Dokka Khamatovich Umarov (13 April 1964-7 September 2013), also known as Dokka Abu Usman, was the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 2006 to 2007, succeeding Abdul-Halim Sadulayev, and the Emir of the Caucasus Emirate from 2007 to 2013, preceding Ali Abu Mukhammad.
Biography[]
Umarov was born in Kharsenoi in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR of the Soviet Union on 13 April 1964 to a Sunni Muslim Chechen family. He fought for Chechen independence in the 1990s under President Aslan Maskhadov, and became a major leader of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria during the Second Chechen War. After the death of President Abdul-Halim Sadulayev, Umarov became the new President of the ChRI, but abolished the title in 2007 and proclaimed himself the leader of the "Caucasus Emirate", uniting Chechnya and neighboring Dagestan under one Muslim banner.
He claimed responsibility for many attacks on Russia fter 2009, including 2010 Moscow metro bombings and the 2011 Domodedovo International Airport bombing. Umarov was the most-wanted man in Russia, compared to Osama bin Laden (he was even called the "Osama Bin Laden of Russia" by the media). On 6 August 2013 he was poisoned while visiting a rebel winter encampment, and he died on 7 September 2013 of the poison. Another theory is that he was killed in an artillery strike.