city of Kislovodsk in Stavropol Krai. After Gelayev's death in February 2004, many of his remaining men joined Umarov's group. The next summer, together with Basayev, Umarov was one of the leaders of a large-scale raid by Chechen and Ingush fighters that killed scores of Ingushetia's officials and members of the security forces and briefly seized control over the republic's largest town, Nazran.Rebels attacked Ingushetia with Maskhadov's permission , Caucasian Knot, 27 July 2004.
Through 2005, there were numerous inaccurate reports of Umarov's death or grave injury. In January, he was reported to have been killed in a gun battle with Russian special forces near the Georgian border. In March, he was reported to have been seriously wounded by a Spetznaz assassination team. In September, the MVD announced it had found "Umarov's grave", and the following month, in October, he was once again falsely reported dead in the rebel raid on Nalchik, the capital city of Kabardino-Balkaria. In April 2005, Russian special forces destroyed a small guerrilla unit during a battle in a residential area of Grozny after receiving intelligence that Umarov was with them, yet he was not found among the dead. In May 2005, Umarov was reportedly seriously hurt when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine. He was said to have lost a leg in the blast, but turned out to be only lightly injured and participated in an attack on the village of Roshni-Chu three months later. In May 2006, Chechen police discovered his headquarters bunker in the center of the village of Assinovskaya on the border with Ingushetia, but Umarov managed to escape."Chechnya’s Police Find Umarov's Shelter" , Kommersant, 15 May 2006. On 2 June 2005 he was appointed as the vice president of the separatist government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI).
Chechen presidency