A court in Grozny has designated the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as a terrorist organization and banned the activities of "the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and 29 of its branches in 14 European countries" in Russia.

This March 12 decision was only announced today in a statement published on the website of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which reported that the ruling was issued by the Sheikh-Mansurovsky District Court of the Chechen capital "based on evidence collected by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation in cooperation with the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation."

The FSB writes that the "foreign organization" Ichkeria was formed in 1991. The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, according to the court ruling cited by the FSB, is accused of having units representing it fighting on the side of Ukraine, and some of them participating in sabotage operations in the Kursk and Belgorod regions of Russia. Those involved in the banned Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI) are subject to criminal penalties, including life imprisonment.

Several units associated with Ichkeria's supporters are known to be fighting on Kyiv's side in the Russian-Ukrainian war: the Sheikh Mansur and Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalions, the "Mad Pack" units, the Special Operation Group (SOG), the Khamzat Gelayev Battalion, and a separate special-purpose battalion (OBON) within the Foreign Legion, created by Akhmed Zakayev, the head of the Ichkerian government in exile.

The court ruling also states that since November 2007, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria has been "led by A. Zakayev, who is wanted internationally for terrorist crimes and hiding in the UK."

In 2022, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov publicly called for Akhmed Zakayev's assassination, promising a reward.
On March 16, 2026, The Insider reported in an investigation that Zakayev was the target of a new secret Russian intelligence agency, Center 795. An attempted kidnapping of his relatives in London was reportedly unsuccessful, and one of the participants in the operation was detained in Colombia.

In 1991, the Chechen Republic declared independence, which Moscow did not recognize, nor did its elected first president, Dzhokhar Dudayev. In January 1993, a year and a half after its de facto disunity, Russian authorities formally enshrined the division of the Chechen-Ingush Republic, incorporating both parts into the Russian Federation as two separate entities.
This decision was also incorporated into the new Constitution of the Russian Federation, adopted in a referendum in December 1993, in which Chechnya did not participate.

In response to this, Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev issued a decree on January 16, 1994, renaming the Chechen Republic the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, emphasizing Grozny's independence from Moscow, and declared that Chechnya had adopted its own Constitution back in 1992 and was an independent state.