Yesterday in Makhachkala, captured militants identified the corpse of perhaps the most authoritative of the Chechen field commanders Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelayev. The well-known militant was eliminated not by the special forces of the GRU or the FSB, but by two young border guards who accidentally met him near his native village. The FSB is convinced that the death of Ruslan Gelayev, who was forming detachments for the Chechen war in Georgia, will have a significant impact on the situation in the republic. The Chechen leadership does not think so. With details - SERGEY Y-DUPIN.
The corpse was guarded by the whole department
“You were exactly three minutes late,” the police officer on duty interrupted the Kommersant correspondent, who called the police station in the village of Bezhta. “Just now, thank Allah, he was sent away. Look, even the "turntable" in the window is visible.
- Who were they sent? Where?
- Gelaeva, to Makhachkala, - the policeman explained. - And glory to Allah, because now I will finally go to bed. After all, the whole day was guarded by almost all personnel.
The policeman, as it turned out, was not talking about the living, but about the dead Ruslan Gelayev. The corpse of the field commander was brought to Bezhta about noon last Sunday. On the same day he was supposed to be sent to Makhachkala, but the ambulance helicopter could not take off due to fog in the mountains, and the evacuation had to be postponed until Monday. Local militiamen could not decide for a long time where to leave the body of Ruslan Gelayev for the night - there was information that the militants would try to recapture it.
In Bezhta, they well remember the last, December meeting with Gelayev's detachment, during which a whole squad of border guards was shot, so the corpse was guarded like a living militant.
The most reliable and fortified place in the village was, of course, the "monkey house" of the local police department, but the officers on duty flatly refused to spend the night in the company of the dead militant. In addition, the police building is heated, which could adversely affect the body. Therefore, a concrete garage-bunker was taken under the morgue, in which there are usually four police "UAZ" cars. The corpse was laid directly on the concrete floor between the cars. Then they closed and sealed the metal doors that had never been closed since the garage was built. A dozen of the most experienced militiamen with machine guns were placed around the perimeter of the courtyard - they did not sleep a wink until the body of the "Black Angel" (Gelayev's call sign on the radio) was taken by the "Black Tulip" (military ambulance helicopter).
“Formally, Gelayev’s corpse remains unidentified,” the Dagestan prosecutor’s office told Kommersant. “We must also carry out a fingerprint and, if necessary, a genetic biological examination. Only when we have expert opinions, we will stop criminal cases against Gelayev in connection with his death and remove his data from the federal and international search bases. In the meantime, Gelayev is legally alive, but actually dead. The fact is that the corpse of the field commander was identified by eight militants who spent the last few years side by side with Gelayev. "
The commander abandoned his
Ruslan Gelayev was identified by militants arrested on charges of shooting the border guards of the Khunzakh border detachment. Let us remind you that last December a brigade of about 60 armed militants under the general leadership of Ruslan Gelayev penetrated from Chechnya into the territory of the Tsuntinsky district of Dagestan. For several days, the militants rested and stocked up on provisions in the village of Shauri, and then their reconnaissance patrol, which included the commander Gelayev, accidentally went to the frontier post. The militants could calmly retreat and hide - it was not difficult to do this at night, in a blizzard, but the Black Angel ordered a fight. Commander Gelayev, according to the arrested, setting an example for them, went out on the road with a Degtyarev machine gun at the ready and riddled the border GAZ-66 - the soldiers sitting in the back were killed without even having time to understand what was happening. The tenth victim of this massacre was a young Avar fighter. Gelayev gave him a bayonet-knife and ordered to cut off the head of his fellow countryman, the wounded commander of the border post, Captain Rahim Khazikov. The militant refused and immediately received a bullet from the Black Angel.
After the execution of border guards against Gelayev and his people, a large-scale military operation began with the involvement of artillery, aviation and armored vehicles. Having divided into detachments, the militants ran for almost a month through the Dagestan mountains, from time to time capturing and liberating small mountain villages. As a result, most of the Gelayevites were killed, some of them managed to escape through the passes to Georgia and Chechnya. Eight bandits from Gelayev's inner circle - the very ones who shot the border guards - were captured.
During the pursuit of militant detachments, representatives of the federal command several times reported on the elimination of Gelayev himself, but in the end he was never found either among the living or among the dead. As it turned out later, the Black Angel eluded the special forces, and at the same time from his subordinates immediately after the execution of the border guards, and all the chases and skirmishes were nothing more than a distracting maneuver of the militants in order to get their commander out of the blow. While the rest froze in mountain caves, perished under avalanches and attacks by federal aviation, actually causing fire on themselves, the Black Angel, with a faithful bodyguard named Bull, sat in a shepherd's barn near the village of Shauri.
