Khakimov was once a Soviet motorised rifle unit soldier who was part on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The Guardian reports that the 20 year-old soldier received a head wound in the first few months of battle and was presumed dead by Soviet forces.
Local Afghans rescued Khakimov and treated his wounds with the same traditional herbs and techniques that he administers to his patients today. Recovered from his wounds, Khakimov married a local Afghan woman but the couple had no children.
Thirty-three years later, Khakimov was tracked down by the Warriors-Internationalists Affairs Committee, a Moscow-based non-profit organisation, who spent a year tracking down the former soldier.
Khakimov, who could still understand Russian but now speaks it badly, spoke to the deputy chairman of the committee, Alexander Lavrentiev, two weeks ago.
According to Lavrentiev, Khakimov was "just happy he survived."
"In the words of Khakimov, he would very much like to meet his relatives, if they want to and if this isn't damaging for them," Lavrentiev told a press conference.
The Telegraph reports that the soldier carries scars from his war wounds and has a nervous tic.
Warriors-Internationalists Affairs Committee says 264 Soviet soldiers as still missing. Since the group's inception in 1993, 29 missing soldiers have been found, seven of whom chose to stay in their adopted homeland, Afghanistan.
