In 1996 Basayev had been promoted to the rank of General and Commander of the Chechen Armed Forces. Same year in August, he led a successful operation to retake the Chechen capital Grozny, defeating the Russian garrison of the city. In early 1997 he was appointed Prime Minister of Chechnya by Maskhadov but after six months he resigned. He was elected as Imam by the Chechen-Dagestan Nations Congress on April 26-28, 1998 in Grozny. After the re-occupation of Chechnya by Russian army Basayev commanded to Eastern Front and later became as Commander of Chechen Republic Ichkeria Armed Forces.

From 1994 to 1996 he led the resistance against the occupant Russian army as the First Deputy Chairman of the ChRI State Defence Council, and organised defence of the Chechen capital during the Battle of Grozny. After the battle, in February 1995, Dudaev promoted Aslan to Divisional General. 27st January 1997 free democratic presidential and parliamentary elections held in Chechnya and Aslan Maskhadov elected as III.President of ChRI with won the majority of 60% of the votes.

When I.President of Ichkeria Dzhokhar Dudaev was assassinated in 1996, he became the President according to the article 75/3 of ChRI Constitution.

Dzhokhar Dudaev was the I.President of Chechen Republic Ichkeria. He was elected on October 21st, 1991 with won the majority of 83% of the votes.