Arbi Alautdinovich Barayev (Chechen: Arbi Alautdinovich Baraev; 27 May 1974 - 22 June 2001) was a Chechen warlord, who in 1996 became the founder and first leader of the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) in Chechnya. Nicknamed The Terminator, Barayev and the SPIR were regarded as one of the main violent criminal organizations operating in Chechnya during the lawless interwar period that followed the 1994-1996 First Chechen War, driving out foreign journalists and humanitarian workers, while undermining the presidency of Aslan Maskhadov during Chechnya's de facto independence until 1999. After the restoration of Russian Federal control, Barayev openly lived in his home village until he was killed on 22 June, 2001.

The war ended in 1996, with a Chechen separatist victory establishing a de facto independent Chechnya. Barayev formed the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment, where he and his associates became infamous for their alleged part in a wave of lawlessness which swept the devastated country. Crimes include including brutal killings and kidnappings as well as suspected involvement in two failed attempts to assassinate the Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov, and the successful assassinations of the Chechen interior minister Nasrudi Bazhiyev, and Shadid Bargishev, head of the newly formed anti-abduction service. The group, based around the town of Urus-Martan, were linked to a series of high-profile crimes including the notorious murder of six foreign Red Cross employees shot dead in the hospital of Novye Atagi in September 1996, as well as the kidnappings of Yelena Masyuk, a Russian NTV journalist and personal friend of President Maskhadov, and Valenti Vlasov, Russian president Boris Yeltsin's envoy to Chechnya. Other high-profile hostages allegedly kidnapped by Barayev included the ORT journalists Roman Pereveztsyev and Vladislav Tibelius, an Italian journalist Mauro Galligani, British children-aid workers Camilla Carr and Jon James (during a failed operation to rescue them, the Chechen anti-kidnap unit commandos engaged in a deadly clash with "unknown terrorists", unofficially Salman Raduyev's men; they were eventually ransomed by Boris Berezovsky) and others. In 1997, Maskhadov signed a decree putting Barayev and his Special Purpose Islamic Regiment under the command of the Chechen interior ministry. Barayev, who also held the post of deputy commander of the National Guards, however refused to obey the order. When six of his men were detained in Ingushetia, Barayev attacked an Ingush police post and took hostages; one of them was killed and the rest were prisoner-swapped. Two more of his men were captured in Chechnya and made to confess to kidnappings on the state TV. His militia and some Islamist allies from Shariah Security forces fought with the Chechen government forces in a large-scale gun battle in the city of Gudermes in the summer of 1998. Between 50 and around 80 people were killed in the mutiny. The SPIR was not disarmed, but Barayev was stripped of his rank of Brigade General and declared as the "enemy of Ichkeria and the Chechen people". In December 1998, Barayev proclaimed the Supreme Council of Islamic Jamaats, dug trenches around Urus-Martan and threatened to attack targets across and outside of Chechnya if Maskhadov tried to fight them. A commonly accusation against Barayev regarded the late 1998 abduction and beheading of four foreign mobile phone engineers. It was claimed that the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) outbid the employers of kidnapped British engineers to get them decapitated by Barayev and his gang rather than be released; supposedly, the video and photographic materials of their executions fed the FSB anti-western propaganda efforts at beginning of Second Chechen War. A former Russian hostage Abdurakhman Adukhov told the BBC that Barayev told him it was actually Osama bin Laden who paid him $30m for the atrocity, outbidding the ransom offer of $10m. Barayev himself denied that his group kidnapped and killed the foreigners.

Ask a question about this article.
what did he do?