Ruslan (Hamzat) Gelayev (; was a prominent commander in the Chechen resistance movement against Russia, in which he played a significant, yet controversial, military and political role in the 1990s and early 2000s. Gelayev was commonly viewed as an abrek and a well-respected, ruthless fighter. His operations spread well beyond the borders of Chechnya and even outside the Russian Federation and into Georgia. He was killed while leading a raid into the Russian Republic of Dagestan in 2004. Biography Ruslan Gelayev was born in 1964 in the village of Komsomolskoye (Saadi-Kotar) near Urus-Martan, 10 years after his parents had returned from the Stalinist deportation of Chechens into Central Asia. He was from Chechen Highland teip Gukhoy. Gelayev lived for several years outside Chechnya in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, held various jobs and, at one point, served in the Soviet Army. Georgian-Abkhazian conflict In 1992–1993, Gelayev took part in the Georgian–Abkhazian conflict as a volunteer in the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus militia fighting for the Abkhaz separatist side against Georgia, serving under Shamil Basayev. Together with the Chechen Battalion, Gelayev took part in the Battle of Gagra, which marked a turning point in the War in Abkhazia. After his return to Chechnya, he joined the forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria's president, Dzhokhar Dudayev, taking command of the special forces regiment Borz (Борз, "Wolf" in Chechen) made up of veterans of the Abkhaz conflict. During the subsequent war with Russia, Timur Mutsurayev wrote a song dedicated to the unit, "Gelayev's Spetsnaz!" (Гелаевский спецназ!), which became popular in Chechnya. In 1993–1994, the unit took part in combat actions against the anti-Dudayev Chechen opposition forces of Ruslan Labazanov and Beslan Gantamirov who were later being aided by Russian covert operations operatives and mercenaries recruited by the Russian secret service FSK from the ranks of the Russian Army. First Chechen War Gelayev fought against the Russian federal forces in the First Chechen War of 1994–1996, notably as a major commander in the 1994-1995 defense of Chechnya's capital Grozny, for which he became one of the first to be awarded the Chechnya's highest medal Kioman Syi (Honor of the Nation). In early 1995, he became the commander of the South-Western Front for the separatist forces, tasked with defense of the Argun Gorge area. The Russians nicknamed him the "Black Angel" (Чёрный ангел), after his radio communications call sign, "Angel".