Said-Magomed Shamaevich Kakiyev | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 February 1970 (age 54) Ken-Yurt, Nadterechny District, Chechen-Ingush ASSR, Russian SFSR, USSR |
| Allegiance | |
| Service |  Spetsnaz GRU (direct subordination) |
| Years of service | 1989–2007 |
| Rank |  Colonel |
| Commands | Special Battalion Zapad |
| Battles / wars | First Nagorno-Karabakh War |
| Awards | |
Said-Magomed Shamaevich Kakiyev (Russian: Саид-Магомед Шамаевич Какиев, also spelled Kakiev; born 22 February 1970) is a colonel in the Russian Army, who was the leader of the GRU Spetsnaz Special Battalion Zapad ("West"), a Chechen military force, from 2003 to 2007. Inside Chechnya his men were sometimes referred to as the Kakievtsy. Unlike the other Chechen pro-Moscow forces in Chechnya, Kakiyev and his men are not former rebels and during the First Chechen War were some of the few Chechen militants who fought on the Russian side.
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.[1][2] He 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 ("East") Sulim Yamadayev. In 2007, having left the post of battalion commander, he was appointed deputy military commissar of Chechnya for military-patriotic education of youth.
- ^ "Спецназ ходит в атаку за Аллаха и Путина". Utro.ru (in Russian). 24 March 2004. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
- ^ "Special Services fight in the name of Allah and Putin (Warning: this English translation takes some liberties with the Russian original from Utro.ru)". english.pravda.ru. 26 March 2004. Archived from the original on 12 March 2007.