By Alain Barlut
Posted 1 hour ago, updated 12 minutes ago
At the “Russian Spetsnaz University” in Gudermes, Chechnya, a training camp that operates like a private club, civilians, mostly Russians, can learn how to use weapons and combat techniques for a fee. Elena Afonina/TASS/Sipa USA/SIPA
REPORTING – The training center created by the Chechen president trains fighters from across Russia before they head to the front lines in Ukraine.
Special representative for Grozny and Gudermes
There are about twenty not-very-young men in military fatigues grouped around their Chechen instructor, a burly, bearded man named Tamerlane. The “workshop” is dedicated to the basic techniques of emergency aid for the wounded: applying a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, taking a wounded soldier to a shelter… Not far away, a second squad, a Kalashnikov in hand, is practicing tactical movement. gusts crackle. Another instructor shouts orders to position the shooters one at a time to face the targets while their comrades cover them. The huge training ground with a gravel floor was carved into the hillside. On the dam an inscription in huge letters: “Allahu Akbar.”
All are volunteers fighting in Ukraine. In a few days they will be at the front – za lentou (“behind the line”), as the Russians say. Some have been there before and come back here to…
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