Early life Akhmed Zakayev was born in the settlement of Kirovskiy, Kirovskiy Raion (today called
Balpyk Bi,
Koksu District), in the
Kazakh SSR,
Soviet Union, which is now in
Almaty Region, in
Kazakhstan; his family was
deported by
Stalin's regime along with the rest of the Chechens in 1944. Akhmed is from the
teip Chinkhoy. He graduated from
acting and
choreography schools in
Voronezh and Moscow and worked as an actor at a theatre in the Chechen capital
Grozny, specializing in
Shakespearean roles. From 1991, he was the chairman of the Chechen Union of the Theatrical Actors. In 1994, Zakayev became a
Minister of Culture in the Chechen separatist government of
Dzhokhar Dudayev.
Chechen wars and the interwar period After Russian forces entered Chechnya, starting the
First Chechen War, Zakayev left his job and took up arms. Serving at first as a minor commander in the unit of
Ruslan Gelayev, he took part in the
1995 battle of Grozny and then led the defence of the village of
Goyskoye. After this the armed group under his command operated in the south-west part of Chechnya with its headquarters in the town of
Urus-Martan. He was eventually promoted to the rank of
brigadier general and appointed commander of the
Urus-Martan Front. In February 1996, Zakayev became commander of the entire Western Group of Defense of Ichkeria. In August 1996, his forces took part in the
decisive raid on Grozny, where he personally led the attack on the city's central
railway station. Zakayev's war service paved his way to Chechen high politics. He became the
acting president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev's advisor for the security matters and the secretary of the Chechen
Security Council and represented Chechnya at the
peace talks in Khasav-Yurt, which brought a peaceful end to the first armed conflict between Moscow and Grozny. After the war, Zakayev became Chechen
Deputy Prime Minister (in charge of education and culture) and a special envoy of elected
President of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov for relations with Moscow, taking part in the delegation that signed the official Chechen-Russian peace treaty at
the Kremlin in 1997. During the interwar period, he opposed the rise of radical Islam in Chechnya and co-authored a book entitled ''
Wahhabism – the Kremlin's remedy against national liberation movements'', alleging an association between
Islamist extremism and Soviet global "pro-terrorist" policy and support for dictatorships in the
Muslim world. During the early phases of the
Second Chechen War in 1999–2000, Zakayev commanded Maskhadov's presidential guard; he was also involved in negotiations with
Russian representatives before and during the resumed hostilities. In 2000, having been wounded in a car accident during
the new siege of Grozny, he left Chechnya for treatment. After this he stayed abroad and became President Maskhadov's most prominent representative in
Western Europe, while
Ilyas Akhmadov was the Chechen emissary to the
United States.
In exile Since January 2002, Zakayev and his immediate family have been residing permanently in the
United Kingdom. On 18 November 2001, Zakayev, officially internationally wanted by Russia, flew from
Turkey to the
Sheremetyevo International Airport near
Moscow to meet the Kremlin's envoy, General
Viktor Kazantsev for the high-level talks since the start of the war. These negotiations were fruitless because Kazantsev demanded a complete
capitulation of the Chechen side, with the only acceptable topic for the Russian side being the disarmament of Chechen separatists and their re-integration into civilian life. On 18 July 2002, Zakayev also met with the former secretary of
Security Council of Russia Ivan Rybkin in
Zürich,
Switzerland. In October 2002, Zakayev organized the
World Chechen Congress in
Copenhagen,
Denmark (which was attended among others by the former first speaker of the
State Duma,
Ruslan Khasbulatov). During the congress, Zakayev was accused by
Russia of involvement in planning of the
Moscow theater hostage crisis. He was detained there on 30 October 2002, under an
Interpol warrant filed by Russia, which named him a suspect in the theater siege. Zakayev denied involvement in the theater capture. He was held in Denmark for five weeks and then released due to lack of
evidence, as Russia's formal
extradition request did not include any evidence linking him to the siege. On 7 December 2002, Zakayev returned to the UK but the British authorities arrested him briefly at
London Heathrow Airport; he was released on 50,000
GBP bail, which was paid by British actress
Vanessa Redgrave, his friend who had travelled with him from Denmark. He was accused by Russian authorities of 13 criminal acts. All accusations were proven to be false. In another accusation, Father Sergei, one of two
Russian Orthodox Church priests allegedly murdered by Zakayev, turned out to be in fact still alive. The witness
Reverend Filipp, allegedly kidnapped by Zakayev in 1996, also refuted his supposed testimony and even denounced Russian authorities for "implicating the Church in politics". Leading Russian
human rights activist
Sergei Kovalev told the court Zakayev would be at risk of death in Russian captivity (Kovalev spoke about two high-profile Chechen prisoners, field commanders
Salman Raduyev and
Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev, who died soon after being jailed in Russia, and of another, parliamentary speaker
Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev, who has "disappeared" without trace after his arrest in 2000). Therefore, on 13 November 2003,
Judge Timothy Workman rejected the Russian request, deciding that it was politically motivated and that Zakayev would be at risk of
