Assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev

On February 13, 2004, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a former acting president of the Chechen separatist government, was killed when a bomb detonated in his SUV in Doha, Qatar. Yandarbiyev died of his injuries on the way to hospital. His 13-year-old son, Daud, was seriously injured and arrived at the hospital in critical condition. Some reports indicated that two of Yandarbiyev's bodyguards were also killed in the blast.

In the immediate aftermath, responsibility for the bombing was unclear. Suspicion fell on Russia's foreign and military intelligence services (SVR and GRU), both of which denied involvement, as well as on the possibility of internal feuding among Chechen rebel leadership. Aslan Maskhadov's separatist Foreign Ministry described the killing as a "Russian terrorist attack," drawing a comparison to the 1996 attack that killed Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev. The bombing prompted Qatar to enact its first anti-terrorism law, making lethal terrorist acts punishable by death or life imprisonment.

On February 19, 2004, Qatari authorities arrested three Russians at the Russian embassy in connection with the killing. One of them, embassy first secretary Aleksandr Fetisov, was released in March, reportedly due to his diplomatic status. The other two men, identified as GRU agents Anatoly Yablochkov (also known as Belashkov) and Vasily Pugachyov (sometimes rendered Bogachyov), were charged with assassinating Yandarbiyev, attempting to kill his son Daud, and smuggling weapons into Qatar. Russian officials stated the two had been sent to the embassy to gather intelligence on global terrorism, and Russia's acting defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, pledged state support and called their detention illegal.

The trial was closed to the public after the defendants alleged they had been tortured by a Qatari prosecution witness, Colonel Dawdi, during incommunicado detention shortly after their arrest, including beatings, sleep deprivation, and dog attacks. Russia cited these allegations, along with the extraterritorial status of the embassy compound where the men were arrested, in demanding their release. The defendants were represented by an attorney from a law firm founded by Nikolai Yegorov, described as a friend and fellow student of Vladimir Putin. Qatari prosecutors concluded the defendants had received orders to kill Yandarbiyev from Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.

On June 30, 2004, Yablochkov and Pugachyov were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment; the judge stated they had acted on orders from the Russian leadership. The verdict strained relations between Qatar and Russia. On December 23, 2004, Qatar agreed to extradite the two men to Russia to serve out their sentences. They received a public welcome upon returning to Moscow and subsequently disappeared from public view. In February 2005, Russian prison authorities acknowledged the men were not incarcerated, stating the Qatari sentence was "irrelevant" in Russia.

In a related development, NTV journalist Leonid Parfyonov was dismissed on June 1, 2004, reportedly for disclosing that channel management had barred him from airing an interview with Yandarbiyev's widow, Malika Yandarbiyeva.