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the late Dzhokar Dudayev, who proclaimed Chechen independence and eventually died in the war, took his oath of office on the Koran and made Friday the legal day off, but was a former Soviet Air Force general who does not seem to have had a primarily Islamic agenda.

I wonder if you have Basayev confused with Dudayev?

link

Thanks for the very informative link. No, I did not confuse these two, BTW Dudayev was driven by nationalism.:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0905russia-sidebar05.html

Associated Press
Sept. 5, 2004 12:00 AM
MOSCOW - Rebels linked to the school hostage-taking seek independence from Russia and to make Chechnya a Muslim nation.

The first war between Chechen rebels and Russian forces in the past decade had less of a religious element than the current conflict, which began in 1999.

In the 1994-96 war, separatists led by Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev appeared to be driven primarily by centuries of resentment of Russia, which subjugated the region, and its Soviet successors, who ordered the wholesale deportation of Chechens to Central Asia in 1944.

After Russian forces withdrew in 1996, warlord Shamil Basayev forced Aslan Maskhadov, who had become president, to declare Sharia law, or Islamic law, an idea that has less support among the public than it does among the rebels.

Basayev led a Chechen insurgent raid into neighboring Dagestan in 1999 with the aim of establishing an Islamic enclave. That raid was one of the Kremlin's justifications for trying to forcefully regain control of Chechnya and touched off the current conflict.

Maskhadov still holds some fighters' loyalty, but those who answer to Basayev are believed to be a far larger, more violent group.