Suleiman Bekmirzayevich Yamadayev (Russian: Сулейман Бекмирзаевич Ямадаев; 21 June 1973 – 30 March 2009), or simply Sulim Yamadayev (Сулим Ямадаев), was a Chechen military commander. The fourth of six Yamadayev brothers, he fought for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria during the First Chechen War before defecting to Russia during the Second Chechen War, in which he commanded Special Battalion Vostok under Spetsnaz GRU. As such, until 2008, he was officially in command of the biggest pro-Kremlin militia beyond those controlled by Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, who has led Chechnya since 2007. From 1 to 22 August 2008, Yamadayev was wanted on an active federal arrest warrant in Russia, but continued to command Special Battalion Vostok uninterrupted during the Russian invasion of Georgia.
On 5 March 2003, Yamadayev's older brother Dzhabrail was assassinated in a bombing attack. On 24 September 2008, his oldest brother Ruslan was shot dead on Smolenskaya Embankment in Moscow, and though initial press reports identified him as Sulim, the name was later corrected. On 28 March 2009, Yamadayev himself was shot multiple times at an underground parking garage in Dubai; it was believed that he had been killed at the scene, but his younger brother Isa claimed that he had actually been taken to a hospital and died two days later. At the time, Yamadayev had been locked in a year-long power struggle with Kadyrov.
