 Additional reasons not to take the story seriously were that Basayev had been a participant of a rally in Grozny on July 3, 1999, and that Akhmadov didn't know an instance when Shamil Basayev left the North Caucasus in the years after the First Chechen War.According to a press report cited by Timur Muzayev from the International Institute of Humanities and Political Research, speakers at the rally in Grozny on July 3, 1999 included Maskhadov, Shamil Basayev, and Gelayev; these men and others called for reconciliation and unity.Basayev allegedly worked for Russian GRU.