Russian Army Chief Of Staff Confirms Gelayev Band Destroyed

Anatoly Kvashnin, Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, has confirmed that the Chechen guerrilla band led by Gelayev has been defeated after penetrating with Georgian militants into the self-proclaimed Georgian republic of Abkhazia earlier this month. Nonetheless, the general said the band had not been destroyed. Kvashnin was in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Wednesday to present to Commander of the North-Caucasian Military District, Gennady Troshev, a standard bearing his name.