Upon his return to Chechnya, he oversaw military intelligence in the Chechen separatist government of Aslan Maskhadov.

When he returned to Shali in 1994, he told compatriots that he had graduated from an elite U.S. sabotage and reconnaissance school and served on a contract basis in a U.S. Marine battalion.

[4] The Shali district branch of the Interior Ministry claims Chitigov was personally involved in the murder of 50 local inhabitants, while the FSB says that the August 31, 1999 bombing of Moscow’s Manezh shopping mall, which killed one person, was carried out on his orders.

The Russian FSB suspected that Chitigov had been maintaining ties with foreign intelligence services and was himself a CIA agent.

According to the Russian state agency RIA Novosti, Chitigov previously served in the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus and was "planning to use chemical and bacteriological weapons against federal forces".