Russian court declares Chechen government-in-exile ‘terrorist organisation’

A court in Chechnya, in the Russian North Caucasus, has ruled the region’s government-in-exile a “terrorist organisation”, citing its role in the Ukrainian war effort, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced in a press release on Tuesday.

The decision was issued by a district court in Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, and relates to the government of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI), which has operated in exile since its defeat in the Second Chechen War in 2000, along with “29 of its branches in 14 European countries”.

The ruling means that Russians can be sentenced to life in prison for any participation in or engagement with the organisation, including sharing its content online.

The CRI ruled the region as a de facto independent state from 1991 until 2000, and fought two devastating wars against Russia in 1994–97 and 1999–2000. Since 2007, the unrecognised government has been headed by exiled former Deputy Prime Minister Akhmed Zakayev, who resides permanently in the United Kingdom, where he received asylum in 2003.

Justifying the ruling, the FSB said that members of the CRI had been engaged in “combat operations against the Russian Armed Forces as part of the Ukrainian army” since 2022, and accused the organisation of sabotage on Russian territory, and murders of Russian military personnel and civilians.

Chechen fighters have volunteered in Ukraine’s international battalions since 2014, and the CRI has received backing from the Ukrainian government, including through a 2022 parliamentary resolution which recognised Chechnya as “temporarily occupied by Russia”.

Zakayev resurrected the CRI’s armed forces in 2022 as the Separate Special Purpose Battalion. The unit fights in Ukraine alongside several other Chechen units, including the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion and the Sheikh Mansur Battalion, both of which have been active in Ukraine since the war in Donbas began in 2014.