By Robert Coalson At a meeting of the Forum of Free Peoples of Russia held in Prague on July 22-24, 2022. Share Print In October, Chechen native Rustam Azhiyev – known by the nom de guerre Abdul-Khakim Shishani – traveled to Ukraine and joined an all-Chechen unit fighting with Kyiv against the Russian invasion. Now 41, he has been waging war against Russia since he was 19, and he views the conflict in Ukraine as just a continuation of the cause he took up then. “In 1999, the war began,” Azhiyev said, referring to the Second Chechen War, during which he rose to become commander of the central front for the unrecognized separatist state of Ichkeria – and Vladimir Putin, then Russia’s little-known new prime minister, played the leading role in Moscow. “And in 2000, at 19, I joined the popular resistance. All my life has been tied to the confrontation with Russia. “For us, the war is not over,” he added. Rustam Azhiyev Azhiyev left Russia for Turkey in 2011, but soon found hims...