Ali Tupenlov

> What I think of Putin? I used to think he was some hero of mine, going out of his way to protect the people and interests of the Russian Federation. I thought of him as a great liberator of some sort. But the Honourable Igor Elmpt managed to rid me of my loyalty to Kadyrov and Putin. Now I think of Putin as a manipulative Stalin wannabe, who needs to be beheaded immediately.
>
> - Ali Tupenlov, in an interview with the Magadan Post, 2037.

 Service/branch | * Chemgotan Ground Force
* Chemgotan war of Independence

**Ali Tupenlov**, commonly known as **Commander Tupenlov** or **Emir Tupenlov**, also known as **Igor Elmpt's Right Hand Man**, was a Chechen-born Chemgotan revolutionary who participated in the Chemgotan War of Independence and the Remnant War. He was a prominent commander in the Chemgotan separatist movement against Russia, in which he played a significant, yet controversial, military and political role in Chemgotan history during the 2020s and early 2030s, and was one of the founders of the Republic of Chemgota. Tupenlov was commonly viewed as a well-respected, ruthless fighter. He was also able to speak, besides Russian: Arabic, English, Farsi, Chechen, Pashto, and Kurdish. His charisma attracted fighters from different ethnic groups, taking up arms to fight against the Russians. He was also a pioneer of Chemgotan revolutionary media, especially when it came to using videos for Elmptist propaganda. His operations spread within the borders of Chemgota, leading ambushes and raids against the Russian Federation. He was killed when Pro-Kremlin fighters raided his home in Magadan, Chemgota.

As a young student, Tupenlov was known for his extensive travels throughout the world, especially Saudi Arabia and was also somewhat radicalized by the teachings of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, leading him to show hatred towards the Cossack and Ukrainian peoples. His burgeoning desire to help overturn what he saw as the fascist exploitation of Ukraine by the Ukrainian politicians prompted his involvement in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, whose eventual drive to overthrow the "Fascist" government of Ukraine solidified Tupenlov's political ideology, even after he suffered multiple injuries during the Battle of Hostomel. Later during a trip to Primorskii in 2025, Tupenlov met with Chemgotan founder and revolutionary Igor Elmpt, who convinced the young Tupenlov to turn towards Elmptism and fight Putin's regime in the hopes of creating a free, independent state. He would soon after, fly to Magadan alongside Igor, and accompany him when Elmpt gave elaborate speeches criticizing the Putin regime, promising the people a better way to live in the Far East, and urging the public to join his side. Tupenlov soon rose to prominence among Elmpt's men, and was promoted to second-in-command of the Democratic Party of the Far East, and played a pivotal role in the guerrilla campaign that deposed Russian involvement in Eastern Siberia.

## Early life

Ali Khattab Tupenlov was born to Salahdin Tupenlov and Celia Tupenlov, on the 14th of June, 2002, in Groznyy, Chechnya. He was the eldest of five children, who described him as fun to be with. Growing up in a family with a lot of political knowledge, Tupenlov was introduced to a wide spectrum of political perspectives even as a boy. His father, a staunch supporter of Kadyrovites from the Chechen Wars, would host veterans from the conflict in the Tupenlov household. Despite suffering acute asthma, he excelled as an athlete, enjoying swimming, football and golf. He was also an excellent MMA fighter, and competed at Russian tournaments. His trainer said that Tupenlov had an "Aggressive right hook that would knock out anyone who would get in his way".

He was described as a brilliant student, scoring 94 percent in the secondary school examination, and initially wanted to continue his higher studies in the United States, even if he was already fond of Islamic periodicals and tapes as opposed to his siblings, to the extent they nicknamed him after the second caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab from his middle name. He would retain the title during his militant activities, which began in 2021, at the age of 19, by joining the 141st Special Motorized Regiment, and later going on to fight in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

## Service with the Russian military

Not much is known about his involvement with the Russian military. But at the age of 19, Tupenlov left his home to join the 141st Special Motorized Regiment, where he would later participate in the Russian invasion against Ukraine in 2022. During this time, he permanently incapacitated his right leg after an accident with a bomb that was dropped from a Ukrainian drone. The injury was treated with honey by Tupenlov on himself. From there, he was always seen walking with a limp. In March of 2022, Tupenlov took part in the battle of Hostomel, where he lost a lot of close friends from the VDV on the battlefield. He returned to Groznyy after the drone bomb incident with other wounded Chechen volunteers in May of 2022. Tupenlov underwent further training in Groznyy throughout the period of the war in Ukraine. Sources claim that in 2024, he was one of many Chechen volunteers who aided Russian forces in the Syrian Civil War, where he allegedly racked up over 70 kills. However, the Chechen officials denied any involvement by Tupenlov in the Syrian Civil War. In 2025, Tupenlov left to pursue his "travel marathon".

