The “Gold Star” medal was handed to Batukaev’s mother by Chechen Prime Minister Magomed Daudov and the acting commander of the Southern Military District troops, Vladimir Kochetkov, the Telegram channel “Agency. News” reported. According to its data, Putin signed the decree awarding him on July 28.
Daudov called Batukaev “a true patriot and defender of our Fatherland”, and Kochetkov said that he “proved that concepts such as honor, courage, and devotion to duty are not just words”. The ceremony ended with a minute of silence in Batukaev’s memory.
Batukaev took part in the resistance to the military in Chechnya, and in 2011 he was convicted in a case involving illegal arms trafficking, “Current Time” wrote. In 2016, he received 19 years in a maximum-security penal colony for robbery, murder, and intentional destruction and damage to another person’s property.
According to investigators, Batukaev, together with Avturkhan Khabibulaev and Artur Bersanukaev, attacked a taxi driver who agreed to take them from Krasnodar to Kropotkin. Batukaev and Khabibulaev strangled the driver with a cord and their hands, while Bersanukaev stabbed him at least 13 times; the murdered man’s car was later sold in Chechnya.
From the colony, Batukaev joined the “Wagner PMC”, then moved to the “Akhmat” unit, “Current Time” wrote. In October 2023, “Akhmat” commander Apti Alaudinov said that he had been awarded the Order of Courage for participating in the war with Ukraine; in August 2024, Batukaev threatened to take a house away from an activist of the Chechen opposition movement NIYSO. On February 23, 2025, Alaudinov announced Batukaev’s death from a brain hemorrhage after three days without sleep while carrying out a combat mission, while NIYSO claimed that he died from a drug overdose in Chechnya while on leave.
