Russian security forces have put a Chechen opposition figure on the wanted list.
Ahmed Zakayev's associate Aset Sabdullaeva, also known as Aset Sabb, has been added to the federal wanted list of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", in June 2024, a case against Chechen natives Ahmed Zakayev and Murad Yusupov was submitted to the court, accused of organizing and leading a terrorist organization banned in Russia. Both were placed on the international wanted list. In January 2025, Zakayev and Yusupov were sentenced in absentia to 20 and 19 years in prison, respectively. In April 2026, a court in Grozny recognized the terrorist organization "Chechen Republic Ichkeria" and its subdivisions in 14 countries. The organization's activities have been declared banned in Russia.
Ahmed Zakayev is the special representative of Aslan Maskhadov in the West (2001), Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic Ichkeria* (2007-2009). He has been placed on the international wanted list on charges of terrorism and has received political asylum in the UK.
The data of 35-year-old Aset Sabdullaeva, a native of Grozny, was added to the federal wanted list of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs on September 16, noted "Mediazona" (added to the foreign agents registry).
According to the publication, Sabdullaeva, also known as Aset Sabb, was put on the wanted list by the FSB department for Chechnya. A few weeks earlier, on August 25, she was included in the Rosfinmonitoring registry as a suspect under the terrorism article. The details of Sabdullaeva's case and the specific charges are unknown.
Sabdullaeva is an associate of Ahmed Zakayev, one of the leaders of the unrecognized Ichkeria (the organization is recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia)*. In 2023, Zakayev appointed Aset Sabdullaeva as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ichkeria (the organization is recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia)*. In this capacity, she spoke at the U.S. Congress and at opposition decolonial events.
Aset Sabdullaeva is the daughter of Chechen poet and playwright Makkal Sabdullaeva, who since 1996 was Deputy Minister of Culture of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria*, and from September 1999 became Deputy Prime Minister of Ichkeria (the organization is recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia)* Ahmed Zakayev.
In July 2000, Makkal Sabdullaeva was detained at a Russian military checkpoint near the Grozny bus station and has been missing since then. Detailed biography of Sabdullaeva was published by his widow Birlant Ramzaeva on her social media page.
No official charges were brought against Makkal Sabdullaeva, but security forces unofficially informed Ramzaeva about his dire fate. In the office of the human rights commissioner, they told her that her husband had died; when Birlant demanded to return her husband's body for burial, they quoted her a price ranging from five to ten thousand dollars. The widow was never able to find any remains of Sabdullaeva, as reported in June 2001 by Mamed Idiev in an article for the Tbilisi newspaper "Caucasian Accent".
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* the Grozny court ruled to recognize the terrorist organization "Chechen Republic Ichkeria" ("ChRI") and 29 of its subdivisions in 14 European countries as terrorist and banned in Russia.
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