Khozh-Ahmed Noukhayev

Khozh-Ahmed Tashtamirovich Noukhayev (Russian: Хож-Ахмет Таштамирович Нухаев) (born November 11, 1954), also spelled Hozh-Ahmed Nukhaev, Nukhayev or Noukhaev, was a leader of the Chechen mafia known as Obshina and a prominent figure in Chechen politics. He was born in Central-Asian exile into the Yalkhoi teip (clan) from the Geldagan village in Shalinsky District of the Chechen Republic.

He arrived in Moscow in 1974 and matriculated into Moscow State University, Faculty of Law. Along with Said-Khasan Abumuslimov (later Vice-President of Chechnya under Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev) he organized an underground committee for the liberation of Chechnya called Obshina. The committee studied books by Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Andrei Sakharov. According to Noukhaev, Abumuslimov was responsible for politics and information while he took care of financial matters and weapons. In 1980 Nukhaev was sentenced to eight years for banditry, which he claimed were actually for political reasons. During this time he acquired the nickname “Khozha” and was considered a boss of the Chechen mafia along with Nikolay Suleimanov. By 1987 Chechen criminals had developed into a well-organized community under Nukhayev and Suleimanov, the group tried to force the most influential Russian Mafia gangs (the Lyubertsy, Solntsevo, and Balashikha) out of Moscow which allowed the Chechens to occupy the dominant position for some time.

Soon after the start of the Second Chechen War, Nukhaev left for Baku, Azerbaijan, and financed the underground Chechen newspapers Ichkeria and Mekh-kell. In 1999 he made a public statement calling for an international commission to bring peace to Chechnya, saying Russia will never gain its objectives by military means because the Chechen people's will for self-determination is such that guerrilla warfare will continue for years. Noukhaev said the first step in the peace process should be establishment of an International Commission headed by such respected world figures as former President Jimmy Carter or former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to oversee the freeing of illegally detained persons on both sides. It is believed by some that he also helped finance the militant groups of Ruslan Gelayev and Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev. In 2001 Nukhaev first proposed the controversial idea (among both his allies and enemies) of splitting Chechnya into a northern Russian half and a southern de facto, but not de jure Ichkerian half. That same year Nukhaev founded the inter-teip movement Nokhchi-Latta-Islam, and politician Aleksandr Dugin was also working with him during this time.

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