Said-Magomed Kakiyev

Said-Magomed Shamaevich Kakiyev
Born	22 February 1970 (1970-02-22) (age 54) Ken-Yurt, Nadterechny District, Chechen-Ingush ASSR, Russian SFSR, USSR
Allegiance	USSR Russia
Service/branch	Spetsnaz GRU (direct subordination)
Years of service	1989–2007
Rank	Colonel
Commands held	Special Battalion Zapad
Battles/wars	First Nagorno-Karabakh War Battle of Grozny (November 1994) First Chechen War Battle of Grozny (1994–1995) Battle of Grozny (August 1996) Second Chechen War Battle of Grozny (1999–2000) Battle of Komsomolskoye
Awards	Hero of the Russian Federation Order of Courage (2)

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.