Akhmad Kadyrov Akhmad Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov ( ; ; 23 August 1951 – 9 May 2004 ) , also spelled Akhmat , was the Chief Mufti of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the 1990s during and after the First Chechen War . At the outbreak of the Second Chechen War he switched sides , offering his service to the Russian government , and later became the President of the Chechen Republic from 5 October 2003 , acting as head of administration since July 2000 . On 9 May 2004 , he was assassinated by Chechen Islamists in Grozny , using a bomb blast during a World War II memorial victory parade . His son , Ramzan Kadyrov , who led his father ' s militia , became one of his successors in March 2007 as the President of the Chechen Republic . Early life . Akhmad ( or Akhmat ) Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov was born in Karaganda in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic on 23 August 1951 to a Chechen family that had been expelled from Chechnya during the Stalinist repressions . In April 1957 , his family returned to Shalinsky District of the Chechen - Ingush ASSR . In 1980 , he started studying Islam at Mir - i Arab Madrasah in Bukhara , and followed by studying at Tashkent Islamic University in Tashkent , Uzbekistan , from 1982 to 1986 . In the early 1990s , he returned to Chechnya , and founded the Islam Institute in the village of Kurchaloy . First Chechen War . Following the Chechen declaration of independence , he became a supporter of separatist president Dzhokhar Dudayev . Kadyrov fought prominently in the First Chechen War on the Chechen side as a militia commander . In 1995 , he was appointed Chief Mufti of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria . Following the outbreak of violence between Moscow and Chechen separatists , Kadyrov famously declared that " Russians outnumber Chechens in many times , thus every Chechen would have to kill 150 Russians . " Second Chechen War . While the first war was mainly fought for nationalism , after the " de facto " independence of Ichkeria , much of the Chechen forces were jihad is , such as the Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya . Kadyrov , as Chief Mufti , was critical of Wahhabi sm , to which many of the foreign fighters adhered . Kadyrov – a leading figure in the resistance movement – decided to abandon the insurgency in 1999 and offered his support to Russian federal forces in Second Chechen War . Maskhadov immediately fired him from the Chief Mufti chair , although this decree was never accepted by Kadyrov , who abdicated himself a few months later due to his civilian chairman career . According to James Hughes , Kadyrov ' s U - turn may have been motivated partly by personal ambition and partly by a concern with the desperate condition of the Chechen population , and was also driven by a fear of the growing sectarian Wahhabi influence on the insurgency . After the Russian forces seized control over Chechnya in July 2000 , Kadyrov was appointed acting head of the administration by the Russian president Vladimir Putin . On 5 October 2003 , he was elected the first President of Chechnya . In this position , he remained mainly pro - Moscow . He also advocated numerous amnesty campaigns for former rebel fighters , who were allowed to join Chechen police and loyalist militia forces if they surrender . His chief personal bodyguard was Movladi Baisarov . Reportedly , there were at least a dozen assassination attempts against him before the final one . Death and legacy . On 9 May 2004 , an explosion ripped through the VIP seating at the Dinamo football stadium during a mid - morning Soviet Victory Day parade in the capital city of Grozny , instantly killing Akhmad Kadyrov . Two of Kadyrov ' s bodyguards , the Chairman of the Chechen State Council , a Reuters journalist , and as many as a dozen others were also killed ( a later report stated that more than 30 people had died ) . Some 56 others were wounded , including Colonel General Valery Baranov , the commander of Russian forces in Chechnya , who lost his leg in the explosion . The bomb was said to have been built into the concrete of a supporting column during recent repairs . Akhmad Kadyrov had four children , two sons ( Zelimkhan and Ramzan ) and two daughters ( Zargan and Zulay ) . As of 2009 , only one son is still alive , Ramzan Kadyrov , who led his father ' s militia ( the eldest son , Zelimkhan Kadyrov , died later at 31 May 2004 ) . Ramzan was later appointed as prime minister of Chechnya and president of Chechnya in March 2007 .