A foreign volunteer for the Nationalist faction in the Spanish Civil War, he later became one of the leaders of the collaborationist Russian National People's Army (RNNA) unit.

His father was Konstantin Sakharov [ru], a Tsarist general who went on to command White Army forces on the Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War.

[4] According to the memoirs of Russian Liberation Army (ROA) veteran Leonid Samutin [ru], in February 1941 Konstantin Sakharov gave his blessings to his son to fight communism, and bestowed upon him his rank of colonel and all of his military honours.

[3] After the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, Sakharov became part of a German effort to establish a military group composed of Soviet prisoners of war.

As a result of Sakharov and Ivanov's efforts, the Russian National People's Army (RNNA) was established in the Belarusian village of Asintorf [be].

[2] In late March 1943, Sakharov and Ivanov travelled to the city of Hlybokaye with the goal of transferring soldiers from the 1st Russian SS Brigade [ru] to the RNNA.

[7] Following his return to Berlin, Sakharov was appointed as an operational adjutant to Andrey Vlasov, then commander of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR).

[9] On 27 April 1945, Sakharov participated in a meeting of the division's commanders in Schneeberg, Saxony, where it was determined to travel south to Linz to link up with the remainder of KONR.

Sakharov subsequently fled to the American occupation zone in Germany, where he avoided repatriation to the Soviet Union under Operation Keelhaul.

He was a leading organiser of early post-war political activity among émigrés, founding the Saint Andrew's Flag Union and serving as a member of its Military-Political Council and Main Directorate.