The Dagestani operatives still hope to meet with the Bull and the shepherd, the owner of the koshara, who are now on the run, so they asked not to give their names. On Saturday, February 28, presumably Bull and the shepherd took Ruslan Gelayev in a UAZ car to the lower reaches of the Chaekha gorge, which runs from the village of Bezhty to the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia.
There the Black Angel was left alone. Saying goodbye to his accomplices, he moved up the gorge. Having lost all his troops during an unsuccessful Dagestan raid, the commander decided to leave through the passes to the main base in the Pankisi Gorge, where his wives, children and other numerous relatives still live. From Pankisi, we recall, the field commander organized most of his sorties, gathering for them detachments of volunteers from almost all over the CIS. However, this time, the Black Angel could not return to the gorge that had already become native for him.
The last meters on all fours
As they say in the police department of the village of Bezhta, at the same time two 22-year-olds were walking down the Chaekha local residents - Privates Abdulkhalik Kurbanov and Mukhtar Suleimanov. After serving urgently at a small border post that does not even have a name, the guys remained to guard the border under a contract. Since the outpost is located only ten kilometers from their native village, the contractors could afford to run home from time to time - to get food, meet with their girlfriends, and sometimes spend the night on weekends. So it was last Saturday - Abdulkhalik Kurbanov, who got married just a couple of months ago, decided to visit his wife, and the unmarried Mukhtar Suleimanov went to see his friend off.
Perhaps even an experienced border guard would not recognize Khamzat (the Muslim name of Ruslan Gelayev) in a peasant walking towards him. A tousled beard, black Adidas sweatpants with extended knees, a shabby Alaska jacket, knee-high rubber boots and a knitted hat made him look more like a bum than a formidable warlord. How events developed further, now it will never be possible to establish. Most likely, one of the border guards called out or tried to check the documents of the counterpart - in response, an automatic fire was heard. The fire was conducted almost point-blank - apparently, until the last moment Gelayev hid a short-barreled Kalashnikov assault rifle under his jacket, so both border guards immediately fell, bleeding. A bullet hitting the head, Private Suleimanov was killed on the spot. Abdulkhalik Kurbanov, wounded in the chest, managed to fire back. His bullets shattered Gelayev's left elbow and practically severed his arm. But the wounded militant was not stopped. As the Dagestani militiamen say, the death of Private Kurbanov also came from a bullet wound to the head - Gelayev finished him off with two shots at point-blank range. And he shot, holding a machine gun in one hand.
However, the Black Angel himself did not have long to live. The way the field commander spent the last minutes of his life was eloquently testified by the footprints in the snow. Immediately after the execution of the border guards, Gelayev rushed up the gorge, but ran only about fifty meters - his strength was melting with every step, since blood was gushing from the commander's hand. Gelaev fought for life to the last. Judging by the pool of blood, he stopped, cut off left hand and threw her into the snow along with a knife. Then he took out a rubber tourniquet from the first-aid kit, put it on the bleeding stump, took a few more steps, fell, got up again. The Black Angel walked another fifty meters and stopped again. He pulled a can of instant Nescafe out of his pocket and chewed the powder, apparently hoping it would give him strength. Then he took out and took a bite of a bar of Alenka chocolate. The field commander crawled on all fours for the last meters towards the Georgian border. He died in this position with a chocolate bar clenched in his fist. His body was found by militiamen, who went to search for border guards who did not reach their native village. In addition to chocolate and coffee, a piece of dried lamb fat, $ 200, a package of Rollton vermicelli, a notebook with a long list of mobile phone numbers and a map of the Tsuntinsky district of Dagestan, which marked the path of his grouping in December last year, was found in the things of the late commander.
The FSB announced yesterday that the death of Commander Gelayev would have a very significant impact on the situation in the republic. "He not only formed detachments of militants in Georgia, sending them to Chechnya, but also personally led largest operations against federal forces, - noted the Chekists working in Chechnya. - In particular, together with Khattab he led a detachment that attacked a company of paratroopers near Ulus-Kert (today it is four years since those events - Kommersant), then 84 paratroopers were killed. " In turn, the President of Chechnya Akhmat Kadyrov is sure that with the death of Gelayev there will be no fewer terrorist attacks and murders in the republic. “Earlier,” noted Mr. Kadyrov, “Khamzat was indeed a key figure among the militants. However, after the defeat in Komsomolskoye and other unsuccessful raids, Maskhadov demoted him to the rank and file. Thus, there is only one name left from Gelayev, promoted by the media. "
SERGEY B-DUPIN
GELAEV Ruslan(Khamzat) Germanovich(1964-2004) - Chechen terrorist, active participantchechen conflict in the 1990s - 2000s, one of the most famous field commanders of the highest echelon, held high positions in the Armed Forces of the unrecognized CRI, right up to the commander-in-chief armed forces (from May 2002 until his death), held the rank of divisional general. He is also known by his nicknames and radio call signs "Black Angel" and "Old Man".
