South Ossetian special forces commander was detained for attempted murder; after five months of investigation he returned to war

The commander of the special forces battalion of the Ministry of Defense of South Ossetia, 40-year-old Shalva Gabaraev, was accused of hooliganism and attempted murder for hooligan reasons, Mediazona noted.

The case against Gabaraev was submitted to the Rostov Garrison Military Court in February 2026. A month later, the proceedings on it were suspended, as follows from the card on the court’s website.

Gabaraev confirmed to Mediazona that he “went back to the Northern Military District” and continues to “fulfill the tasks set by senior management.” He managed to return to the war thanks to the petition of the commander of the 19th division, who asked to stop the criminal prosecution.

Before this, Gabaraev spent five months in a collection point for those who left the unit without permission under the supervision of the military police and the Rostov military commandant’s office.

He refused to talk about the case in detail. “Why should I talk about my criminal case with a stranger if I barely survive every day? Because of some asshole, I’m just here now!” - he explained.

Nevertheless, from Gabaraev’s words it follows that the case was opened because of a fight in which he participated. According to his version, another participant in the conflict hit the special forces soldier with a bottle - and Gabaraev hit him back. At the same time, there was no threat to the victim’s life, the military man claims: he was discharged from the hospital after three or four days.

“Two grown men got into a fight, and they labeled me as if I deliberately wanted to kill someone. If I wanted to kill, I would have killed, but I didn’t want to. The investigator can write anything,” says Gabaraev.

According to him, he ended up at the scene of the fight by accident. “I don’t want to talk about it, I want to forget about it. I’m 40 years old and I’ve never had any violations even for skipping classes,” Gabaraev said.

Mediazona was unable to contact the victim in the case.

Gabaraev introduced himself as the commander of a special forces battalion in South Ossetia. In 2022, he was called the chief of special forces of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic. His name was mentioned in connection with the case of the beating of local resident Azamat Dzhigkaev by special forces officers. The "Caucasian Knot" wrote that after the incident, the head of South Ossetia Alan Gagloev suggested that the then head of the Ministry of Defense Vladimir Pukhaev fire the head of the special forces Gabaraev. The minister refused, then the head of the republic relieved him of his post.

In June 2024, Ossetian media reported that Gabaraev and other fighters of the “Særmæt” battalion received “Patriot of Russia” medals. In October 2025, in the project “Heroes of the Past and Present,” Gabaraev was presented as “a representative of the assault detachment as part of the 166th regiment named after I. A. Pliev.”