Chechnya plans yet-another Defence Ministry regiment

Chechen Prime Minister Magomed Daudov revealed that the republic is in the process of forming a new unit within the Defence ministry, and that it will be manned by 2,000 fighters.

Daudov’s comments came during Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov’s annual direct line — a local imitation of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regular televised talkfests.

Kadyrov wears his best outfit for his annual broadcast.

Daudov was providing a year-end summary and noted that Chechnya had already created four Ministry of Defence and Rosgvardia regiments and five battalions since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine. In case you’ve been struggling to keep track, these are:

• The Zapad-Akhmat, Vostok-Akhmat, and Yug-Akhmat Battalions and the Sever-Akhmat Regiment (all MoD), created in mid-2022;
• OMON Akhmat-1 (Rosgvardia), created in October 2022;
• The Akhmat-Rossiya and Akhmat-Chechnya Regiments (both MoD), created in June 2023;
• The Sheikh Mansur Battalion (MoD) and the Baysangur Benoyevskiy Operational Battalion (Rosgvardia), created in October 2023.

For good measure, it also reconstituted the Oil and Gas Regiment in August 2022, though a previous regiment by this name goes as far back as 2000.

Most of these new unit were created with the express purpose of supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine. ChGTRK Groznyy reported that Chechnya has sent 51,396 fighters in total, including 20,275 volunteers – though these numbers are almost certainly inflated by the inclusion of non-Chechens who have transited through the Russian University of Spetsnaz. I’ll have an article for Riddle Russia soon on the role Chechnya is playing in Ukraine, so stay tuned!

Daudov also said the war had cost Chechnya RUB 35.856 billion, but these were non-budgetary funds. Which makes me think I should look up what the Chechen equivalent of the tooth fairy is. If you know, hit reply!

The new unit doesn’t have a name yet — at least not one that’s been made public — so we’ll have to guess. There are no bonus points for guesses that include Akhmat in the title though! I’m going to put my pin in the “Imam Shamil Battalion”, not because Kadyrov likes to evoke Shamil (he doesn’t), but because it muddies the Ichkerian claim to the legacy, a la Sheikh Mansur. It won’t be the Dzhokhar Dudayev Regiment though — I think he’ll let them keep that one. Answers on a digital postcard please.

I’m in the process of building my knowledge hub for Russian security issues, which I hope to launch in March next year. It will include guides to and data on the Chechen security services and their commanders, plus a handy visualisation of their organisational structure. Because honestly, even I have to sometimes check which Akhmat belongs where!