Born April 16, 1964 in the village. Komsomolskoye in Chechnya. All his education consisted of three classes of a rural school, although there were rumors about his alleged higher education... In the 1980s, after the death of his father, he went to work in the Omsk region, where he married a local resident of Gubkina Larisa Petrovna. In 1988, their son Rustam was born. When Gelaev left for Chechnya, his wife Larissa and her son came there and showed the child to her husband's relatives. She wrote to her native village that she would remain in Chechnya, but with the beginningsecond Chechen war returned. Gelaev worked as a builder, was an employee of the Grozny oil depot, responsible for the sale of petroleum products.
According to the newspaper "Spetsnaz of Russia", By the time of the collapse of the USSR Gelayev had three convictions.
Georgian-Abkhaz conflict
See also: War in Abkhazia (1992-1993)
1992-1993 together withShamil Basayev participated in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict as part of detachmentsConfederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus ... By the end of the war he became one of the most authoritative commanders. Gelayev fought in Abkhazia together with his relative Khamzat Khankarov. In honor of him, he took the name Khamzat. In 1992, he studied under russian officers 345th parachute regiment. Strong, dexterous, hardy and unpretentious Gelayev did well in all military subjects. The battalion commander Khamzat Khankarov appointed him platoon commander.
Gelaev quickly gained a reputation as an excellent fighter and a skillful commander. Soon a company was already under his command. It was then that the style of this field commander was formed: sudden, impetuous strikes to the rear of the Georgian detachments, combined with no less lightning-fast retreats. Gelaev more than once personally silently removed the sentries, cutting their throats. He preferred not to burden himself with prisoners, so as not to lose mobility. Although the militants sometimes doubted whether it was worth shooting the captured Georgians, Gelayev never knew pity.
The brutality of Gelayev became known when the inhabitants of Abkhazia on TV identified him as the leader of the bandits and addressed the checkpoints of the Russian peacekeepers in this regard. In 1995, in response to the Shatoy bombing, he personally executed captured military pilots, throwing them into the abyss.
First Chechen war
Since 1993 he commanded a regiment special purpose « Borz". Returning to Grozny as a winner in 1993, he formed from the veterans of Abkhazia Dudayev's personal guard - the Abkhaz battalion. However, Gelaev soon handed over this unit to Ruslan Labazanov. And he himself began to form and train the first Chechen special forces - the 6th battalion "Borz" ("Wolf"). Jackets with a grinning wolf on the chevrons were worn by both Abkhazian veterans and criminal elements. Having made friends with Salman Raduyev, close to Dudayev, the Siberian poured into his unit the best of Raduev's Presidential berets. As a specialist in petroleum products, Gelayev became Raduev's partner in illegal fuel export. The lion's share of the profits went to Dudayev, but what was left was enough even for business trips abroad: Gelayev twice took part of his fighters to study in Afghan camps. By the end of 1994, the battalion had grown to a regiment bearing the same name and armed with the most modern weapons, and by no means Chechen Borzoi (submachine guns of a primitive design, handcrafted from low-quality steel). A powerful sniper team was even created, which included, in addition to well-aimed Chechens, snipers from the Baltic states.
In May 1995, Gelayev was in charge of the Shatoy defense sector. Gelayev entered the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the armed forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. In 1995, the Borz regiment in the amount of 900 people defended the Shatoisky district. Sniper fire and minefields did not allow the feds to take the city, as well as the villages of Itum-Kala and Khalkina. But the militants were damaged by bombing and rocket attacks. Gelayev announced a large cash bonus to anyone who shoots down a Russian helicopter or plane. In addition, he dispatched small capture teams to hunt down servicemen with blue collar tabs and wings. When a group of prisoners was in his hands russian pilotsGelayev promised the federal command to drop them into the gorge if the missile and bomb strikes did not stop. And he kept his word: after the next raid on Shatoi, the militants pushed the bound officers onto the sharp rocks. The execution scene was filmed with a video camera, and the cassette was thrown to the feds with a promise to execute the rest of the prisoners in the same way. The bombing stopped.
In January 1996, he was appointed commander of the South-Western sector of the CRI Armed Forces. April 16, 1996 together withKhattab arranged an ambush near the village of Yarysh-Mardy in the Argun Gorge, into which a convoy of federal troops from the Moscow Military District fell.
