Said Buryatsky

Who is Said Buryatsky?

Said Buryatsky aka Buryatyali was an Islamist militant leader in the Russian North Caucasus. Buryatsky had been among the most-wanted men in Russia, and he was considered an ideologue leader of the Islamist rebels in Chechnya and southern Russia. He was known in the region as a Russian counterpart of Osama bin Laden. Buryatsky had been identified in YouTube videos, wearing camouflage while preaching radical Islam with an assault rifle.

Buryatsky, whose birth name was Alexander Alexandrovitch Tikhomirov, was born February 10, 1982 in Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia. His father was a Buryat Buddhist, and his mother was a Russian Christian. He reportedly converted to Islam at the age of 15. He studied at a Muslim theological institute in Orenburg, run by one of Russia's official Muslim Spiritual Boards, and then, from 2002-2005, studied in Cairo and Kuwait.

Buryatsky moved to the North Caucasus in late 2007 or early 2008, where he became an important ideologue of the Caucasus Emirate. He criticized Sufi Muslims, critics of the Emirate, and spoke out against the commanders who disagreed with Dokka Umarov.

Buryatsky was reportedly responsible for the reactivation of the Riyadus-Salikhin shahid brigade of suicide bombers originally formed by Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev. He was being investigated for involvement with the 2009 Nevsky Express bombing, leaving 28 dead and 90 wounded; however, he was never brought to trial.