The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (/ɪtʃˈkɛriə/ itch-KERR-ee-ə; Chechen: Нохчийн Республик Ичкери, romanized: Nóxçiyn Respublik Içkeri; Russian: Чеченская Республика Ичкерия, romanized: Chechenskaya Respublika Ichkeriya; abbreviated as "ChRI" or "CRI"), known simply as Ichkeria, and also known as Chechnya, is a former de facto state that controlled most of the former Checheno-Ingush ASSR from 1991 to 2000 and has been a government-in-exile since.

Close ties between Gamsakhurdia and Dudayev led to Russian officials, including Alexander Rutskoy, accusing Georgia of "fomenting unrest in the [Chechen autonomous] republic".

[11][12] The Second Chechen War began in August 1999, with Ichkeria falling and subsequently being forcibly subsumed back under the control of the Russian central government in 2000.

[19] In November 1990, Dzhokhar Dudayev was elected head of the Executive Committee of the unofficial opposition Chechen National Congress (NCChP),[20] which advocated sovereignty for Chechnya as a separate republic within the Soviet Union.

[34][35] According to an article originally published by a Kremlin-backed publication, Komsomolskaya Pravda, and reprinted in early 1992 by The Guardian, Dudayev allegedly signed a decree outlawing the extradition of criminals to any country which did not recognize Chechnya.

[44] After staging another coup attempt in December 1993, the opposition organized a Provisional Council as a potential alternative government for Chechnya,[20][24] calling on Moscow for assistance.

[54] Former Minister of the Chemical and Oil Refining Industry of the USSR Salambek Khadzhiyev was appointed leader of the officially recognized Chechen government in November 1994.

[57] According to a 1997 Moscow Times article, ethnic Russian refugees were prevented from returning to vote by threats and intimidation, and Chechen authorities refused to set up polling booths outside the republic.

[63] According to Russian sources, Aslan Maskhadov tried to concentrate power in his hands to establish authority, but had trouble creating an effective state or a functioning economy.

[67] Russian sources maintain that the attacks were likely to originate from within Chechnya, despite the Kremlin's difficult negotiations with Maskhadov and difference of opinion regarding the Chechen conflict.

[71] On 9 August 1999, Islamist fighters from Chechnya infiltrated Russia's Dagestan region, declaring it an independent state and calling for a jihad until "all unbelievers had been driven out".

As more people escaped the war zones of Chechnya, President Maskhadov threatened to impose Sharia punishment on all civil servants who moved their families out of the republic.

[3] However, the influence of Zakayev's government was described as "marginal" by political scientist Mark Galeotti who argued that the Caucasus Emirate proved more influential both among the militants as well as within the Chechen diaspora.

[99] In his role as self-proclaimed prime minister in exile, Zakayev has extensively lobbied European governments from his headquarters in London to peruse more stringent sanctions on Russia, and for support for the Chechen cause.

The divide in the two groups is that Suleymanov's faction wishes to institute Sharia law should they take power in Chechnya, while Zakayev and his government in exile are stringent secularists, all while Umarov's supporters seeking a restoration of the Emirate are still a powerful voice in the diaspora with hundreds, if not thousands, coming to Ukraine to join various Chechen militant groups after fighting alongside Islamist rebels in Syria.

Former president of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, deposed in a military coup of 1991 and a leading participant in the Georgian Civil War, recognized the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1993.

[103] In June 2000, the Russian government claimed that Maskhadov had met with Osama bin Laden, and that the Taliban supported the Chechens with arms and troops.

[108] During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution in October recognizing the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as "temporarily occupied" by Russia.

The main strategy in the Russian war effort had been to use heavy artillery and air strikes leading to numerous indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

[112] According to Human Rights Watch, the campaign was "unparalleled in the area since World War II for its scope and destructiveness, followed by months of indiscriminate and targeted fire against civilians".

[116] A Chechen surgeon, Khassan Baiev, treated wounded in Samashki immediately after the operation and described the scene in his book:[117] Dozens of charred corpses of women and children lay in the courtyard of the mosque, which had been destroyed.

Leaving the village for the hospital in Grozny, I passed a Russian armored personnel carrier with the word SAMASHKI written on its side in bold, black letters.

[126] In one of the first rulings under Sharia law, in January 1997 an Islamic court ordered the payment of blood money to the family of a man who was killed in a traffic accident.

[128] Conceding to an armed and vocal minority movement in the opposition led by Movladi Udugov, in February 1999, Maskhadov declared The Islamic Republic of Ichkeria, and the Sharia system of justice was introduced.

[132] President Maskhadov started a major campaign against hostage-takers, and on 25 October 1998, Shadid Bargishev, Chechnya's top anti-kidnapping official, was killed in a remote controlled car bombing.

Other anti-kidnapping officials blamed the attack on Bargishev's recent success in securing the release of several hostages, including 24 Russian soldiers and an English couple.

Two large-scale hostage-takings have been documented, the Moscow theater hostage crisis and Beslan school siege, resulting in the deaths of multiple civilians.

In the Moscow stand-off, FSB Spetsnaz forces stormed the building on the third day using an unknown incapacitating chemical agent that proved to be lethal without sufficient medical care, resulting in the deaths of 133 out of 916 hostages.

[32] Due to the mounting anti-Russian sentiment following the declaration of independence and the fear of an upcoming war, by 1994 over 200,000 ethnic Russians decided to leave the independence-striving republic.

On March 13, 1992, Zviad Gamsakhurdia's government in exile, which was deposed during the 1991–1992 Georgian coup d'état, recognized the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and established diplomatic relations.