The militants who attacked the Crocus were armed by Batalhajians

On October 14, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized the Batalhaja community, which supplied weapons to the militants who attacked Crocus City Hall, as a terrorist organization and banned its activities in Russia. Kirill Solodkov, a correspondent for Izvestia, spoke about how a closed religious brotherhood turned into an extensive criminal network.

Luxurious palaces, expensive foreign cars, and stashes of cash, machine guns, and explosives — this is what the inside of the Batalhaj community looks like. Behind the facade of a peaceful religious brotherhood, there was a criminal empire with its own treasury, people in power, and armed militants.

Murders, kidnappings, and links with the Caucasus Emirate, which is banned in Russia (recognized as an extremist and terrorist organization). The influence of this closed totalitarian sect has long gone beyond the North Caucasus.

Among those involved in criminal cases are officials, deputies, major businessmen and even judges. Some provided influence in offices and immunity, while others provided firepower and support for terrorists.

It is to the adherents of the Batal Haji cult that the threads of the bloodiest terrorist attacks stretch. 2004 - the attack on Ingushetia. 2009 — the bombing of the Nevsky Express. Dozens of dead.

During the assault by federal forces, the ideologue of these attacks, Said Buryatsky (listed as a terrorist and extremist by Rosfinmonitoring), was hiding in the house of one of the prominent members of the Batalhaj group. The security forces then eliminated eight militants, including the Kartoev brothers, who supplied weapons to the bandit underground.

The Batalhajians brutally dealt with those who stood in their way. In November 2019, in Moscow, a killer shot dead the head of the Ingush Center "E" Ibrahim Eldzharkiev.

"Belkhoroev's followers are involved in many terrorist crimes. The goals and actions of the community are aimed at promoting, justifying and supporting terrorism," said Juliana Alekseeva, an official representative of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.

According to the investigation, it was the Batalhajians who supplied weapons to the militants who staged a bloody massacre in Moscow's Crocus City Hall.

"I helped Batyr with the overnight stay, I helped him with the car, I took him wherever he wanted, wherever he asked. The weapons he was selling turned out to be in the hands of the terrorists at Crocus City Hall," the detainee said.

Many members of the community managed to escape justice abroad and from there led the remnants of the underground network. The founder's great—grandson, the late Ilyas Belkhoroev, openly admitted in Ukraine that the tribute collected from ordinary members of the sect was directed to support armed groups fighting as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"I was tasked with supplying the battalion," he stated.

Despite the regular arrests of gang members, it proved extremely difficult to completely destroy the organization. Witnesses were intimidated or eliminated, and the closed nature of the organized crime group almost precluded the possibility of implementation and operational work. The evidence was collected bit by bit.

The combat wing of the Batalhajians has been illegal since 2023, but this is only a small part of their large-scale structure. Banning the entire organization would disrupt financial, criminal, and political ties that have been building for years.

For any participation in the activities of the Batalhajians, you can now get serious sentences.

"Actions related to financing, management or any other assistance to community leaders and members entail criminal liability and punishment up to life imprisonment," said Svetlana Petrenko, an official representative of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

The criminal citadel, which has been built brick by brick for so long, is now under the direct gun of law enforcement officers. Investigators will have to unravel the remaining criminal ties and bring to justice those who have been hiding under the guise of religious brotherhood for years.

From religion to terror: how the Batalkhadzhins turned into the largest shadow force in Ingushetia

Members of the community are accused of supplying weapons, contract killings and extortion.

On the same day, the FSB of Russia reported that it was members of the community who helped the Ukrainian special services organize the terrorist attack in which Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed. They replenished the criminal treasury with the usual bandit methods — robbery and murder.