AQ is supporting the Chechens -- there are a lot of Militant Islamicists there.
Militants in Chechnya train for Al-Qaeda experts on satellite technologies
http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/08/05/55330.html
Militants in Chechnya are training for Al-Qaeda experts on terrorist attacks involving satellites technologies, Judge Jean-Louis Bruguieres, member of the Higher Court of France, told US magazine New Yorker. Mr. Bruguieres is responsible for coordinating all investigative activities of the French authorities in the fight against international terrorism.
According to Mr. Bruguieres, Chechnya is beginning to play an ever growing and dangerous role in the "global jihad", with many of Al-Qaeda militants now undergoing training in Chechnya to use high technologies in terrorist acts.
Some of the terrorist groups have equipment to intercept satellite signals, Mr. Bruguieres told the well-known journalist and author Lawrence Wright, who contributed the material to the New Yorker.
By intercepting a satellite signal, terrorists can deal a crushing blow to the telecommunications sector, disrupt the work of electric power transmission lines, and paralyse the capabilities of developed nations to defend themselves, the judge stressed.
If you get a chance, take a gander at "The Connection" by Stephen Hayes. Although he is talking specifically about AQ and Hussein in Iraq, the ties between the different groups become obvious and apply in any situation, including this one. It becomes clear that these guys are all "in bed" with one another, despite different goals among the groups. They all have one goal in common: they hate the West.
Should they (Heaven forbid) succeed in wiping out the evil West, however, I have no doubt they would quickly resume backstabbing, assassinating, and blowing up one another.