Ibragim "Ibby" Khultygov is a Chechen

Chechen people

Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...

-Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n politician and paramilitary commander, and a former counter-intelligence

Counter-intelligence

Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...

 and security chief for the separatist government

Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is the unrecognized secessionist government of Chechnya. The republic was proclaimed in late 1991 by Dzokhar Dudayev, and fought two devastating wars between separatists and the Russian Federation which denounced secession...

 in Chechnya

Chechnya

The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...

.

In 1998 Khultygov took over as the head of the Ichkeria

Ichkeria

Ichkeria can refer to:* Ichkeria , the historical Turkic name for a region more or less coinciding with the Republic of Chechnya* Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the secessionist government of Chechnya...

's National Security Service (NSS). Same year, his brother Lecha Khultygov was shot dead in a shoot-out between the NSS and the men of the warlord Salman Raduyev

Salman Raduyev

Salman Raduyev was a Chechen separatist warlord considered to be one of the most radical and notorious Chechen rebel commanders of the period between 1994 and 1999...

. Ibragim himself was a target of assassination attempt in 1999. He had surrendered to the Russian forces on August 7, 2000, allegedly after being humiliated by the separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov

Aslan Maskhadov

Aslan Aliyevich Maskhadov was a leader of the Chechen separatist movement and the third President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.He was credited by many with the Chechen victory in the First Chechen War, which allowed for the...

. Khultygov then became a commander of a special forces unit belonging to the pro-Moscow "Kadyrovtsy

Kadyrovtsy

Kadyrovtsy also Kadyrovites, is a term used by the population of Chechnya, as well as members of the groups themselves, for former members of the paramilitary units of the former pro-Moscow President of the Chechen Republic Akhmad Kadyrov, headed by his son and the current President Ramzan...

" militias, and eventually also a member of Chechnya’s pro-Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

parliament.