Shamil Basayev was a Chechen Jihadist terrorist who fought against the Russian government of Vladimir Putin. He was responsible for many terrorist outrages, including the Moscow theatre siege of 2002 and The Beslan school siege of 2004. He had close links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban and, like his ally, Al Khattab, he had a vicious hatred of Christians. In July 2006, he was killed by Russian forces.