Ruslan Hamzat Gelayev (1964-28 February 2004) was Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 1 January to February 1997, interrupting Aslan Maskhadov's terms.
Biography[]
Ruslan Gelayev was born in Komsomolskoye (Saadi-Kotar), Chechen-Ingush ASSR, Soviet Union in 1964, and he joined the Mujahideen in the 1990s. He fought in the Georgian-Abkhazian War on the side of Georgia, fighting against the army of Russia and Abkhazia. Using his experience in the Spetsnaz to his advantage, he was a well-respected and ruthless leader of the Mujahideen and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria's armed forces during the First and Second Chechen Wars. Gelayev was nicknamed the "Black Angel" by the Russians, and he oversaw the defense of Shatoy, wrecking a large column of Russian armored vehicles in an April 1996 ambush that claimed hundreds of Russian Army soldiers' lives. Gelayev became Deputy Prime Minister in 1997 , Defense Minister from 1998 to 1999, and a commander of 1,500 fighters during the 1999 Battle of Grozny. After the Russian government reconquered Chechnya, Gelayev rebuilt his forces in the remote Pankisi Gorge of Georgia, building up a force of hundreds of Chechen refugees, Kists, and volunteers from Ingushetia and Dagestan, as well as scores of Azeri, Turkish, and Arab mujahideen.
Death[]
In 2004, Gelayev led an army of Chechens into neighboring Dagestan, where he hoped to gather more fighters to join his cause and resist the Russians. However, he was attacked in the mountains by the Border Guard Service of Russia, and 30 of his men were killed, while 15 Russian troops were gunned down. Gelayev's arm was shot off by a Russian helicopter, but he shot two border guards and made it to a lake, where he died from exposure.