## Journey across Russia

In 2025, Tupenlov's "hunger to explore Russia" led him to intersperse his pursuits, planning two long introspective journeys that fundamentally changed the way he viewed himself and the contemporary political conditions in Russia. The first expedition, in 2025, was a solo trip through the rural provinces of Siberia with a car that he bought specifically for this purpose. This lasted for a month. His second expedition, in 2025, was a nine-month, 8,000-kilometer continental motorcycle trek through parts of Eastern Siberia. For the latter, he left the Chechen military to embark with his friend, Khalil Ghushayev, with the final goal of spending a few weeks leisure at various locations in Yatkusk, on the banks of the Lena River.

In Yatkusk, Tupenlov was angered by the conditions of the people living there, seeing that they lacked a lot of facilities people in Moscow and Groznyy had access to. He was especially moved by his overnight encounter in the Lena River with a persecuted couple who did not even own a blanket, describing them as "the shivering victims of Russian exploitation". On the way to Primorskii, he was stunned by the crushing poverty of the remote rural areas, where peasant farmers worked small plots of land owned by wealthy Russian Oligarchs. Later on his journey, Tupenlov was especially impressed by the tolerance amongst people living in impossible conditions, quoting from Che Guevara that, "The highest forms of human solidarity and loyalty arise among such lonely and desperate people.". Tupenlov and his friend Ghushayev, would continue to Primorskii where he would meet The Honourable Igor Elmpt.

### Meeting Igor Elmpt

Tupenlov and Ghushayev arrived in Primorskii on the 21st of August 2025. During this time, he renewed his friendship with notable figures, such as Vladimir Kalinskyy and other Russian locals living in impoverished conditions whom he had met earlier. The following month, Kalinskyy introduced him to Aleksi Spayevoz, who subsequently introduced him to his cousin, Igor Elmpt, the revolutionary leader who at the time was in the midst of forming the Democratic Party of the Far East and was now plotting to instate a new breakaway state from Russia. During a lengthy conversation with Igor on the night of their first meeting, Igor managed to convince Tupenlov that the Elmptist cause was the one for which he had been searching for. After Elmpt convinced him, Tupenlov immediately signed himself up to be a member of the Democratic Party of the Far East. Despite "contrasting personalities", along with an immense age gap, from this point on, Ali and Igor began to foster what many deemed a "revolutionary friendship that would change the shape and future of Russia", as a result of their coinciding commitment to anti-Putinism. After spending time together in Primorskii, Tupenlov, Ghushayev and Elmpt would embark on a helicopter flight to Magadan.

## Campaign in Magadan

After one month of remaining in Primorskii, Igor Elmpt and Ali Tupenlov, along with Khalil Ghushayev took a helicopter flight back to Magadan where they would attempt to convince the people of Magadan to join the Elmptist political conference and to share thoughts onto how to improve the Far East and the eventual permission of autonomy and authority to control their region accordingly without much Russian interference. It was in Magadan where Tupenlov would meet other prominent members of the Elmptist movement, including Igor's childhood friend Vikhrov Kusma. To convince the people more Igor Elmpt started to take things into his own matters by forming the radical political organisation, the Democratic Party of the Far East (Demokraticheskaya partiya Dal'nego Vostoka) which began to spread its propaganda and believing that the Far East can develop into something better without Russia having to pull the strings. Tupenlov found himself believing every word that came out of Igor's mouth during his rallies, and would later dedicate himself to fighting for the Elmptist cause.

By this point in Tupenlov's life, he deemed that the Russian government installed and supported pro-Putin terrorist organisations around the world. In this vein, he considered Putin a "Manipulative Stalin wannabe who needed to be beheaded immediately". Tupenlov participated in the military training with the members of the Movement as an instructor, due to his experience with the elite Chechen paramilitary unit Akhmat Sila. Large portions of training involved learning hit and run tactics of guerrilla warfare. Tupenlov made recruits undergo 15-hour marches over mountains, across rivers, and through the dense Taiga landscape, learning and perfecting the procedures of ambush and quick retreat. From the start, Elmpt praised Tupenlov's efforts to train his followers, saying that Tupenlov "would spend every moment of his free time dedicating to prepare his recruits to face the destructive nature of the Russian military". This was where he earned the nickname "Commander Tupenlov" by his recruits.

### Igor's capture and exile

On a particular night in October, Igor was apprehended by several men who captured and took him to a secluded area in Vladivostok where he was forcefully dictated to swear his allegiance to Putin and the Russian Federation. This did not seem to convince his captors, whom afterwards subjected Elmpt to weeks of torture, which broke him down mentally and physically. After such events, he sought to exile himself in Seattle, Washington State for a number of years, getting himself immersed within American culture before he would return to undertake his political endeavors. While he was there, he planned to have his close friends, Vikhrov Kusma and Tupenlov along with other trusted associates of the Democratic Party of the Far East take over in his place while he was gone, with Elmpt frequently orchestrating and organising rallies and demonstrations against the Russian Federation over various phone conversations.

Tupenlov would follow Elmpt's orders directly, doing tasks such as putting up propaganda posters on the walls of various cities around Elmpt's projected map for his future state.