He led the storms of the city of Grozny on March 6-8 and August 6-11 in 1996. During the March assault, Gelayev held out in the city for 3 days and retreated: "The fighting went on for four days, on the fifth the bandits left in an organized manner, taking with them supplies of food, medicine and weapons." The second assault was more extensive; were signed shortly afterKhasavyurt agreements who actually ended the First Chechen War.
Interwar period
In 1998 he performed Hajj to Mecca and adopted an Arabic name Khamzat... According to some reports, in the same 1996 he underwent training in the Khattab camps in Afghanistan. With the support ofSalman Raduev created the organization "Movement of Patriotic Forces", which was in opposition to Maskhadov. In April 1997, appointed Deputy Prime Minister for Territories in the GovernmentZelimkhan Yandarbieva , then Deputy Prime Minister for Construction in the governmentAslana Maskhadova ... In January 1998, he resigned from the post of defense minister in the government of Shamil Basayev, stating that he was not going to become a "wedding general".
In June 1999 he became the head of the Sharia Guard. In July 1999 he was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen government.
Second Chechen war
During Second Chechen War headed the Northwestern Front of the CRI, the Southwestern sector of the defense of Grozny, and then was appointed head of the defense of the entire city. Was accused by Maskhadov of unauthorized termination of the defense of Grozny and the abandonment of the city.
After the fall of Grozny in early February 2000, a large group of Chechen fighters retreated to the Shatoisky region of Chechnya, where it was blocked by federal troops on February 9. Airstrikes were carried out on the positions of the militants using one and a half ton volumetric detonating bombs. Then on February 22-29 followed by groundbattle for Shata... The militants managed to break out of the encirclement: the group of Ruslan Gelayev broke through in the northwestern direction to the village of Komsomolskoye (Urus-Artanovsky district)), and the groupKhattaba - in the northeastern direction through Ulus-Kert (Shatoisky district), where theFight at 776.
According to other allegations, his detachment participated in the formations of Basayev and Khattab in the battle near Ulus-Kert on February 29, 2000. Gelayev is listed among the leaders of the militants.
His connection with the detachment is attributed to the same time.Khachukaeva, who also left Grozny with losses. After leaving Grozny in the winter of 2000, Gelayev was united withA.M. Mezhidovwho became his deputy.
When the main forces of the Gelayev group were concentrated in his ancestral village of Komsomolskoye in March 2000, it was surrounded and blocked by federal troops. On March 5-21, 2000, federal troops beganassault on the village, during which both sides suffered heavy losses. The federal forces lost 50 people killed and 300 wounded, the militants lost more than 500 people killed, and some surrendered. According to the newspaper "Spetsnaz of Russia", Gelaev in Komsomolskoye was supposed to come to the rescueArbi Baraev, but did not do this, in connection with which Gelayev declared him his blood enemy.
After the defeat in Komsomolskoye, being in the same camp in a mountainous and wooded area on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya, Gelayev, together with Mezhidov, decided to move to Georgia for wintering, while Khachukaev remained in Chechnya as “ plenipotentiary"Gelayev. The Gelayevites left for Georgia, settling in the Panki Gorge. Islam Saydayev has a detailed description of Gelayev's meeting with Georgia, in which Saydayev was directly involved.
By the end of 2001, Gelayev was demoted by Maskhadov from a divisional general to a rank-and-file (the rank will be returned after the raid in Abkhazia a year and a half later). In order No. 545 of November 22, 2000, Maskhadov accused Gelayev of cowardice and "mediocre" management of the militants, which entailed heavy casualties during the fighting for the village of Komsomolskoye in March 2000: "Commander southwestern front divisional general Gelaev Khamzat practically withdrew from the performance of his duties, without getting in touch or contact with the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, even through a messenger, again accepted independent decision and under the pretext of preserving forces and organizing forced rest for the fighters, he brought out some of the units and left himself on the territory of a neighboring state, that is, he actually deserted from the combat zone and showed cowardice. "
Raid to Abkhazia
For more on this topic, see:Conflict in the Kodori Gorge (2001) .
In the summer of 2001, Amirs Khyzyr Salpagarov in Karachay-Cherkessia (Karachay Jamaat ) and the Bekkaev brothers in Kabardino-Balkaria were preparing an Islamist armed uprising in their republics, which Gelayev was supposed to support by invading through Abkhazia. However, the uprising was thwarted by a wave of arrests by law enforcement agencies.
September 25, 2001Gelayev with his detachment (about 500 militants) supported the representative of the President of Georgia in the Kodori GorgeEmzaru Kvitsiani, whose detachment invaded the Gulripshsky region of Abkhazia. Georgian and Chechen fighters met fierce resistance from local self-defense forces and were forced to return to their old positions in the upper Kodori Gorge.
