The first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin reported that in Chechnya do not fight the locals and the Arabs. In an interview with 47news said the film Director Alexander Sokurov.
According to him, one day he asked Yeltsin a question of how he evaluates the armed conflict in Chechnya — as a rebellion or a national liberation movement. “He said: "As the national-liberation!" And he did not realize that 80 percent of the male population under arms,” said the filmmaker.
he also remembered that Yeltsin was surprised when I heard from him. “And Boris is surprised: "And I say, there are Arabs". No, Boris, where do you take so many Arabs?” — added the Director.
When this discussion, he said.
During the first and second wars in Chechnya on the side of the unrecognized Republic of Ichkeria fought both locals and foreign mercenaries, including Arab origin. So, during the first Chechen campaign, according to open sources, controlled by Dzhokhar Dudayev forces amounted to 15 thousand people, mercenaries were among them, according to different data, from one to five thousand, while the Arabs were not more than a few hundred.
