The flag is composed of three horizontal bars of, from top to bottom: green, representing Islam; white; and red; superimposed on them is a narrow vertical white band at the hoist, containing the national ornament, a design of four golden scroll shapes.

From 1957 to 1978, the Soviet flag of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was based on the flag of the Russian SFSR with the addition of a blue vertical bar on the hoist side and the abbreviated name of the Republic (НГӀАССР in Chechen and Ingush, and ЧИАССР in Russian).

Green is the color of life, red symbolizes the bloodshed in the struggle for freedom and white represents the road to a bright future.

[1] These flags were mainly used by supporters of Dzhokhar Dudayev, Aslan Maskhadov and their successors.

The pro-Moscow opposition to Dudayev used a flag of similar design with the main difference being the inversion of the red and white stripes.