PROFILE: Chechnya's top terror suspect Umarov - Russia's "bin Laden"

Feb 8, 2011, 12:50 GMT

Moscow - Chechnya's top terrorism suspect, Doku Umarov, is the Kremlin's public enemy number one and has been dubbed Russia's 'bin Laden.'

Umarov, 46, claimed in a video clip posted on the internet late Monday, to have ordered the January 24 suicide bombing at Moscow's Domododevo airport, in which 37 people died and 150 were wounded.

He has in the past also claimed responsibility for other deadly attacks on Russian civilian targets, including a Moscow subway bombing in 2010 that left 40 dead.

Umarov was born on April 13, 1964, in Kharsenoy village in southern Chechnya. He served as security minister in the Chechen separatist government from 1996-99, and calls himself the 'emir of the Caucasus.'

Russia's federal North Caucasus region - which includes the republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria - is like a powder keg. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 the area has witnessed struggles for independence, conflicts and terrorist attacks.

In Muslim-dominated Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan, numerous Islamist militant groups have been fighting for an independent 'emirate' in the North Caucasus.

Moscow investigators have been on the hunt for the self-proclaimed ruler of the Caucasus 'emirate,' who has likely been hiding in the forests of this multi-ethnic region. Umarov has been on the run for about 20 years. Several times, reports have come in of his death.

Dressed in military fatigues and sporting a long beard, in the 16- minute video, Umarov said the militants would prove to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 'chauvinist regime' that they could strike any time and anywhere.

Muslims in the Caucasus region were 'in a state of war against the Russian occupation army,' Umarav said. 'I want Russia to ... leave the Caucasus,' he said, threatening revenge and 'a year full of blood and tears.'

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