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Valerii Kiselev, Military writers association meeting, Moscow, 20 February 2015Valerii Kiselev was born in Dushanbe in January 1956. He is a veteran of the KGB spetnaz group Vympel, reserve colonel in the FSB, writer, member of the Social council for the struggle against terrorism under the President of Russia, vice-president of the organization "For the defense of human rights", vice-president of Boevoe Sambo Russia.His grand-father was a Red army officer who fought against the Basmachi movement in Central Asia in 1924, chasing Ibrahim Bek's armed gangs ((Ibrahim Bek was the leader of an anti-Soviet group known as the Basmachi. He was a member of the Uzbek Lakai tribe in Eastern Bukhara and led an organized resistance against the Soviet military in the 1920s)). He mastered several foreign languages and played different musical instruments. He fought during the Finnish and the Great Patriotic wars. According to Valerii Kiselev, he raised him and passed him "his knowledge, experience and love" ((V. Kiselev, Boi zatikh u vzorvannogo mosta...,Sankt-Peterburg: NPPL "Rodnye prostory", 2014, p. 164)).Valerii Kiselev graduated from the Higher Border Guard Military Political School of the KGB SSSR K.E. Voroshilov (Vysshee pogranichnoe voenno-politicheskoe uchilishe KGB SSSR im. K.E. Voroshilov), as well as from the Higher School of the KGB (Vysshaia shkola KGB SSSR). In the mid-1980s he followed the Advanced training courses officers School (KUOS - kursy usovershenstvovaniia operativnogo sostava)  and later was trained at the Cuba spetsnaz school and at the Andropov Red Banner Institute of the KGB. He served in differents units, among them the Border Troops, the KGB/FSB, the spetsnaz Vympel and the Direction for the struggle against criminal organizations and smuggling.He has a black belt in karate. He is a master in hand-to-hand combat and shooting.He took part in various operation in Nicaragua, Moscow, Tbilissi, Baku. He took part in KGB special operations in Afghanistan, among them the assault against Amin as one of the 30 operators of the special KGB group Зенит (Zenit – "Zenith"), later known as Vympel. His book "Boi zatikh u vzorvannogo mosta..." is the story of the operation in which Soviet Special Forces stormed the Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan and killed Afghan President Hafizullah Amin.Books:V. Kiselev, Boi zatikh u vzorvannogo mosta...,Sankt-Peterburg: NPPL "Rodnye prostory", 2014.V. Kiselev, Kolodets. Ispoved' sovetskogo ofitsera..., Sankt-Peterburg: NPPL "Rodnye prostory", 2014.Blog:http://v-kiselev.ru/#1&#160;