On October 24, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced the formation of a new Chechen battalion named after Sheikh Mansur, which will fight as part of the Russian Defense Ministry. On October 26, another new unit was announced – the Baysangur Benoevsky Rosgvardia battalion.
In his Telegram channel, Kadyrov wrote that the personnel of Sheikh Mansurov's battalion will be stationed at a military facility in Gudermes, where the necessary infrastructure is being built.
"Dear brother" Ruslan Geremeyev has been appointed commander of the unit. He was considered the person who ordered the murder of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov in February 2015. According to investigators, the murder was organized by Ruslan Mukhutdinov, the driver of Geremeyev, who served in the Chechen battalion "Sever", but the latter was not even questioned. In February 2022, Geremeyev went to Ukraine and took part in the battles for Mariupol.
For the new battalion, four barracks were reconstructed and two new ones were built, a parade ground, a canteen for 100 seats, and other premises were equipped, Kadyrov said after visiting the site.
Two days later, he visited the construction site again - this time the base for the new operational battalion named after Baysangur Benoyevsky of the North Caucasus District of the Russian National Guard.
"The unit under the leadership of commander Bekkhan Chalayev will consist of 300 fighters... I am confident that the new battalion will become one of the most effective and elite in the Russian Guard system," Kadyrov said on his Telegram channel.
Bekkhan Chalayev is the younger brother of the commander of the special police regiment named after Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov, Zamid Chalayev. In January last year, Ukrainian media reported that Zamid Chalayev had surrendered to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but he soon denied this information, repeating the famous statement of the 19th century Chechen commander Baysangur Benoyevsky: "We are surrounded, which means they can't escape from us." On October 31, the head of Chechnya announced that the two new battalions now have their own vehicle fleet: "I was pleased to hand over domestically produced vehicles to the units, including the UAZ Patriot, as well as modern pickups and foreign-made SUVs. Some of the vehicles have been modified for combat use." Kadyrov also said that since the beginning of the SVO, 70,000 uniforms, over 1,200 vehicles have been purchased for the Chechen units, and 9,000 people have been employed." On the same day, according to Kadyrov, servicemen of the new Sheikh Mansur and Baysangur Benoyevsky battalions began three months of training at the Russian Special Forces University. "Special courses and programs have been developed for this purpose, taking into account the experience accumulated during the SVO," Kadyrov noted in his blog.
Sheikh Mansur (1760-1794) - the first imam of the Caucasus, an outstanding preacher, religious and military-political leader of the Chechen highlanders, who advocated the spread of Sharia in the North Caucasus and fought against the Russian Empire for the independence of Chechnya. "For inciting the peoples of the mountains against Russia and causing great damage to the empire" he was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in the Shlisselburg fortress.
Baysangur Benoyevsky (1794-1861) - Chechen commander, naib of Imam Shamil, participant in the Caucasian War of 1817-1864. In battles with Russian troops, he lost an arm, a leg and an eye, but continued to fight, ordering to tie himself to a horse. After Shamil surrendered to the Russians, Baysangur rebelled in Chechnya, was captured and hanged.
Both of these historical figures are deeply revered in Chechnya, and are symbols of wisdom and courage. At the same time, both fought to their death against Russia for the independence of their homeland, so the choice of their names for battalions of the Russian army and the Russian National Guard seems paradoxical. Moreover, one of the six Chechen military units fighting in Ukraine on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is also named after Sheikh Mansur. It was created in 2014 in Denmark. Its personnel are dominated by former Chechen resistance fighters who left Chechnya during the Russian-Chechen war. The battalion took part in the battles in Donbass in 2014-2015 and in the battles for Kyiv in early 2022. On October 5, the battalion's servicemen opened a memorial in honor of Sheikh Mansur in the Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog. They published a video of this event on the battalion's Telegram channel. The monument is a stone with a memorial plaque.
Apparently, Ramzan Kadyrov does not want to concede to his military and ideological opponents the names that enjoy unconditional authority and respect among Chechens. To legitimize his power, he needs to create the appearance of continuity of values, observers believe. As for the Kremlin, they are obviously willing to call federal structures whatever they like, as long as these structures serve the interests of the current government.
