Ruslan (Hamzat) Gelayev (Russian: Руслан (Хамзат) Гелаев) (1964 – February 28, 2004) was a prominent commander in the Chechen separatist movement against Russia, in which he played a significant, yet controversial, military and political role in the 1990s and early 2000s. Gelayev was commonly viewed as an abrek and a well-respected, ruthless fighter. His operations spread well beyond the borders of Chechnya and even outside the Russian Federation and into Georgia.