 In April 1998, the group publicly declared that its long-term aim was the creation of a union of Chechnya and Dagestan under Islamic rule and the expulsion of Russians from the entire Caucasian Region.In late 1997, Bagauddin Magomedov, the ethnic Avar leader of the radical wing of the Dagestani Wahhabis (Salafists), fled with his followers to Chechnya.There he established close ties with Al-Khattab and other leaders of Chechnya's Wahhabi community.