SHAMIL BASAYEV, a Chechen warlord and Russia’s most wanted terrorist, was sitting in the corner of a grotty ground-floor flat in Grozny that had been converted into a makeshift bunker. Blood oozed from his left foot, which had recently been hit by a Russian sniper. But he ignored the injury and welcomed me as though we were old friends, recalling a scrape we had survived together two years before and adapting a quote by Winston Churchill about never trusting the Russians.

Outside, scores of recently captured Russian prisoners were being corralled by Chechen fighters, who on Basayev’s orders drove me through the city in a commandeered Russian Volga limousine that had been hot-wired and used as a staff car. Before I left, the rebel chieftain insisted on writing a pass to give me free access to the newly liberated city. He then produced a rubber stamp and inkpad from his combat jacket and, with a flourish, made the document official.

In the summer of 1996, after Basayev led the recapture of Grozny in a lightning assault, it was easy to be charmed by the man who is suspected of masterminding this week’s bloody hostage siege.

He may look like an Islamic militant with his shaved head and bushy black beard but he is softly spoken and shy with strangers. The real force of his character is revealed when he is among his men. Burly guerrillas from the mountains cower in his presence. They fear and respect him in equal measure and are prepared, and often asked, to sacrifice their lives for him.

When the latest attack unfolded this week, the Russian authorities knew that it had all the makings of a Basayev operation. Even though two of his field commanders, Doku Umarov and Magomed Yevloyev, are thought to have led the Chechen fighters into the school, the planning and orders are thought to have came from Basayev, who now heads a self-styled Islamic guerrilla force.

This year he is blamed for the killing of the pro-Kremlin President of Chechnya and then leading a raiding party into neighbouring Ingushetia, where more than 90 people were killed as the Chechen raiders made off with guns and ammunition.

His “black widows”, the Chechen women suicide bombers under his command, are also accused of blowing up two Russian civilian passenger aircraft last week and exploding a bomb outside a Moscow Metro station. He has also attracted foreign fighters to his cause, mainly volunteers from the Middle East and Central Asia, who are thought to have taken part in the school raid.

Previously, Basayev claimed responsibility for taking hundreds of people hostage at the Dubrovka theatre in Moscow two years ago, where 129 died in a botched rescue attempt. He conducted a similar operation in person nine years ago when 1,000 hostages were held at a hospital in Buddenovsk in southern Russia.

To some extent the Russians bear at least some responsibility for Basayev’s ruthless career. After dropping out of a land management course in Moscow and attempting to launch a career as a computer salesman, the young Chechen volunteered to help to defend Boris Yeltsin at the White House during the communist coup attempt in 1991. The Russians spotted his talent as a guerrilla leader and helped him and a band of Chechen fighters to join forces with rebels in Abkhazia during their successful separatist campaign against Georgia in 1992.

When the Chechens returned home, however, they took their combat skills with them and a renewed desire for independence from Russia.

As the head of security for Dzhokar Dudayev, Chechnya’s first President, Basayev quickly became an important figure in a nation where military skills are valued above all else. When the Kremlin tried to stamp out the rebellion in December 1994 it was Basayev who led the defence of Grozny, which fell after a bitterly fought siege that reduced the capital to rubble.

During this postwar period of guerrilla attacks and Russian retaliation, 11 members of Basayev’s family were killed in his home village of Vedeno. From that moment he began the transition from Chechen nationalist to Islamic militant, with links to al-Qaeda and other foreign groups.

Basayev led the recapture of Grozny in 1996 and even had a brief political career. When the country was allowed to run its own affairs he swapped his fatigues for a business suit and ran for president.

But the restless guerrilla commander could not adapt to peace. More than anyone he was responsible for undermining Chechnya’s independence and provoking a new confrontation with Russia, triggered in part by his mini-invasion of neighbouring Daghestan, where he tried to impose strict Islamic law.

Once again Russian forces attacked Grozny and this time Basayev lost a foot as he led his dwindling band of followers across a minefield in January 2002. From his mountain stronghold, he has since emerged as the chief mastermind of scores of attacks inside Russia.

The raid on the school in Beslan horrified Russia and shocked the world. More disturbing is the thought that as long as Basayev remains at large he will be planning his next operation.

A LIFE OF REBELLION

2004 Claims responsibility for killing Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov. Shown on website leading bloody raid into neighbouring Ingushetia. Accused of masterminding Beslan school siege

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