I have heard a lot from friends about the commander of the special rapid reaction unit "Elbrus" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, police colonel Kadir Shogenov. In recent years, when Nalchik now and then finds itself in crime reports and the police special forces have to work in a very tense rhythm, friends say: "The locals are lucky that they have people like Kadir: a real warrior, a courageous person, an excellent commander."
During our meeting, Shogenov spoke very little about himself, talked more about his comrades in arms and about the operations in which the detachment suffered losses, talked about the importance of physical culture and sports, and proudly displayed the cups and medals won by subordinates in the ring and tatami.
“Respect for the living, memory for the fallen. That's what's important, brother,”Shogenov told me at the“Eternal Memory”stand, which contains photographs and names of fallen comrades.
I came to serve in the police in 1992 from an agricultural technical school, where I held the position of deputy director. By that time in the republic I was well known as a specialist in karate, then rapidly gaining popularity. And then there was an acute shortage of martial arts masters in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and I gladly began to undergo an internship, assuming that I would be a sports instructor.
In Nalchik, karate developed thanks to the efforts of enthusiasts, many of whom soon took quite high positions in the system of state power structures (Eduard Kim, for example, later became deputy head of the North Caucasian RUBOP, Ruslan Gyatov - head of the Kabardino-Balkarian customs). There were no special gyms, they trained in damp stuffy basements, drawing knowledge from rare samizdat books and educational videos of dubious quality.
Personally, I was also given a lot by the urgent service as a gunner-gunner of an armored personnel carrier in the Group of Soviet Forces in the GDR. The male collective is the male collective. The army system itself forced me to be disciplined, courageous and strong. And if at first it seemed to some two-meter lugs that if I was short, then it meant weak and spineless, then after meeting my fists, they quickly changed their minds.
After the internship, I had an interview with the head of the OOP at the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the KBR, police colonel Alexander Ardashev, and soon became an operative in this very important police structure that opposes organized crime in our republic.
When in January 1993 SOBR UOP was created under the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, I, along with other operatives of the internal affairs bodies and officers of the internal troops, moved to a new unit.
The tasks of the department were multifaceted: conducting operations to detain and neutralize members of organized criminal groups and illegal armed formations, force support of operational search activities and investigative actions, combating terrorism and extremism, suppressing the activities of gangs selling weapons, explosives, drugs.
The first commander of the department was retired Lieutenant Colonel of the KGB of the USSR Muaed Husenovich Taov, an enthusiast and workaholic. Under his leadership, people worked, regardless of personal time, for sixteen to eighteen hours daily, sometimes for whole days. They were real fans of their business, working for the idea. They did not have any privileges and advantages over other police officers, except for one - the first to go to arrest the bandits. The personnel were practically in a barracks position, everyone perfectly understood the political and economic situation in the country at that time. No one was tempted to go to criminal structures, on the contrary - people were burning with a struggle for a just cause.
In 1994, Militia Colonel Ruslan Nazhmudinovich Kertiev was appointed to the post of head of the department, with whom I worked shoulder to shoulder for six years. He was a man with a capital letter, honest, courageous. He rose from a guard patrol service to the head of a department. Under his direct leadership, in May 1994, we took part in the release of hostages in Mineralnye Vody, and in December - in Makhachkala. They also participated in ensuring public safety and order in Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia - Alania, Karachay-Cherkessia.
The collapse of the Soviet Union untied the hands of the bandits, spawned all kinds of swindlers and swindlers, and gave rise to brutal organized crime. The whole country, including the North Caucasus, was shaken by murders, hostage-taking, and abductions of people. Organized criminal groups, merged with corrupt government officials, were operating everywhere. Sometimes, the capture of armed criminals had to go two or three times a day! There was a lot of work.
In 1999, the department took an active part in operational-search activities to find and detain Likhov's gang, known for its cruelty. On account of the scumbags were 21 human lives.
Then, in the course of the measures taken, it was possible to find out the whereabouts of the gang members, to determine the addresses at which they were hiding. The management, after analyzing the situation, decided to detain everyone, having worked out a dozen addresses at the same time. The high professionalism of our employees made it possible to neutralize the entire gang without losses among the personnel of the department. When the leader of the gang was detained, he tried to snatch a pistol from under the pillow, removed from the safety lock, with a cartridge sent into the chamber, but did not have time to shoot - he was twisted in a second.
