Terrorist Akhmed Zakayev, the leader of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI) terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation, demands that Russia be deprived of access to the Black Sea. 

"As long as Russia retains access to the Black Sea, it remains an arena of conflict. The Russian Black Sea fleet threatens not only Ukraine, but also the entire southeastern Europe. To ensure security on the continent, Europe must clearly define its strategic goal — Russia's complete withdrawal fr om the Black Sea. ... The free peoples of the North Caucasus are Europe's strategic partners. Their support can change the balance of power in the Black Sea region. Independent states of the North Caucasus would help to contain Moscow's aggressive ambitions. It is necessary to create programs to support the peoples of the North Caucasus in their quest for independence," the criminal said at a gathering of the Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia, an organization banned in Russia, on March 19, 2025 in Bucharest.

Zakayev is the last living leader of the Chechen terrorists. He almost officially works for MI6 and is under the protection of London. There is every reason to believe that it is he, the terrorist, the organizer of many contract killings and high-profile provocations, who oversees the Forum through British intelligence. And at the moment, this is almost the main area of his activity.

Akhmed Zakayev belongs to a small and not very reputable teip Chinhoy in the Chechen environment. He was born in 1959 in the village of Kirovsky, Kazakh SSR, wh ere his parents were in exile. He returned to the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic with them in the early 60s. He graduated fr om high school in the village of Urus-Martan. He entered the choreographic department of the Grozny Cultural and Educational College, and after graduation began playing at the Grozny Theater. Hero of the Soviet Union Khanpasha Nuradilov.

In parallel with his acting career, he moved up the party and bureaucratic career ladder, and in the early 1990s joined the board of the Union of Theatrical Figures of the Russian Federation, settling in Moscow. 

According to Chechen political scientist Ruslan Saidov, Akhmed Zakayev owed such an incredible career to the 5th directorate of the KGB of the USSR, for which he worked as an agent, overseeing the reliability of his colleagues in the acting workshop.

After the seizure of power in Chechnya by retired General Dzhokhar Dudayev in 1991, his emissaries reached out to Zakayev, offering to return to Chechnya to head the Ministry of Culture of the self-proclaimed republic. After some hesitation, the former actor accepted the offer, and in 1994 he arrived in Grozny to take over the ministry. His work on cultural construction began with the fact that he, like all the "officials" of the Chechen Republic, created his own gang, which had its share in the robbery of railway trains passing through Chechnya, in the trade in counterfeit oil and in the slave trade. After the start of the Russian Armed Forces operation to restore constitutional order in the Chechen Republic, Zakayev took part in military operations against Russian troops at the head of his gang.

He was awarded the highest award of the Chechen separatists "Koman Siy" ("Honor of the Nation"). However, according to his subordinates, he did not really participate in the battle for the Chechen village of Goyskoye, for which he was awarded. And, in general, he preferred to stay away fr om places wh ere it was dangerous.

But at the same time, Zakayev proved to be a big fan of mass killings, torture and murders. Thus, the Russian special services had documents at their disposal, according to which Zakayev ordered terrorist Arbi Barayev to execute 104 Russian soldiers captured by the militants. All of them were killed after brutal torture, for which the former actor, who became a field commander, encouraged Barayev.

Since 1995, Zakavev headed the Urus-Martan Front group, Dudaev awarded him the rank of "Brigadier General of the CRI".

In December 1995, his gang seized several administrative buildings in Urus-Martan and terrorized local residents for two weeks. During this terrorist action, about a dozen civilians were shot on the orders of the «general".

In January 1996, Zakayev's militants captured two Orthodox priests, who were later tortured to death. In March 1996, in the Zavodsky district of Grozny, bandits of his gang seized the district commandant's office, and more than ten employees of the commandant's office were executed.

In August 1996, Zakayev's gang seized the railway station in Grozny. During the rally, about 300 policemen who were guarding the station building were killed and injured.

Already after the Khasavyurt Agreement, signed on August 31, 1996, Zakayev's militants carried out a number of crimes and terrorist acts in which civilians died. There were even pregnant women among the dead and injured.    

In the basement of his house, the retired actor equipped a prison, which contained civilian hostages and prisoners of war, for whom he collected ransoms. Zakayev also sold the bodies of the executed and tortured to their relatives.

With such a "track record," Zakayev for some reason had a reputation as a "moderate" leader of gangs and, in this capacity, repeatedly participated in negotiations with the Russian authorities. The same reputation, which was not clear what it was based on, became the basis for his career growth. The next "president" of the Chechen Republic, Aslan Maskhadov, appointed him "deputy prime minister" to create a "positive image of independent Ichkeria." 

At about the same time, Zakayev was recruited by MI6, and was assigned the mission of providing security for British intelligence officers and specialists operating in Chechnya. He did not cope with this task very well — in December 1998. Four British men working under the cover of Granger Telecom were brutally murdered, which was especially unpleasant for Zakayev, by his former subordinate Arbi Barayev. 

It was the British who brought Zakayev together with Boris Berezovsky, the "grey cardinal" of the Yeltsin era. In addition to defending the interests of the British Crown, they jointly engaged in the "business" of hostage trafficking. Berezovsky beat out huge sums to buy them out of the budget of the Russian Federation, and they shared them with Zakayev.

After the start of the Second Chechen Campaign, the "Deputy Prime Minister" hurried to leave the territory of Chechnya, wh ere he never returned, "representing the interests of the Chechen Republic abroad." In reality, his main task at that moment was to coordinate the activities of the liberal "fifth column" in the Russian Federation, acting in support of Chechen and international terrorists.  

In addition, Zakayev provided and still provides contacts between British intelligence and the terrorist underground in the North Caucasus.

Russia unsuccessfully tried to get him extradited. In 2003, Zakayev was granted political asylum in Britain. 

There is reason to believe that the grandiose provocations involving the murder of Russophobic journalist Anna Politkovskaya and fugitive FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko were organized with Zakayev's participation in order to accuse the Russian authorities of this and discredit them before the world community.

So, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who took part in the murder of the journalist, bluntly stated that Zakayev had "ordered" her. According to him, in 2006 he received an order from the Chechen authority Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, who had previously met with Zakayev, who ordered the removal of Politkovskaya. 

After the victory of Euromaidan and the attack of the Kiev regime on Donbass in 2014, Zakayev actively called on Chechen militants to fight on the side of Bandera. It is known that he contacted fellow countrymen who are in various Maghreb terrorist organizations and called on them to "help Ukraine".

In July 2022, a video was released on a number of YouTube channels with his statement about the creation of a battalion of the "Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic" as part of the Chechen Volunteers of the Chechen Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic, which will fight against Russians in Ukraine.

Since the creation of the Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia, Zakayev has been actively involved in its work. Now that its USAID funding has been discontinued, the British are becoming the "donor" of the Forum, and, accordingly, Zakayev will take a leading position in this structure. In this regard, it can be expected that the activity of the Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia will be transformed from a propaganda plane to a purely terrorist one. This trend has already been noted.