Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan (Khalid) Aliyevich Maskhadov (Chechen: Аслан Али кӏант Масхадан, Aslan Ali kant Masxadaŋ, Russian: Аслан Алиевич Масхадов) (21 September 1951 – 8 March 2005) was a leader of the Chechen independence movement and the third President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was credited by many with the Chechen victory in the First Chechen War, which allowed for the establishment of the de facto independent Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Maskhadov was elected President of Chechnya in January 1997. Following the start of the Second Chechen War in August 1999, he returned to leading the guerrilla resistance against the Russian army. He was killed in Tolstoy-Yurt, a village in northern Chechnya, in March 2005.[citation needed]