However, comparing the bandits of those days and the current thugs, I note that earlier criminals tried to observe their "concepts" and rarely used weapons against law enforcement officers, and now the murder of a police officer has become almost the main reason for the existence of gang members. My personal conviction, which is backed up by years of service and dozens of arrests of notorious criminals, is this: the bandits have no moral principles, no faith in the Almighty, Islam for these "Imarates" is just a cover for extorting money from businessmen and officials. But all the gangster scum must know: the punishment for the crime is inevitable.
I have always prided myself on serving with honest and dedicated people. This was the captain of the militia Nikolai Mukhamedovich Shogenov, who came to our detachment in 1993. On the morning of February 22, 1997, Nikolai took over the daily watch as the senior shift. In the evening, he went with a group to detain a particularly dangerous criminal. On the way to the address indicated by him, a child ran out onto the carriageway right in front of the car. Shogenov abruptly turned the steering wheel, and the car crashed into a tree. Nikolai received a head injury incompatible with life. On February 23, 1997, without regaining consciousness, he died. We took the loss hard.
By order of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation of September 16, 2002, all SOBRs were renamed special police units. In 2011, after a series of reforms and a number of renames, the police special forces returned to their historical name. Now we are called SOBR "Elbrus" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the KBR.
Chechnya: a test of strength
And although the early 1990s were not easy, the first Chechen campaign was the main test of the department's strength and preparedness. We got there for the first time in the big war in the spring of 1995. It was a major combined arms operation in the village of Samashki, led by Lieutenant General Anatoly Romanov.
After two days of unsuccessful attempts by Romanov to settle the matter peacefully, a consolidated group of units of internal troops and various SOBR and OMON troops entered the village.
The trenches in which the militants settled were skillfully dug. They were located in densely overgrown front gardens between houses, under trees and superstructures, and they were difficult to find. Played into their hands and the ravine, dividing the village in two. Therefore, the clashes in Samashki continued for two days.
On that one and a half month trip, we also worked with operatives of the RUBOP, FSB and military intelligence officers in different regions of Chechnya: we detained members of bandit formations and their accomplices, confiscated weapons and ammunition, and demined objects in rural areas.
The second time we went to Chechnya during the second campaign, and after serving in Mozdok and Khankala from March 5 to 20, 2000, we took part in the battles for the village of Komsomolskoye, in which the Gelayev and Khachukaev gangs, who had escaped from the Argun Gorge, settled. It was a tremendous battle. The scraps of the gang, trying to dissolve in neighboring villages or to bury themselves in mountain holes, resisted during arrests and were destroyed by return fire.
In 2001-2002, our combined detachment stood for six months in the village of Tsa-Vedeno, located on the left bank of the Khulkhulau River, 7 kilometers north of the regional center of Vedeno. From there, in close cooperation with FSB operatives, special forces of internal troops, wax reconnaissance and with the support of paratroopers, we successfully worked throughout the area, which is notorious as a real gangster hornet's nest.
After the arrest of a number of militants who attacked the rear columns and fired at checkpoints, we managed to find the son of the so-called "Brigadier General of Ichkeria". We took an armed man with a passport in a false name by cunning, quietly and without dust, alive at the entrance to the village of Itum-Kala. Local women and children who rode alongside him on the bus were not injured. So the district gang, which had prepared a network of caches with weapons and ammunition, was left without a guide. And he, deciding to save his life, pointed to the outskirts of the village cemetery, from where we dug up a whole ammunition depot, which consisted of 362 mortars and small arms. True, I had to sweat a lot: the cache was hidden under three meters of rocky ground!
I remember with gratitude our colleagues from the detachments of Astrakhan, Rostov-on-Don, Stavropol, Krasnodar, with whom we later worked in Grozny, supporting the operatives of the Organized Crime Control Department in the fight against the militants who were hiding in the city ruins.
During the day, the bandits tried to legalize themselves and get an allowance or get a job, and at night they set landmines on the paths of movement of army columns and fired on checkpoints and temporary departments of the interior. Those were hot days!
Losses: in war as in war
Of all the most difficult missions, the squad always returned home in full force. The losses, unfortunately, began here, at home.
On May 14, 2003, during a special operation to neutralize a particularly dangerous armed criminal, police junior lieutenant Anzor Autlov was killed.
On that hot day, together with the operatives of the republican Organized Crime Control Department, the detachment on duty arrived in Tyrnyauz to detain a native of the village of Kendelen, who was a member of one of the illegal armed groups operating on the territory of Chechnya and Georgia.
