Yesterday we reported about how the financial crisis might effect Russia’s hold on the north Caucasus, including Chechnya. Less money, it seems, could mean less loyalty from a propped-up, pro-Kremlin government all too capable of collapse.

But another barometer of Chechnya’s near future is in its former freedom fighters, some of whom are returning home from exile abroad. Will they again pick up arms, or reintegrate into a Kremlin proxy state? Most notable is Bukhari Barayev, the father of the man responsible for the 2002 seizure of 900 hostages from a Moscow theatre, who has returned to Chechnya after many years living in Vienna, where he was a European envoy for the Chechen rebels.

Vienna, of course, was the site of the recent murder of Umar Israilov, the former body guard to Chechnya’s pro-Kremlin President, Ramzan Kadyrov. But although Barayev allegedy accused Kadyrov of murder for Israilov’s death, apparently he wants to put his fighting days behind him, which one report says could be “a substantial propaganda boost” for Kadyrov.

“I don’t want to be on the side of those people whose names will be eternally cursed by my people,” Barayev said, according to a statement from Kadyrov’s office. He asked the rebels to “unite with your people and begin a peaceful life.”