It is alleged that this action was the reason for "the first serious aggravation of relations between Russia and Georgia" and after it "Russia was seriously concerned about the problem of Chechens in the Pankisi Gorge." On November 9, 2001, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office sent a request to Georgia to extradite Gelayev.
Since 2001, Gelayev's main base has been located in the Pankisi Gorge.
In May 2002, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Ichkeria.
Doku Umarov recalled how in 2002 Gelayev andMezhidov Abdul-Malik together with Arsanov they refused to take the bayat (oath) to Aslan Maskhadov: "The main speaker was Khamzat Gelayev, who said that we are fighting for the republic, for Ichkeria, and not for Sharia, not for an Islamic state."
In the summer of 2002, information appeared that the President of the CRI Maskhadov called on Gelayev to return to Chechnya and continue fighting... The Izvestia newspaper noted that by that time: "The call sign of Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelayev -" Angel "in Chechnya had not been heard for more than two years, since, during a multi-day operation, federal troops razed the village of Komsomolskoye."
In the summer of 2002, Gelayev's militants broke through from the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia to Chechnya and killed eight Russian border guards in the Kodori Gorge.
Passage from Pankisi to Chechnya
See also: Battle of Galashki (2002)
At the end of August 2002, Georgia launched an anti-criminal operation in the Pankisi Gorge. By the beginning of September 2002, over a thousand militants were concentrated in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia, the leading leader among whom was Gelayev. Those who decided to return to Chechnya managed to penetrate the Russian-Georgian border. From the very beginning they acted in division, and some of them managed to reach Chechnya without hindrance. According to one of the testimonies, the movement of militants from the Pankisi Gorge began no later than early August.
On September 20, the militants appeared near the village of Tarskoye in North Ossetia, where they attacked a federal patrol car that had found them, and then headed to Ingushetia in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Galashki, from where they intended to move to the Chechen village of Bamut. However, after the incident in Tarskoye, the territory where the militants were located was blocked, and on September 24-26, a battle took place near Galasheki. The militants managed to destroy more than 30 military and policemen and even shoot down a Mi-24 helicopter, but they were scattered and partially destroyed, and some of them managed to break into Chechnya in the Bamut region.
In January 2003, the Minister of State Security of Georgia, Valeria Khaburzania, confirmed that a group of Gelayev's militants was in Chechnya, where they had moved from the Pankisi Gorge last year. According to him, “Gelayev left the gorge in August-September,” when Georgia was conducting an anti-criminal operation there.
In July 2003, Akhmat Kadyrov stated that he was negotiating with Gelayev on the laying down of arms, according to Kadyrov, Gelayev “is not connected with the abductions of people, is not connected withYandarbiev and Udugov". At the same time, Izvestia newspaper noted that, according to its information, Gelayev was in the south of Chechnya, where his detachment of 50-70 fighters was operating in the Shatoisky, Itum-Kalinsky and Vedensky districts.
Doom
Main article:Raid on Dagestan
From August to December 2003, Gelayev's detachment made the transition from Ingushetia to the Sharoi region of the Chechen Republic for the subsequent departure to Georgia for wintering. Having managed to group most of his forces by the end of 2003, he made an attempt to go there through Dagestan.
December 15, 2003 Gelayev's detachment (36 militants) was seen crossing the mountainous part of the Tsuntinsky district of Dagestan. A reconnaissance and search group of the Mokok frontier post, consisting of nine servicemen, moved to the indicated area in a GAZ-66 service vehicle. Gelaev, setting an example to his soldiers, went out on the road himself and opened fire from a Degtyarev machine gun at their car. All nine border guards were killed, they also mention that while finishing off the wounded, Gelayev also shot his fighter, who refused to take part, along the way: “The tenth victim of this massacre was a young Avar fighter. Gelayev gave him a bayonet-knife and ordered to cut off the head of his fellow countryman, the wounded commander of the border post, Captain Rahim Khazikov. The militant refused ... ". Then the militants entered the village of Shauri, and then crossed over to the neighboring Gagatli. An operation was launched against the militants, being surrounded by federal troops, they split up and tried to hide, but during the fierce fighting that lasted several weeks, most of the detachment was destroyed. Information appeared about the destruction of Gelayev, but then it was refuted.
With the defeat of the detachment, after sitting for several days with a bodyguard in the kennel with a trusted shepherd, Gelayev made an attempt to get to Georgia alone.
On February 28, 2004 Gelayev was killed in a clash with a squad border troops RF near the frontier post "Engenoy" of the third GRU OBRON detachment. Gelayev accidentally stumbled upon two Dagestani border guards, whom he shot during a shootout, however, he himself was seriously wounded in the arm and, bleeding, overcame several hundred meters, sat down by a tree and cut off his wounded arm. Within minutes, he died of blood loss and painful shock. On February 29, 2004, Gelayev's body was discovered by a detachment of border guards sent in search of the missing soldiers.
