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.

Shamil Basayev The Vice President and Commander of Armed Forces of Chechen Republic Ichkeria 1965 – July 10,2006

Shamil Basayev was born in the village of Dyshne-Vedeno, near Vedeno, in south-eastern Chechnya to Chechen parents from the Benoy teip. According to Gennady Troshev he has some distant Russian ancestry.  He was named after Imam Shamil, the third imam of Dagestan and Chechnya and the last leader of anti-Russian Avar-Chechen forces in the Caucasian War.