Tears welled as the young terrorist declared he had taken hundreds of innocent people hostage and would die a martyr unless the Kremlin halted the war in Chechnya.
It was the first time Mr Barayev had seen the interview I conducted with his son Movsar during the Moscow theatre siege seven years ago.
Movsar, who led about 40 Chechen terrorists, had captured more than 800 theatre-goers. Two days after I entered the building to speak to him, he and his gunmen were dead, killed by Russian special forces. At least 129 hostages also died.
"I'm proud of my son -- he died a martyr for his country," said Mr Barayev, who lost 25 relatives, including two brothers, in Chechnya's wars with Russia. "But taking innocent people hostage was a mistake. I didn't support that. It was a wrong and pointless act that would achieve nothing. However, that's no reason to stop loving him. He acted out of despair."
Mr Barayev, 56, has devoted most of his life to the cause of an independent Chechnya, but in a remarkable change of heart, he has switched sides to support Ramzan Kadyrov, 33, the ruthless, pro-Kremlin President of Chechnya. The President, who is fiercely loyal to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, telephoned Mr Barayev in Austria, where he had spent 10 years in exile, to ask him back and guarantee his safety.
Mr Kadyrov, whose security forces have been repeatedly accused of abducting, torturing and murdering his opponents, greeted Mr Barayev at the airport and drove him to his home for a banquet. He gave him a Volga car and is said to be helping him financially.
Source: The Australian
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