“The death of Gelayev, of course, turned out to be a significant loss for the Chechen“ irreconcilable ”. He was one of the last representatives of the "old guard", known personally to many international terrorists, up toOsama bin Laden and who received money from them. " “Gelayev was one of the last living“ odious ”field commanders. After the crushing defeat in the village of Komsomolskoye in 2000, he had little influence on the situation in Chechnya ”(Izvestia newspaper, January 19, 2004).
However, the President of ChechnyaAkhmat Kadyrov said at the time: “Earlier Khamzat was indeed a key figure among the militants. However, after the defeat in Komsomolskoye and other unsuccessful raids, Maskhadov demoted him to the rank and file. Thus, there is only one name left from Gelayev, promoted by the media ”.
Characteristic
President of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, who died at the hands of terrorists more than once stated that he was negotiating with Ruslan, because he considered him not a fanatic, but quite "a sane person who was tired of fighting and wanted to return to a peaceful life." In 2002, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze noted that Gelayev, in his opinion, is an "acceptable person" for Russia.
It was noted that he did not specialize in terrorist acts, and practically did not engage in kidnapping for ransom, raising money in other ways.
Unlike most field commanders, Gelayev was a supporter of an honest armed struggle with the "occupation troops", and not with Russian inhabitants, and condemned the mine war.
It was asserted that he had established independent at one time (through the head of Khattab) contacts with Osama bin Laden.
According to one of the characteristics, he possessed "excessive conceit, due to which he, by definition, could not take second roles", for him "any subordinate position would be absolutely unacceptable."
“Those who knew Khamzat characterize him as a noble, courageous, the highest degree a pious and God-fearing Muslim, ”wrote the“ Caucasian Bulletin ”after his death.
Son Rustam
According to separatist sources, on August 12, 2012, 24-year-old Rustam Ruslanovich Gelayev, who since June 2012 has sided with the rebels duringsyrian civil war , was killed in one of the clashes with the government army. According to some reports, as a result of severe wounds inflicted by fragments of a grenade that exploded next to him. According to other sources, he was shot on the spot after being taken prisoner by the forces of law and order.
According to relatives, Rustam was in Syria studying and, along with other Islamic students, was killed by shrapnel in a mosque that came under fire from government forces.
The SyrianTube page on facebook.com contains a video of Rustam Gelayev's injury and death.
Based on materials from Wikipedia
He threw aside his left hand and, like a seasoned wolf, crawled towards the Georgian border, biting a bar of Alenka chocolate on the way. Even in the last moments of his life, Ruslan Gelayev, better known as the "Black Angel", continued to fight for his life and died like a real man.
Many readers will try to reproach me for being overly pathetic in describing the last moments of his life, but the Russian military has always respected worthy enemies who did not engage in rats and looting, did not trade in the lives of civilians and did not destroy their fellow tribesmen. Not in vain Akhmat Kadyrov He tried with all his might to persuade Ruslan Gelayev to peace, the population of Chechnya called him "The Old Man", and local bards composed songs about him.
Learned to fight with Russian paratroopers
Like most of the field commanders of the "independent republic of Ichkeria", Ruslan Gelayev began his military career in 1992-1993 in Abkhazia, where, together with Shamil Basayev fought against Georgia on the side of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus.
The 28-year-old man persistently studied military affairs from the officers of the 345th Parachute Regiment, adopting the tricks of the strategy and tactics of conducting a sabotage and reconnaissance war. He was able to rise to the position of deputy battalion commander, showing himself excellently in a number of armed clashes.
Returning to Grozny, Ruslan Gelayev met with the leader of the republic Dzhokhar Dudaev and created the "Abkhaz battalion" from the veterans, distinguished by the excellent training of the fighters and their personal loyalty to the commander.
However, Gelayev did not command this battalion for long, since he was created to form a full-fledged special forces battalion, which later became a regiment. The regiment was named "Borz" - "Wolf" in Chechen. For many years, chevrons with a grinning wolf terrified the inhabitants of the republic and aroused hatred among Russian conscripts, who were the first to fight with seasoned fighters who underwent regular training in the camps of the Afghan mujahideen.
Participation in the 1st and 2nd Chechen wars
In May 1995, Ruslan Gelayev with his "Wolves" defended the Shatoisky region of the republic and did it so skillfully that the security forces had practically nothing to oppose him except for air strikes. Civilians very often became victims of air strikes, and Ruslan Gelayev suggested that the federal command stop bombing, otherwise all captured pilots would be destroyed. He kept his word, personally knocking several pilots of downed planes and helicopters into the abyss, and sent a video of the terrible execution to the leadership of the Russian Federation.
