Basayev said Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally responsible for that killing. According to the Chechen warlord, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev had nothing to do with the events in Dagestan and the Moscow theater siege in October 2002.

In his letter, Basayev said his rebels would not attack nursery schools, orphanages, psychiatric institutions, mosques, synagogues, pagodas, or churches other than Russian Orthodox churches, in Russia. "We will, to the extent possible, bomb, blow up, poison, set ablaze, and organize natural gas explosions and fires on everything else," he said.

Basayev also threatened that people over 10 years old would disappear in Russia in 2004. “I officially state that Russian forces are using chemical weapons and poisons against us... That is why we reserve the right to use chemical and toxic substances and the same poisons against Russia," he said.

Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs puts the entire responsibility for future events on Russian territory on Vladimir Putin “because he refuses to observe international law in the occupied territory of Ichkeria”, the letter concludes.