The man, previously convicted twice for crimes related to the illegal circulation of weapons and drugs, according to operational data, returned to Kabardino-Balkaria on May 7 and a couple of days later settled in one of the Tyrnyauz high-rise buildings.
On the evening of May 14, operatives with a district police officer approached the apartment and, introducing themselves, offered to open the door and surrender. In response, a burst of automatic weapons was heard through the door.
The spetsnaz got into the matter. Knocking down the door with a sledgehammer, the guys threw stun grenades into the corridor. The operative Outlov, distinguished by a good reaction, according to a previously developed plan, was to enter the apartment first. Quickly running into the room where the militant had barricaded himself, Anzor rushed to him. He opened fire again. One of the bullets, fired at close range in a burst, pierced the bulletproof vest and hit Anzor in the heart, the bullet shattered the arm bone of another officer.
The comrades helped the wounded to leave the apartment and organized their evacuation to the hospital, but Anzor could not be saved.
In order to avoid new victims, negotiations began with the offender, inviting him to surrender. He disagreed. Then his mother was brought from Kendelen to Tyrnyauz. The elderly woman begged her son to come out for a long time, he refused.
During the second assault, in which the special forces used fragmentation grenades, the bandit was destroyed.
By the decree of the President of Russia, Anzor Khasanovich Outlov was awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously). He was buried in the village of Atazhukino, where one of the streets is named after him. Annually, the Ministry of Internal Affairs for KBR, with the support of the FSO "Dynamo" and local veteran organizations, holds an open championship of the republic in hand-to-hand fighting in honor of Anzor.
On May 24, 2003, during an attempt to detain Muslim Atayev, who was suspected of a number of high-profile crimes and participation in the bloody raids by Gelayev's gang across the territory of Dagestan and Ingushetia, two members of the detachment were wounded. Ataev, hiding behind a hostage, fled into the forest.
Atayev was considered the leader of the Yarmuk extremist jamaat organized in the village of Kendelen, Elbrus region. He was hiding from justice for almost two more years, but was destroyed by us on January 27, 2005, along with six of his accomplices, suspected of attacking the FSKN department in KBR on the night of December 13-14, 2004. Then, having shot four police officers on duty in the department Anzor Lakushev, Yuri Pshibiev, Murad Tabukhov and Akhmed Gergov, the militants stole about 250 weapons and tens of thousands of cartridges, and then set fire to the building.
After the discovery of Ataev on January 25, 2005, in a high-rise building on the outskirts of Nalchik, the leadership of the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted negotiations with him on voluntary surrender for more than a day, but they did not produce any results. While the negotiations were going on, the bandits did not sit idly by, but set up five firing points in the occupied house in three apartments on different floors and carefully prepared for the defense. During the assault, which began after the evacuation of residents of neighboring houses, three employees of special forces were wounded and concussed, including myself.
Nalchik: battles in the city
On October 13, 2005, during a large-scale attack by militants on Nalchik, my deputy police lieutenant colonel Ruslan Kalmykov was killed.
That day for him began at three o'clock in the morning, with a trip to a summer cottage village near the village of Belaya Rechka in the suburbs of Nalchik. There, chance helped us. Some summer resident, noticing a group of armed young people, called 02. The bandits were discovered and then dispersed as a result of the battle. Two were able to escape to the mountains, we destroyed two, and took one more alive.
At 9 am, gangs of up to 200 people simultaneously, using automatic weapons and grenade launchers, attacked the deployment points of power structures in Nalchik, and also ambushed the routes of possible movement of law enforcement officials and military personnel.
After receiving a signal about the attack, the Kalmyks and their subordinates went to the aid of their colleagues who had come under fire. In the area of the department store at the intersection of Lenin and Kuliyev avenues, the militants opened fire on the Ural car in which our guys were traveling.
The commandos entered the battle. After destroying five militants, they sent the "Ural" with a wounded comrade to the hospital and drove further in an armored "Gazelle" towards Nogmova Street. At that time, the officer on duty for the Organized Crime Control Department transmitted by radio that the buildings of the FSB for the KBR, the 2nd OVD of Nalchik and the Center "T" were fired upon.
In the area of the “T” Center building, Kalmykov's group noticed a wounded policeman, who was lying opposite the Krupskaya library on the sidewalk. To save the wounded life, it was required to immediately evacuate him from the line of fire. Kalmykov decided to pull out the victim under the cover of an armored personnel carrier of the internal troops that followed their car.
