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familiar he is with the London scene. It is 1998, Maskhadov is wearing a tall astrakhan hat, Thatcher is in the middle, and Khanpash is on the other side. Intriguingly, Maskhadov looks as he did before the war, while Khanpash looks as he does today. Odd. But he is already showing me another photograph of himself with Maskhadov during the present war. Maskhadov is wearing combat fatigues, his beard is very grey, and he looks terrible. Khanpash doesn’t look too chipper either. This one is genuine.

Aren’t you afraid of walking around Moscow with photographs like these? In Chechnya they would shoot you on the spot for the one with Maskhadov. Here they will plant firearms on you and put you in prison for years. He replies, “I am in with Surkov.” Khanpash begins to sound boastful. “After Nord-Ost I visited Surkov. Twice.” (Vladislav Surkov is the influential Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Russia.)

Why?

I was helping him to work out a Chechen policy for Putin. After Nord-Ost.

And were you able to help?

Peace is needed.

That’s an original thought.

I am currently working on peace negotiations for Yastrzhembsky and Surkov. The idea is to negotiate with the fighters hiding in the mountains.

Is that your idea or the Kremlin’s?

Mine, supported by the Kremlin.

Negotiations with Maskhadov?

No. The Kremlin will not agree to negotiate with him.

With whom, then?

With Vakha Arsanov [former Vice-President of Ichkeria, repudiated by Maskhadov]. I have just had a meeting with him.

Where?

There.

But what are you going to do about Maskhadov?

He needs to be persuaded to give up his powers until there is another presidential election in Chechnya.

Are you involved in that too?

Yes, but I haven’t been asked to do that, I’m just doing it on my own. Actually, there may not be an election.

But if we do, nevertheless, live to see an election, who would you put your own money on?

Khasbulatov or Saidullayev. They are a third force. Not on Maskhadov, not on Kadyrov. That’s what I think. After Nord-Ost it was me who organised negotiations between the Deputies of the Chechen Parliament and the Presidential Administration, with Yastrzhembsky.

Yes, that surprised a lot of people, when Isa Temirov together with other Chechen Deputies turned up openly in Moscow, spoke at the famous press conference in the Interfax news agency, and called on people to vote in the referendum. That was a blow against Maskhadov, although previously they had been for him. So you were behind that?

“I was,” he replies proudly.

And did you vote afterwards in the referendum yourself?

“Me? No.” He laughs. “I am from the Charto family teip. They call us Jews in Chechnya.”

Would it be accurate to say that the Nord-Ost tragedy was intended to have the role the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage-taking played [in 1995, a turning point which eventually led to the ending of the First Chechen War], only this time to end the Second Chechen War?

This is not an idle question. It is crucial. Khanpash has a finger in every pie of Russian politics. He knows everybody, he’s accepted everywhere. He’s capable of engineering all kind of twists and turns in the North Caucasus. If you need to bring Maskhadov into play, he will lead you to Maskhadov. You want to exclude Maskhadov? He can fix that too. So, at least, he tells me. But his profession, he says, is acting. He graduated from the Drama Faculty of Grozny University. Never mind that there never was any such faculty, and that he can’t remember the name of his acting teacher, this enables him to claim he is friends with Akhmed Zakayev. “We worked together in the theatre.” In the First War he acquired a video camera and started working in television. He accompanied Basayev on the Budyonnovsk raid, but was not imprisoned for taking part in it. On the contrary, he was amnestied in April 2000.

Where did you get the papers for the amnesty?

In the Argun Office of the Chechen FSB.

This is an important detail. The Argun FSB section has been one of the most dreaded throughout this war. At precisely the time Khanpash was