ISIS member Anatoly Zemlyanka dubbed the Russian Jihadi John revealed
- Anatoly Zemlyanka, 28, beheaded countryman Magomed Khasiev in Syria
- Born in Noyabrsk, Zemlyanka brought up Christian and converted to Islam
- Ex-teacher described him as very ordinary, adding ‘He wasn’t a hooligan’
- Zemlyanka, on Russia’s federal wanted list, went to Syria with a girlfriend
GeorgiaNewsday: The ISIS executioner who beheaded a suspected Russian spy in Syria was ‘a bad student’, his former school teacher said today.Anatoly ‘Tolya’ Zemlyanka is being dubbed ‘Jihad Vlad’ after he murdered countryman Magomed Khasiev – and declared war on Moscow.Zemlyanka, 28, told Russia president Vladimir Putin: ‘Here today, on this blessed land, the battle [against Russia] begins. We shall kill your children for every child you’ve killed here.’
School days: The ISIS executioner who beheaded a fellow Russian has been named as Anatoly Zemlyanka, pictured here at school. His former teacher described him as ‘bad pupil’
Unmasked: The Russian jihadi, 28-year-old Zemlyanka, features in a gruesome video of the beheading of Magomed Khasiev, who was accused of being a spy
Born in Noyabrsk, 230 miles south of the Arctic Circle, Zemlyanka is the son of an Orthodox Christian mother who ran a kitchenware shop while he was growing up.
Svetlana Zemlyanka, 53, who had at least one other son, closed the store selling cutlery, crockery, glassware and ceramics, three years ago.
A former teacher at Noyabrsk’s school number three described Zemlyanka as an unremarkable pupil whose exam results were ‘satisfactory at very best’.
‘He was a bad student. His average score was, let’s say, unsatisfactory or, at the very best, satisfactory,’ they said.
‘He wasn’t a hooligan, quite the opposite, demure, and very ordinary.’
Zemlyanka, who is on Russia’s federal wanted list, is said to have become a Muslim and founded a local Islamic organisation called Iskhan, which was banned by a court order.
He attended Thai boxing classes for two years before he left for Syria, reportedly with a girlfriend.
Local coach Oleg Zinner at Baylun sports club, said: ‘He wasn’t a regular. He came from to time. He is a handsome tall guy, very muscular, but as a sportsman he turned out to be quite weak, rotten.
‘Other guys would pull themselves together after a defeat, and rush to fight back. But he wasn’t that kind. Not a fighter’s character. He would come time to time, sometimes he wouldn’t be seen for a while.’
Zemlyanka became Russia’s most wanted this week when he murdered Chechen loyalist Khasiev as he knelt next to a lake near what is thought to be the ISIS de-facto capital, Raqqa.
Khasiev was born in Chelyabinsk, in the Russian Urals mountains but orphaned aged nine and raised by adoptive parents in Chechnya.
The following year he became a Muslim and went on to study law at Maykop Polytechnic college, in the small Russian region of Adygea.
Khasiev – born Yevgeny Yudin before taking the name of his adoptive mother – is said to have ended up in Syria after being recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB.
In February last year he was caught in possession of prescription medication, lyrica pills, and was known to have links to drug dealers. Khasiev is said to have done a deal with the FSB to avoid prosecution, it is claimed.
He was then sent to ISIS via Turkey and given the intelligence services information from behind enemy lines.
Khasiev’s adoptive mother has told how she rescued him from an orphanage and gave him a new life in Chechnya – but also how he defied her opposition to him travelling to Syria.
Fighter: Russia now its own version of Jihadi John, the British executioner who featured in several sickening films and who was believed to have been killed recently in an American strike in Syria
Family: Mother of Zemlyanka, Svetlana, who is an orthodox Christian and used to run a kitchenware shop
‘Bad student’: A former teacher of Zemlyanka (circled) described him as ‘unsatisfactory’ as well as ‘demure, and very ordinary’
The FSB has not given details on whether Khasiev was spying on terrorists and reporting back to Moscow.
Sources have played down the claims without issuing an outright denial.
It was also revealed Khasiev – who posted pictures of grenades on his social site – had a half brother called Alexey who serves in the Russian military potentially fighting the terrorist threat.
Khasiev’s mother Markha Khasiyeva said: ‘He lost his parents when he was a child, and was put in an orphanage, Gvardeysky orphanage where we took him from.’
She was childless and raised the Chelyabinsk-born orphan with her elderly father.
‘We really liked him: he was an honest, good, kind, thoughtful boy,’ she said.
‘In school he had a lot of good friends.’
‘Today we found out about his feats. We’re shocked, I even have nothing to say.’
She said: ‘I lived with my old father, and he decided that there should be someone to look after me when I get old, as I was looking after him.
‘He made a decision to adopt him and even gave him his name. My father loved him a lot.
‘My older family and I always stood up for him.
‘We never betrayed him.
‘He was honest, very honest. I trusted him.’
Undercover: Magomed Khasiev, pictured, was rescued by his adoptive mother from an orphanage and given a new life in Chechnya
Orphan: Khasiev’s (pictured) adoptive mother Markha Khasiyeva said that she knew nothing of her son being with ISIS, or whether or not he was working as a spy
She revealed that he had been in contact less with her the past year or so, saying he deliberately did not tell her about going to Syria, knowing she would not approve.
‘We stayed in touch while he was studying,’ she said.
‘The last time I saw him in summer… autumn, when he came to see us.’
Asked if she knew he had travelled to join terrorists fighters – whether or not he was working for the FSB in doing so – she said: ‘No, of course we didn’t know.
‘He was afraid even to talk about it, he never ever said anything about it. Of course, how would he say that? He knows I am against all such things so he hasn’t told me. He always said, ‘You will never be ashamed of me. Whatever you hear, I’ll never blacken your family’.
‘I just found out about it. I couldn’t believe it.
‘My neighbour told me.’
She watched the video but not the hideous footage showing the execution.
‘He introduced himself there – name, family name, who was he working as, I saw this but I didn’t see how he was killed,’ she said.
‘We stayed in touch as long as we could.
‘Until he made us understand that it shouldn’t be done.’
‘Spy’: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov admitted today that Khasiev could indeed have been an informer for Russian secret services
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said today Khasiev could have been an informer for Russian secret services – while laying blame for his capture and murder with the West – claiming: ‘We can say with some certainty that in this case there is a trace of the CIA.’
The ally of Vladimir Putin claimed that ‘Western intelligence agencies’ share with the leadership of the Islamic State ‘data on persons who can perform certain tasks’ for the Moscow secret services.
‘The murder of Magomed Khasiev is a propaganda campaign by Ibliss gang (ISIS) and their patrons among Western intelligence agencies,’ he said.
