He doesn’t consider himself a hero: RT talked to a soldier who in 2008 alone blocked the way to a column of Georgian troops

Shots with a lone machine gunner blocking the road from a convoy of several vehicles with dozens of Georgian military personnel became one of the most famous episodes of the 2008 South Ossetian war. With the light hand of foreign journalists filming the incident on camera, this story was dubbed online: “300 Spartans are not needed, just one is enough.”

The record shows how Georgian officers demand that a Russian soldier miss a convoy, but the latter does not give in to persuasion and continues to block the path of enemy equipment alone. For some time, the Georgians were indecisive, and then the convolution unfolds and leaves in the opposite direction.

The video with the soldier has gained millions of views around the world. Tin figures of a lone machine gunner even appeared in stores for military collectors. And a petition was posted on the network with a request to present the Hero of Russia to a serviceman.

• © Frame: YouTube video

Years of searching

Despite the enormous resonance, nothing was known about the fate of the military. It was believed that a native of Buryatia, Bato Dashidorzhiev, who died the day after the shooting, blocked the path to technology. The lack of more detailed information on them at the thematic forums was explained by the fact that Dashidorzhiev allegedly served in the GRU's secret special forces.

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The real name of the lone machine gunner would have remained undisclosed, if not for the efforts of State Duma deputy Aldar Damdinov. The parliamentarian told RT that he had been searching for this fighter for several years. According to him, in Buryatia, where he came from, this story is very popular, since many people think that the soldier captured in the picture is a native of the republic.

To get on the track of the machine gunner, Damdinov conducted a real investigation. He sent a series of requests to military commissariats and other institutions in the hope of finding at least some mention of Dashidorzhiev, but he could not get any information.

Nevertheless, these efforts were not in vain. An unknown man turned to Damdinov on social networks, he said that he knew the real name of the hero. The soldier with the video was a resident of Astrakhan Tasbolat Ibrashev.

Now Ibrashev lives in Dmitrov near Moscow and works in the warehouse of one of the retail chains. RT managed to talk with Ibrashev and find out how the famous shots were made.

I do not consider myself a hero

Tasbolat was born in Kazakhstan, but in 1986 moved with his mother to Astrakhan. According to him, he served in the North Ossetia as a border guard, and then continued to serve under a contract in Chechnya, in the city of Shali, in the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 42nd Guards Motorized Rifle Division of the Russian Armed Forces.

• © RT

“We were raised by alarm. The commander said that we were going to Georgia. There is a war there and we must help our peacekeepers. We moved in that evening, ”he told RT. “We drove all night.” In the morning we got to Tskhinval, where everything was destroyed. Especially went to our peacekeeping outpost. We were given the task of combing the nearest villages for the presence of an enemy. After this was done, we were put at a checkpoint at the entrance to Gori. We spent two days there until the same column appeared. ”

As Ibrashev recalls, on that day the company commander sent him and two shooters to accompany the deputy commander.

“We drove on a“ tablet ”(UAZ-452. - RT car) to the point where Georgian troops were already approaching - five or six vehicles in which there were fully armed people. We got out of the car, they told me to stand on the road. Co-workers took positions nearby, ”the man says. - The commander went into negotiations, I remained standing. The Georgians shouted to me, saying "get out of the way," but how will I get out if I was ordered to stand. "

Negotiations, according to the former military, lasted about 40 minutes. All this time, he stood with a machine gun in an open place, holding several dozen Georgian special forces.

Tasbolat does not consider himself a hero. According to him, he simply complied with the order. Neither Ibrashev nor his two colleagues received awards.

“Already when we returned to the place of basing, the chief of staff came to our location. He wrote down the three of us and said they wanted to reward us, ”he recalls. - Then, already in the unit, they told us that somewhere someone made a mistake in the award documents, as a result, we received nothing. Then our regiment was disbanded altogether, and in 2010 I left the army and returned to Astrakhan. ”

Believe in anything

Ibrashev says that a few years after the demobilization, he accidentally saw in Odnoklassniki the very video with the caption Eternal Memory.

• © RT

“Honestly, I was in shock. I still did not understand why they called me Bato and why they say that I died. I began to write in the comments that I am on this video and I am alive. No one believed me. On the contrary, they began to accuse me of assuming alien heroism, ”Ibrashev is indignant. “My wife told me to prove that it’s really me.” Co-workers also begged, they say, they will confirm that I was in place. As a result, I was tired of proving something to them, I thought, they say, believe in anything. ”

Why many people think that a certain Bato Dashidorzhiev is depicted in the video, Tasbolat does not know. According to him, there was not a single native of Buryatia in their regiment.

Investigations by deputy Aldar Damdinov may indirectly confirm that Bato Dashidorzhiev is a completely fictional character. Over the years of searches, to which various structures were involved, the parliamentarian did not find a single mention of either Dashidorzhiev or his relatives.

After leaving the army, Tasbolat lived in Astrakhan, and recently he moved to the Moscow Region with his wife and two daughters. Now he lives in Dmitrov and works at the warehouse of one of the retail chains.

Ibrashev says he is surprised by the unexpected media attention to his person.

“A huge number of journalists have already called me, they invite me to broadcasts. Honestly, for me all this is very unusual, ”he notes.

Deputy Damdinov, in turn, told RT that the story of the machine gunner who stopped the Georgian convoy did not end with the establishment of his identity. The parliamentarian plans to ensure that after ten years Ibrashev still receive a well-deserved reward for his feat.