Editing Blowback (intelligence) (section)

===Abkhazia and Chechnya===
Russian military intelligence helped recruit, arm and organise volunteers from across the [[North Caucasus]] to fight alongside Abkhaz separatists in the [[War in Abkhazia (1992–1993)]]. The volunteers were organised under the banner of the [[Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus]], and included [[Shamil Basayev]], [[Ruslan Gelayev]] and Umalt Deshayev.<ref name="PragueWatchdog-2008">{{cite news |last1=Akhmadov |first1=Ramzan |title=Chechens sympathize with Georgia |url=https://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000004-000002-000053&lang=1 |access-date=3 April 2025 |publisher=Prague Watchdog |date=20 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310225806/https://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000004-000002-000053&lang=1 |archive-date=10 March 2011}}</ref> The contingent's leader, [[Musa Shanibov]], incited [[Ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia|ethnic violence against Georgians in Abkhazia]].

The year after the Abkhazia war concluded, the [[First Chechen War]] begun, and many of the men who had volunteered in Abkhazia took up arms against Russia. Besayev, Gelayev and Deshayev each led contingents made up of Chechen former volunteers, who were known as "Abkhaz battalions," due to their history. They helped to defeat Russia during that war, before suffering a defeat themselves in the [[Second Chechen War]]. 

Gelayev sought refuge in Georgian territory during 2001-2002. In 2001 he led an assault on separatist Abkhazia on behalf of Georgian interests, sometimes referred to as the [[2001 Kodori crisis|Kodori crisis]], thus fighting against the same forces whom he had fought alongside a decade earlier. Gelayev's presence in Georgia was the proximate cause of the [[Pankisi Gorge crisis]]. 

Many Chechen volunteers subsequently regretted their prior involvement in the Abkhazia war.<ref name="PragueWatchdog-2008" /> All three of the Chechen military leaders that emerged from the volunteer units created by Russia were ultimately killed by Russia itself.