Doku Zavgayev

In 1989, Zavgayev, a former collective farm manager and senior Soviet Communist Party official, he was elected as the first Chechen First Secretary of the autonomous republic since the Chechens' return in 1957.

In August 1991 Zavgayev, the Communist leader of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, publicly expressed his support for the failed Moscow putsch against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Taking advantage of the Soviet Union's collapse, Dzhokhar Dudayev and his militants acted against the legitimate government and Zavgayev's administration. On September 6, 1991, militants of the All-National Congress of Chechen People (NCChP), who mainly consisted of freed inmates from Chechen jails, headed by Dudayev, stormed a session of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR Supreme Soviet, killing the Soviet Communist Party chief for Grozny, Vitali Kutsenko, severely injuring several other Soviet members, and effectively overthrowing the legitimate government of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. Zavgayev, the Chairman of the Soviet, was not present. Trying to avoid further bloodshed he was compelled to leave the republic, publicly announcing that he would return.

By the spring of 1994 the atrocities and lawlessness in Chechnya have reached its toll. Both the president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin and the heads of the "force ministries" were convinced that Russia should actively intervene in Chechnya. Zavgayev was appointed a pro-Moscow head of state on 24 of October 1995, and was elected in December the same year with 96% of the votes.

On December 8, 1995, Zavgayev and Viktor Chernomyrdin signed an agreement as a basis for a Russian-Chechen federation treaty which would give Chechnya broad autonomy along the lines of the between Russia and Tatarstan.

After the 1996 withdrawal of the Russian forces from Chechnya, he was appointed Russia's ambassador in Tanzania. Fron February 2004 he was Deputy Foreign Minister and he was Director General of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from August 2004 to September 2009. From September 2009 to November 2019 he was Russia's ambassador in Slovenia.[1]