Leonid Khabarov
Rank Component Date
Trooper Airborne Troops 1965
Jr. Sgt Airborne Troops 1966
Sgt Airborne Troops 1967
Lt Airborne Troops 1972
Sr. Lt Airborne Troops 1975
Capt Airborne Troops 1979
Maj 40th Army 1980
Lt. Col Turkestan Military District 1984
Lt. Col 40th Army 1986
Lt. Col Carpathian Military District 1987
Col Airborne Troops 1991
Military career -- Staff positions
Leonid Khabarov (; born May 8, 1947) is a former Soviet military officer whose battalion was the first Soviet Army unit to cross the border into the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan on December 25, 1979, serving as the de facto beginning of the decade-long Soviet-Afghan War. He received widespread media attention after he was arrested on charges of fomenting a coup d'état while serving as a Russian ROTC chief in 2011. He was accused of having created a master plot to overthrow local authorities in the Ural region of Russia for the purpose of launching a nationwide rebellion. The indictment accused Khabarov of attempting to illegally purchase weapons in an undetermined place, in undetermined circumstances, acting in conjunction with undetermined individuals. Trial sessions were routinely rescheduled, but on 26 February 2013 the Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced Khabarov to four-and-a-half years in prison, despite nationwide protest. Khabarov appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia, but his case was rejected. On 2 July 2014 he was released on parole.