It was Gelayev who led the two assaults of Grozny in 1996. He was able to capture the capital of the republic and held out for three days. Realizing that further resist power russian army impossible, he retreated in an organized manner into the mountains, taking with him ammunition, medicines and the necessary amount of food.
During the second Chechen war, Ruslan Gelayev defended Grozny, but under the onslaught of federal forces his group withdrew to the Shatoisky district, where it ended up in a carefully prepared cauldron. Throughout almost all of February 2000, the systematic extermination of militants went on, for which they even used volumetric detonating bombs, each of which weighed about one and a half tons.
Here Gelaev showed the knowledge he had received from Russian paratroopers in due time, as well as his talent as a strategist. With the help of distracting blows, the "Black Angel" managed to break through the encirclement and lead most of its people to the village of Komsomolskoye, Urus-Martan District
The federal command, determined to put an end to Ruslan Gelayev once and for all, organized an even tighter encirclement of the village. From 5 to 21 March, fierce battles were fought for control of Komsomolskoye, during which more than 500 militants were killed. But even here the hardened wolf managed to escape, taking some of his people to Abkhazia.
Preparing for a new war
For the summer of 2001, Islamic extremists planned to conduct uprisings in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, and Gelayev was to support the militants with an unexpected blow from Abkhazia. But then the FSB officers finally showed their abilities, who, after conducting a series of pinpoint arrests, thwarted the terrorists' plans.
In the fall of 2002, Georgia launched an anti-terrorist operation in the Pankisi Gorge, which became the base of several detachments of up to one thousand Chechen fighters. Gelayev, who sensed danger by his nose, managed to cross with his people to the territory of North Ossetia, defeating one of the border outposts.
Russian security forces almost instantly blocked the area, preparing a major military operation. But the hardened wolf Gelaev broke through the cordons and went to the native mountains of Chechnya. Along the way, the militants managed to shoot down an almost invulnerable Mi-24 combat helicopter, which was their last victory.
Throughout 2003, special forces of the FSB and army intelligence chased a small detachment of Gelayevites (about 50-70 people), but he managed to constantly elude the pursuit. According to unofficial information, Akhmat Kadyrov, who was head of Chechnya at that time, repeatedly offered Gelayev to lay down his arms, guaranteeing immunity (and the word of a man in this republic is valued above all else). But Ruslan, who by that time had adopted the religious name Khamzat, did not want to negotiate with a man whom he considered an enemy.
Sunset glory and life
The last page in the history of this field commander began at the end of November 2003, when the detachment led by him tried to return to Georgia, but did not manage to pass the Batsy-Butsa pass, which had been covered with snow by that time. It turned out that Ruslan Gelayev, many times avoiding the ambushes of opponents, led his people into a natural trap - as if the ancient Caucasus itself was tired of his raids.
On the night of December 15, 2003, Gelayev's detachment, consisting of 36 fighters, received the last fight, and was completely defeated, and some of the terrorists were forced to surrender. When the security forces examined the place of the battle the next morning, they did not manage to find the body of Ruslan-Khamzat, who again deceived the military who were hunting him. He literally disappeared - as it turned out, hiding with a local shepherd.
The next news about Gelayev appeared only on February 28, 2004, when, while trying to cross the Russian-Georgian border, he accidentally ran into two Dagestani border guards. By and large, the guys had no chances in the fight against such a serious opponent. But in a short battle, before dying, one of them managed to fire an accurate burst, shattering the elbow of the Black Angel's left hand.
Defeat yourself
A seasoned wolf, trapped in a hunter's trap, bites off its paw to preserve life and freedom. Ruslan Gelayev did the same, cutting off his left arm without anesthesia, which prevented him from moving and threatened with blood poisoning with subsequent gangrene. He applied a tourniquet on his own, trying to stop the bleeding. Then, to support the dwindling forces, he chewed some Nescafe instant coffee, bit off a piece of Alenka chocolate bar (all this is not an advertisement, but fragments of the official report of the Federal border service) and went on. Even when he could not walk from blood loss, he continued to move on his knees. From the place of the fall, he managed to crawl about 50 meters more before he lost consciousness from blood loss and died.
The border guards who arrived at the scene of the battle found the body of the "Black Angel", frozen in motion, leaning on the only remaining hand, in which there was a piece of milk chocolate. Until his last breath, he crawled forward, towards freedom, as a seasoned wolf - or, in Chechen, a greyhound - would have done.
* * *
This article is not intended to idealize one of the leaders of the Chechen separatists, but this person cannot be ignored. Despite the fact that Ruslan Gelayev remained an enemy of the Russians until the last moments of his life, he was not noticed in looting, kidnapping and trafficking in people, and enjoyed indisputable authority among the local population.