Opening the back door of the minibus, Ruslan stepped towards the wounded man. Once in the unprotected space, he immediately came under targeted fire from militants hiding in the “Gifts” store located at the intersection of Lenin Avenue and Nogmov Street, and was fatally wounded in the chest. At the cost of his own life, he managed to save an employee who, after suppressing the identified firing points, was evacuated from the firing zone.
By the decree of the President of Russia, Militia Lieutenant Colonel Ruslan Aslanbievich Kalmykov was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. In Baksan, one of the city streets was named after him, and school No. 3 was named after him.
On January 12, 2008, police lieutenant Albert Rakhaev was killed in Nalchik. He accompanied the chief of the Organized Crime Control Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs for KBR, police colonel Anatoly Kyarov.
While working out operational information regarding active participants in illegal armed groups, Kyarov arrived at the house on Shogentsukov Street, where, when leaving the courtyard at the intersection with Pushkin Street, his service car was attacked. Three militants, blocking the courtyard passage with a car, shot at a stopped police car from machine guns. Despite the received multiple wounds, Rakhaev resisted the attackers. He fired back, covering himself with Kyarov, who was sitting behind. The driver of their car managed to orient himself and drive off to the side, but Albert died from gunshot wounds to the chest and head. By the decree of the President of Russia, Albert Khizirovich Rakhaev was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage.
Albert is a native of Nalchik. In July 2000 he became a law enforcement officer. During his service in the OMON, he was sent on long business trips to carry out service and combat missions to Chechnya four times. Cavalier of the medal "For Courage". He distinguished himself in a clash with members of illegal armed groups in the vicinity of Chegem in the summer of 2004 and in February 2005 during the neutralization of militants from the "Karachai Jamaat". In January 2006, Rakhaev took part in a special operation in the village of Anzorey, Leskensky district of the republic. Then the Wahhabis, fleeing from the police, ran into a private house and took its owner hostage. On the offer to surrender, they opened fire from machine guns at the commandos who surrounded the house. As a result of the storming of the house, the hostage was released, and the militants were killed.
In February 2006, Rakhaev transferred to us and soon joined the group of physical protection of protected persons.
On January 12, 2008, while covering the employees evacuated from the damaged car with pistol fire, Kyarov also died. Two of his subordinates survived thanks to the selfless actions of Anatoly Sultanovich.
Commander of the Order of Courage and the Medal of the Order of Merit to the Fatherland, II degree, Anatoly Kyarov was one of the symbols of the fight against militants. His death was a grievous loss for us, but it did not break the desire to resist the vile pseudo-religious plague and defend the right of our children to a dignified life. His death forced us to fight even more actively against bandits of all stripes, for Kyarov was and remains for us the most powerful leader, patriot, and comrade in arms. I am proud that I had to work with Anatoly. He is a worthy son of the Caucasus, our pride.
For courage and heroism displayed in the performance of his official duty, by the Decree of the President of Russia, Anatoly Sultanovich Kyarov was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously). The central street of Chegem and the school in Nalchik, which he graduated from, are named after him.
Injured: under leaden rain
On the morning of June 10, 2011, militants tried to plant an explosive device with a capacity of up to 10 kilograms in TNT equivalent in a pipe for water drain under the Baksan-Azau road near the Neutrino village of the Elbrus region in order to blow up a convoy of servicemen.
The combined group of special forces, having arrived in the area, prevented the laying and, blocking the possible escape routes of the bandits to the road, went to the mountain range 25 kilometers above the city of Tyrnyauz to conduct reconnaissance and search activities.
When we surveyed the area, and these are mountains covered with impenetrable vegetation, heavy fire was opened at us from machine guns, followed by grenades. My deputy militia colonel Zamir Dikinov suppressed the enemy's firing point with return fire. Noticing that they began to shoot at the group from the other flank, he, conducting continuous firing from a machine gun, rushed to his comrades and, in fact, took the fire on himself. Having received numerous wounds, Zamir Khasanbievich died. At the cost of his own life, he prevented the death of members of our squadron and other participants in the special operation.
