Ilyas Akhmadov

Ilyas Khamzatovich Akhmadov
Ilyas Khamzatovich Akhmadov
Ilyasaŋ Aẋmad-k̇ant Ẋamzat; Ильясан Ахьмад-кlант Хьамзат
Born	December 19, 1960 (age 63); Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union
Occupation	Minister of Foreign Affairs

Ilyas Khamzatovich Akhmadov (

political asylum

.

Biography

Akhmadov was born on December 19, 1960, in

Chechen nation—including his family—had been exiled by Stalin's government in 1944. The Akhmadovs returned to Chechnya

in 1962.

From 1978 to 1981 Ilyas Akhmadov studied in the Polytechnic University of Volgograd. After graduation, he served for four years as a sergeant major in the Red Army's Strategic Missile Forces. He left the army in 1985 as a Third Lieutenant, and in 1991 he graduated with distinction in political science from the Rostov University.

Returning to Chechnya, which had declared independence from Russia in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, he took a job in the political department of the Chechen Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In August 1994 Akhmadov was wounded during the fighting with forces of the warlord Ruslan Labazanov in Argun.

After the

chief of staff

. In 1996 he retired to private life.

Exile

On July 29, 1999, a month before the beginning of the Second Chechen War, the President of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov appointed Ilyas Akhmadov as Foreign Minister. Soon, Akhmadov and his colleagues in the separatist government dispersed and went into hiding, with some again taking up arms against the Russians. Akhmadov himself left Chechnya.

In his appeals and meetings with the representatives of

State Department

. He embarked on a tour of Western capitals, returning twice to the United States in 2000 and again in 2001. This provoked complaints from Russia, which alleged that he was involved in terrorism in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia.

In 2002 Akhmadov claimed asylum in the United States but his initial bid was turned down after opposition from the

suicide bombings and hostage-takings by Chechen extremists and has campaigned for peace talks to end the war). In April 2004 an Immigration Judge in Boston

issued an order granting Akhmadov asylum in the United States; that ruling became effective in August 2004 following the U.S. Government's abrupt withdrawal of its notice of appeal of the Immigration Judge's decision.