14 Facts About Said-Magomed Kakiyev

Said-Magomed Shamaevich Kakiyev is a colonel in the Russian Army, who was the leader of the GRU Spetsnaz Special Battalion Zapad, a Chechen military force, from 2003 to 2007.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev has been declared a Hero of the Russian Federation, has twice received the Order of Courage and was awarded two specially engraved guns by the Russian Minister of Defense.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev had been engaged in power struggles for overall military authority with the president of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and the commander of the Special Battalion Vostok Sulim Yamadayev.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev was born on 22 February 1970 in the village of Ken-Yurt, Nadterechny District, Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev was assigned to Nagorno-Karabakh where he witnessed at first hand the devastating aftermath of the Soviet Union collapse.

Dzhokhar Dudayev had started a rebellion against Soviet, later Russian rule, but the northern part of Chechnya where Said-Magomed Kakiyev hailed from was not so enthusiastic about the secession.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev lost his left hand, an eye, and his nose and had to have his face reconstructed beyond recognition at a hospital in Moscow.

In 1994, Said-Magomed Kakiyev returned to Chechnya to fight on the federal side in the increasingly heated conflict.

At the beginning of the First Chechen War, in January 1995, Said-Magomed Kakiyev took part in the storming of Grozny by the federal forces.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev has consistently blamed Doku Umarov and Ruslan Gelayev for the Dagestanskaya massacre.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev had to take his relatives into hiding in his birth village Ken-Yurt, which has never been under separatist control, and live in Moscow for almost three years.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev was appointed deputy head of the Nadterechny district administration.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev claimed his unit was the first to hoist the Russian flag in Grozny.

Said-Magomed Kakiyev, who became a devout Sufi Muslim after his two escapes from death, was believed to be one of the more effective and disciplined of Grozny's commanders, and resented any suggestion of subordination to Ramzan Kadyrov or Sulim Yamadayev, themselves both powerful commanders loyal to Grozny.