Russia's Investigative Committee said on June 3 it had arrested a man suspected of being involved in a deadly hostage-taking in the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk in 1995, a turning point in the first of the two post-Soviet separatist wars in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Chechnya.
According to the statement, Khamzat Zoyev faces charges of terrorism, banditry, hostage-taking, and murder. It is not known how Zoyev pleaded.
On June 14, 1995, a group of some 130 Chechen separatists led by Shamil Basayev attacked a local police station and government buildings in Budyonnovsk, taking some 1,500 people hostage while demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
After two attempts by Russian forces to free the hostages failed, resulting in the deaths of some 100 people, Basayev negotiated their release and his own safe passage back to Chechnya live on Russian television with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who was later criticized for allowing the Chechens to escape.
In all, about 130 people were killed during the hostage crisis.
The deal to resolve the crisis paved the way for an August 1996 agreement that ended the war until a second war erupted in 1999, with then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin playing a prominent role in the decision making after Basayev led militants in an incursion into neighboring Daghestan.
Basayev, who became the most wanted man in Russia, was killed in an explosion in 2006.
In recent years, several men were handed lengthy prison terms for their roles in the Budyonnovsk hostage seizure.
The latest man, whom Russian authorities found guilty of taking part in the hostage seizure, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in December 2020.
Aslan Daudov was then convicted of banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and premeditated murder.