He was a very serious adversary, worthy of real respect, and the higher the merit of ordinary conscripts, border guards and soldiers of the Russian special forces, who were able to defeat him, restoring peace in Chechnya.
Ruslan (Khamzat) Germanovich Gelaev (April 16, 1964, Komsomolskoye village, Chechnya - February 28, 2004, near the Bezhta village, Dagestan) - Chechen terrorist; an active participant in the Chechen conflict in the 1990s - 2000s on the side of the separatists, "one of the most famous field commanders of the highest echelon," the newspaper Spetsnaz Rossii noted after his death, held high positions in the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, right up to until the commander-in-chief of the armed forces (from May 2002 until his death), he held the rank of divisional general. He is also known by his nicknames and radio call signs "Angel", "Black Angel" and "Old Man".
Biography
The education he received consisted of three classes in a rural school, although there were rumors about his alleged higher education.
In the 1980s, after the death of his father, he left to work in the Omsk region, where he married a local resident of Gubkina Larisa Petrovna. In 1988, their son Rustam was born (died in Syria in 2012). When Gelaev left for Chechnya, his wife Larissa and her son came there and showed the child to her husband's relatives. She wrote to her native village that she would stay in Chechnya, but returned with the start of the second Chechen war. Gelaev worked as a builder, was an employee of the Grozny oil depot, responsible for the sale of petroleum products.
According to the newspaper Spetsnaz Rossii, by the time of the collapse of the USSR Gelayev had three convictions - two for robbery and one for rape.
Since the early 1990s, he began to call himself the Islamic name Khamzat.
Georgian-Abkhaz conflict
In 1992-1993, together with Shamil Basayev, he participated in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict as part of the detachments of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus. By the end of the war he became one of the most authoritative commanders. Gelayev fought in Abkhazia together with his relative Khamzat Khankarov. In honor of him, he took the name Khamzat. In 1992, he trained under the guidance of Russian officers of the 345th Parachute Regiment. Gelayev showed success in military disciplines. The battalion commander Khamzat Khankarov appointed him platoon commander.
The brutality of Gelayev became known when the inhabitants of Abkhazia on TV identified him as the leader of the bandits and addressed the checkpoints of the Russian peacekeepers in this regard. In 1995, in response to the Shatoy bombing, he personally executed captured military pilots, throwing them into the abyss.
First Chechen war
Since 1993 he commanded the Borz special-purpose regiment. Returning to Grozny as a winner in 1993, he formed from the veterans of Abkhazia Dudayev's personal guard - the Abkhaz battalion. However, Gelayev soon handed over this unit to Ruslan Labazanov. And he himself began to form and train the first Chechen special forces - the 6th battalion "Borz" ("Wolf"). Jackets with a grinning wolf on the chevrons were worn by both Abkhazian veterans and criminal elements. Having made friends with Salman Raduyev, close to Dudayev, the Siberian poured into his unit the best of Raduev's Presidential berets. As a specialist in petroleum products, Gelayev became Raduev's partner in illegal fuel export. The lion's share of the profits went to Dudayev, but what was left was enough even for foreign business trips: Gelayev twice brought some of his fighters to study in Afghan camps. By the end of 1994, the battalion had grown to a regiment bearing the same name and armed with the most modern weapons, and by no means Chechen Borzoi (submachine guns of a primitive design, handcrafted from low-quality steel). A powerful sniper team was even created, which included, in addition to well-aimed Chechens, snipers from the Baltic states.
Doku Umarov, who was a distant relative of Doku Umarov, who later became the first Emir of the Caucasus Emirate, recalled that when he came to Chechnya before the war began, he immediately went to Gelaev: “I came to him in a Mercedes, in shoes and with a cigarette in my mouth and offered my help ... Gelayev looked at me and asked if I was praying? "
In May 1995, Gelayev was in charge of the Shatoi defense sector. Gelayev entered the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the armed forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. In 1995, the Borz regiment in the amount of 900 people defended the Shatoisky district. Sniper fire and minefields did not allow the feds to take the city, as well as the villages of Itum-Kala and Khalkina. But the militants were damaged by bombing and rocket attacks. Gelayev announced a large cash bonus to anyone who shoots down a Russian helicopter or plane. In addition, he dispatched small capture teams to hunt down servicemen with blue collar tabs and wings. When a group of captured Russian pilots ended up in his hands, Gelayev promised the federal command to drop them into the gorge if the missile and bomb attacks did not stop. And he kept his word: after another raid on Shatoi, the militants pushed the bound officers onto the sharp rocks. The scene of the execution was filmed with a video camera, and the cassette was thrown to the feds with a promise to execute the rest of the prisoners in the same way. The bombing stopped.