Criminals were coming to Chechnya from all over the world - they did not have a place in their own countries. But they could live perfectly well in Chechnya.

Akhmad Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov (Russian: Ахмат Абдулхамидович Кадыров; 23 August 1951 – 9 May 2004) also spelled Akhmat was the Chief Mufti of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the 1990s during and after the First Chechen War. In this position he remained mainly pro-Moscow. Early life
Akhmad (or Akhmat) Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov was born in Karaganda in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic on 23 August 1951 to a Chechen family that had been expelled from Chechnya during the Stalinist repressions.

At the outbreak of the Second Chechen War he switched sides offering his service to the Russian government and later became the President of the Chechen Republic from 5 October 2003 acting as head of administration since July 2000. On 9 May 2004 he was assassinated by Chechen Islamists in Grozny using a bomb blast during a World War II memorial victory parade. His son Ramzan Kadyrov who led his father's militia became one of his successors in March 2007 as the President of the Chechen Republic.