Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad Special Battalions " Vostok " and " Zapad " ( , lit . " East " and " West " ) were two Spetznaz units of Russia n military intelligence ( GRU ) based in Chechnya . The overwhelming majority of personnel were ethnic Chechens , while the command personnel were mixed Russian and Chechens . Organization . Vostok and Zapad were organized at the end of 1999 , initially as two special companies formed in the structure of the Mountain Grouping of the Russian Ministry of Defence ; they were assigned to the commandant ' s offices ( " kommendantura " ) established on the territory of the Chechen Republic in 2002 . The Chechen personnel were of diverse origins . Zapad servicemen were loyal to the Russian government , while the core of Vostok were former separatist fighters of the 2nd Battalion of the National Guard of Ichkeria from Gudermes , who had fought against Russian troops in the First Chechen War of 1994 - 1996 ; they then switched to the federal side and swore allegiance to Russia . The units were directly subordinate to the GRU , but operationally they were included in the structure of the 42nd Motor Rifle Division . Following the 2006 Lebanon War , members of both units were sent to protect Russian field engineers on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon . The two battalions ( each about 600 - 900 strong ) were the only ethnic Chechen units in the structure of the Russian Ministry of Defence and outside the control of the Chechen government , which was increasingly dominated by the Chechen militia leader Ramzan Kadyrov . Zapad was commanded by career officer Said - Magomed Kakiyev while Vostok was controlled by the controversial Yamadayev clan ( thus earning them the name of " Yamadaevtsy " , or " Yamadayev men " ) , which was powerful enough to rival Kadyrov . Kakiyev ( four times ) and three of the Yamadayev brothers received the Hero of the Russian Federation award . The brothers owned their TV station , " Vostok " , and several other businesses in Chechnya and Moscow . One of the brothers , Ruslan Yamadayev , became a State Duma deputy representing Chechnya . On the other hand , Kakiyev kept a low profile . In April 2008 escalating tensions between Ramzan Kadyrov ( by then the Chechen president ) and the Yamadayevs — including occasional armed clashes — erupted into an open and violent conflict . The Vostok unit ' s leaders were accused by the Chechen government , members of the public , and human rights groups of many crimes including forced disappearances , kidnappings for ransom and murders . Soon hundreds of Vostok fighters reportedly deserted their unit and joined Kadyrov ' s formations , and in June the Russian army announced it would transform both special battalions into regular motorized - rifle companies . Both Vostok and Zapad were involved in the conflict in South Ossetia in August 2008 , with Vostok commanded by Sulim Yamadayev , ( despite his official dismissal from the post and his status as a wanted man ) . Reportedly , the Vostok detachment suffered losses in Georgia but were not accused of committing any crimes there . In November 2008 , both battalions were disbanded under continued pressure from Kadyrov . It was also announced that a special commission set up by the Ministry of Defence , together with the Military Prosecutor ' s Office , would investigate the alleged crimes of their former servicemen . The Yamadayevs and their loyalists were chased out of Chechnya , and Ruslan Yamadayev was shot dead in Moscow . Their houses were ransacked and burned , and the mosque they built in Gudermes was dismantled . Four months later , Sulim Yamadayev was assassinated in exile in Dubai — according to the UAE authorities , by Kadyrov ' s right - hand man Adam Delimkhanov . Kadyrov in turn accused the former commanders of Vostok of repeated attempts to kill him and of complicity in the 2004 assassination of his father , Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov , responsibility for whose killing had been officially claimed by separatist commander Shamil Basayev . Kakiyev managed to avoid the fate of the former Vostok leaders by agreeing to resign his command of the Zapad battalion in 2007 , since then , he has kept a formal position in the Russian military structure in Chechnya .