torture in the case of "unjust and oppressive" extradition. The judge also said the crimes which involved Zakayev allegedly using armed force against combatants were not extraditable because they took place in the situation of
internal armed conflict. Russian authorities in turn responded by accusing the court of double standards. On 29 November 2003, it was announced that Zakayev had been granted political asylum in the UK. After receiving
political asylum in Great Britain in 2003, Zakayev made
London his permanent residence, and he visited several countries (including
France,
Germany and
Poland) without being arrested. During the September 2004
Beslan school hostage crisis, Zakayev consented to the request of the civilian negotiators and authorities of
North Ossetia–Alania to fly to Russia to negotiate with the hostage takers. However, the siege ended in bloody confusion just a few hours before this could happen. As an envoy of Maskhadov, he also met in London with the representatives of the
Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia in February 2005, where they agreed on a peace proposal centred around a gradual cessation of violence by rebels corresponding with the three-week ceasefire unilaterally declared by Maskhadov (who once again called for
President of Russia Vladimir Putin to negotiate). These efforts were ignored by the Russian government and Maskhadov himself was soon killed in Chechnya. On 31 October 2007, Zakayev officially distanced himself from the newly resigned Chechen separatist leader
Doku Umarov and the Chechen Islamist
ideologist Movladi Udugov, who together had declared the creation of
Caucasus Emirate in the place of abolished ChRI. In response, Zakayev called for the remnants of the separatist parliament to form the new government and salvage legitimacy. Soon after, on 20 November 2007, Zakayev submitted his resignation from the post of foreign minister, but said this should not be viewed as a departure from "the fight for our independence, our freedom, and for the recognition of our state". He subsequently assumed the position of prime minister of the exile government. Zakayev and
Alla Dudayeva, the widow of the first Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev, accused Udugov of being a paid
agent provocateur for the Russia's
FSB. In London, Zakayev became friends with the Russian dissident and former FSB officer
Alexander Litvinenko, later
murdered by radioactive poisoning in November 2006; Zakayev accused the Russian President Putin of ordering the death of Litvinenko. In 2007, British police warned Zakayev that there was an increased threat to his personal security shortly before the alleged attempt to kill Berezovsky by the FSB-connected Chechen gangster
Movladi Atlangeriyev (or "Mr A"). According to the
KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky in 2008, Zakayev was placed #2 on the FSB
assassination list, between Berezovsky and Litvinenko. In January 2008, Zakayev's name showed up on the purported hit list of Ramzan Kadyrov's enemies abroad to be killed, which was published on the
Internet following the murder of the Chechen dissident
Umar Israilov (a former bodyguard of Kadyrov who was shot dead after receiving asylum in
Austria). Zakayev was arrested by the Polish police during his visit to Poland on 17 September 2010. He was released the same day. In 2021, Zakayev expressed his condolences to the friends and relatives of the killed head of "
Islamic State – Caucasus Province",
Aslan Byutukayev, calling him and his followers "best of the best representatives of our people", a statement that met criticism from Ramzan Kadyrov. In September 2021, Zakayev released a statement on behalf of the Chechen government-in-exile regarding the
Fall of Kabul and the conquest of Afghanistan by the
Taliban. According to researcher Aslan Doukaev, the statement was "cautious", as it voiced concerns over "possible violations of fundamental human rights" and urged the Taliban to not abuse their power, pointing out that
Muhammad had also behaved mercifully upon
conquering Mecca. Doukaev contrasted Zakayev's wording with much more enthusiastic comments made by Islamist Chechen separatists.
Increased activism amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine In 2022, Russia launched a
full invasion of Ukraine. At this point, several anti-Kadyrov Chechen militant groups like the
Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion and the
Sheikh Mansur Battalion were already fighting for Ukraine. In May 2022, Zakayev travelled to Kyiv and met with Ukrainian officials for "confidential" talks. Later, the creation of the "
Separate Special Purpose Battalion of the Chechen Republic's Armed Forces" was announced by Zakayev; this unit officially styled itself as the continuation of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. A fourth separatist unit, called "Khamzat Gelayev Joint Task Detachment" was also founded. As the Russo-Ukrainian War continued to escalate, the pro-Ukrainian Chechen separatists increasingly framed the war as a chance to restore the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. On 18 October 2022,
Ukraine's parliament recognized the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as "temporarily occupied" state. Zakayev had lobbied in support of this resolution. In November 2023, the "
Congress of the Peoples of the North Caucasus" (a political alliance of various northern Caucasus separatist groups) appointed Zakayev the head of its Defense Commission alongside Akhmad Akhmedov, Sheikh Mansur Battalion deputy commander. The Congress aims at coordinating the different separatist exiles to unite their efforts against Russia. == Invitations to return to Chechnya ==