Zamir Dikinov served in the detachment since July 1996, was awarded the medal of the Order of Merit to the Fatherland, II degree, medals For Courage, For Distinction in Maintaining Public Order and For Combat Commonwealth. In 2011 alone, under his direct supervision, the detachment's employees took part in more than thirty large-scale reconnaissance and search activities. He was a wise warrior, a very well-mannered and perceptive officer, a good mentor and just a sincere person. I really miss him.
The battle lasted over five hours. Under the fire of the militants, I tried to evacuate the wounded Zamir, but I myself was seriously wounded, and three more of my comrades were wounded. We still managed to destroy six militants armed with a Kalashnikov light machine gun, five machine guns and four Makarov and TT pistols. While inspecting the bodies of the bandits, my guys also found three F-1 grenades and a large number of homemade khattabok grenades, about four hundred rounds of ammunition, a map of Nalchik with marks of road bridges and overpasses planned for detonation, portable radio stations, and other property.
The liquidated members of the so-called "Elbrus bandit group" were wanted for their involvement in the murder of a married couple from Krasnodar Territory in the Chegem Gorge and Deputy Chief of Inspection of the Interior Ministry Headquarters for the Republic of Dagestan, Police Colonel Emin Ibragimov at the Dzhylsu spring in the Zolsky District. They also killed the residents of the Orenburg region and fired at tourists from St. Petersburg, blew up the cable car and cellular base stations in the Elbrus region, extorted large sums of money from businessmen, and hijacked vehicles.
I want to express my deep gratitude to everyone who put me on my feet. I felt the care of many people, including the President of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic Arsen Kanokov and the Minister of Health Fatimat Amshokova.
After treatment in Moscow, I was transferred to the post of deputy chief of police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the KBR. But my soul demanded not office work, but movement. I could not leave the special forces at a difficult time for the republic and returned to my native detachment.
Everyday life of SOBR: the fight continues
We train and develop not only we, but also fighters. They prepare ambushes, invent new traps. On September 3, 2011, in Baksan, during the blockade of the house in which the bandits settled, the detachment suffered another heavy loss. The bandits, letting the special forces closer, changed their minds to surrender, attempted a breakthrough and opened heavy fire from machine guns.
Police junior sergeant Amir Dalov, who was closest to the house, was the first to take the battle, received gunshot wounds, but was able to suppress the enemy's firing point. He gave his comrades the opportunity to maneuver and hide from bullets. During the battle, the guys eliminated four militants.
Dalov was quickly taken to the hospital and operated on. But six days later he died without regaining consciousness.
Amir Amdulakhovich Dalov was 23 years old, he served in the detachment for only 4 months. The candidate for master of sports in hand-to-hand fighting, champion of the Republic of Dalov is buried in his native village of Cuba, where one of the streets was named in his honor. By the decree of the President of Russia, he was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage.
On the evening of December 31, 2011, in Baksan, militants fired from automatic weapons at the car of the commander of the SOBR combat squad, police lieutenant colonel Murat Shkhagumov. He died on the spot from his wounds. His sons, 7 and 11 years old, were also injured, but fortunately survived.
Murat Gumarovich Shkhagumov served in the internal affairs bodies since July 1995, was awarded two medals "For Courage", as well as medals "For Distinction in Maintaining Public Order" and "For Combat Commonwealth". A memorial plaque was installed in the school where Shkhagumov studied.
Despite the huge number of combat trips, we try all our free time to engage in self-education, tactical and fire training, as well as, of course, sports, because we cannot do without excellent physical fitness in our work. We train here, at our base, and, thanks to the support of the Deputy Minister of Sports, Tourism and Resorts of the KBR Khachim Mamkhegov, a native of our squadron, in the wonderful sports complex of the Agricultural Academy. Today, the squadron consists of a master of sports of international class, 4 masters of sports and 12 candidates for masters. Two of them, as winners of the All-Russian competitions, went to the World Championship in hand-to-hand fighting and won the "gold".
We must train in any location, at any time of the day. Therefore, in the classroom, we simulate various options for the situation. We do not have any husk and window dressing. Almost every day, facing death face to face, every employee knows what exactly can be useful to him during the assault on a private home ownership or apartment in a high-rise building, so he works out and trains until he sweats. And it brings results.
In 2012, in the complex competitions held in St. Petersburg among the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, we took 2nd place. I think this is a great success that proves our professionalism. And at the annual special forces competitions held in memory of the Hero of Russia Andrei Vladimirovich Krestyaninov, our employees take only prizes.
Life goes on, the fight goes on. The bandits cannot become masters in our land - we will not give it.
