Rizvan Chitigov (''Amerikanets'', ''Marine'', 22 April 1964 – 23 March 2005) was a prominent Chechen rebel field commander in Shalinsky District of the

Chechen Republic Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and share ...

(

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) until his death on 23 March 2005.

Biography

Chitigov served in the

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

as a tank commander. Until the late 1980s, Rezvan Chitigov was employed as a firefighter at the local district fire department. In the early 1990s, Chitigov lived the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Upon his return to Chechnya, he oversaw

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

in the Chechen separatist government of

Aslan Maskhadov Aslan (Khalid) Aliyevich Maskhadov (; ; 21 September 1951 – 8 March 2005) was a Soviet and Chechen politician and military commander who was the third president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was credited by many with ...

. When he returned to Shali in 1994, he told compatriots that he had graduated from an elite U.S. sabotage and reconnaissance school and served on a contract basis in a U.S. Marine battalion. This earned him the aliases “Amerikanets” (the American) and “Morpekh” (the Marine). According to

Kommersant (, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily ...

, the

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation �СБ, ФСБ России (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterin ...

of Russia received “operational information” in 2001 that Chitigov planned to use chemical and biological weapons against federal troops, and ricin was later found in an “underground base” of his in

Gudermes Gudermes (; , ''Gümse'' or , ''Guthermajas'') is a town in the Chechen Republic, Russia, located on the Sunzha River east of Grozny, the republic's capital. Population: 32,000 (1970). History Gudermes had rural locality status until 1941. ...

. This earned Chitigov his third alias, “Khimik” (the Chemist). The Shali district branch of the Interior Ministry claims Chitigov was personally involved in the murder of 50 local inhabitants, while the FSB says that the August 31, 1999 bombing of Moscow’s Manezh shopping mall, which killed one person, was carried out on his orders. The Russian FSB suspected that Chitigov had been maintaining ties with foreign

intelligence service An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of info ...

s and was himself a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

agent. During the

First Chechen War The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a struggle for independence waged by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the invading Russia, Russian Federation from 1994 to 1996. After a mutually agreed on treaty ...

, he became the commander of the only tank unit of the Chechen fighters and gained notoriety for his extreme brutality. Chitigov was killed on 23 March 2005 in Chechnya in the Shali district center. According to the Russian state agency

RIA Novosti RIA Novosti (), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (), is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013, by a decree of Vladimir Putin, it was liquidated and its assets and workforce were transferred to the newly created ...

, Chitigov previously served in the

Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus The Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus (CMPC; ; until 1991 known as Assembly of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus) was a militarised political organisation in the North Caucasus, active around the time of before the collapse of the ...

and was "planning to use chemical and bacteriological weapons against federal forces".

References

2005 deaths People of the Central Intelligence Agency Chechen field commanders Deaths by firearm in Russia People of the Chechen wars Chechen warlords 1964 births North Caucasian independence activists {{Chechnya-bio-stub