Said-Magomed Kakiev

Said-Magomed Shamaevich Kakiyev (Russian: Саид-Магомед Шамаевич Какиев, also spelled Kakiev; born 22 February 1970) is the leader of the GRU Spetsnaz Special Battalion West (Zapad), a pro-Moscow Chechen military force. Inside Chechnya his men are 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 one of the few Chechen militants who fought on the Russian side.

Kakiyev has been declared a Hero of the Russian Federation four times, has twice received the Medal for Courage and was awarded two specially engraved guns from the Russian Ministry of Defense. He is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Army.

He has been engaged in violent power struggles for overall military authority with the president of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and Sulim Yamadayev.

Said-Magomed finished Grozny vocational school in 1989 and went to serve in the army. He was assigned to Nagorny Karabakh where he witnessed at first hand the devastating aftermath of the Soviet Union collapse. In the war, he acquired the rank of Major.

He came home to a Chechnya in turmoil. Dzhokhar Dudayev had started a rebellion against Soviet, later Russian rule, but the Northern part of Chechnya where Kakiyev hailed from was not so enthusiastic about the secession. After allegedly witnessing atrocities, Kakiyev joined the opposition against Dudaev. In 1993 he was seriously hurt when a hand grenade meant for Dudayev exploded in his own hands. He lost a hand, an eye and his nose and had to have his face reconstructed beyond recognition, at a hospital in Moscow's Arbat Street. After the operation, Said-Magomed briefly studied at Alma Ata University and returned to Russia to take a tax police training course.

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