Ramzan Kadyrov in the context of "Sulim Yamadaev–Ramzan Kadyrov power struggle"

Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia–Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Checheno-Ingush ASSR split into two parts: the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic. The latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which declared independence, while the former sided with Russia. Following the First Chechen War of 1994–1996 with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, although de jure it remained a part of Russia. Russian federal control was restored in the Second Chechen War of 1999–2009, with Chechen politics being dominated by the former Ichkerian mufti Akhmad Kadyrov, and later his son Ramzan Kadyrov.

Akhmat-Khadzhi Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov (23 August 1951 – 9 May 2004) was a Chechen politician and revolutionary who served as 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, having acted as head of administration since July 2000.

On 9 May 2004, he was assassinated by Chechen Islamists in Grozny, by a bomb blast during a Victory Day memorial parade. His son, Ramzan Kadyrov, who led his father's militia, became his successor in March 2007 as the President of the Chechen Republic.

Kadyrovites or Kadyrovtsy (Russian: Кадыровцы) or Akhmat (Russian: Ахмат) is an informal term of Chechnya-based detachments of National Guard of Russia ("Rosguard"), Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Russian Ministry of Defence. The name refers to Akhmad Kadyrov, 1st President of the Chechen Republic and father of Ramzan Kadyrov. While technically subordinated to Russian state agencies, they enjoy a special treatment and some describe them as "Kadyrov's private army". Some Kadyrovite units are in charge of guarding Chechnya oil fields and Tsentaroi, now Akhmat-Yurt, Kadyrov's home village.

In 2015 BBC reported that a considerable part of Kadyrovites were Chechen Republic of Ichkeria militants pardoned by Russian president Vladimir Putin under the word of Ramzan Kadyrov, with their numbers informally estimated in the range of 10,000–30,000.

Suleiman Bekmirzayevich Yamadayev (Russian: Сулейман Бекмирзаевич Ямадаев; 21 June 1973 – 30 March 2009), or simply Sulim Yamadayev (Сулим Ямадаев), was a Chechen military commander. The fourth of six Yamadayev brothers, he fought for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria during the First Chechen War before defecting to Russia during the Second Chechen War, in which he commanded Special Battalion Vostok under Spetsnaz GRU. As such, until 2008, he was officially in command of the biggest pro-Kremlin militia beyond those controlled by Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, who has led Chechnya since 2007. From 1 to 22 August 2008, Yamadayev was wanted on an active federal arrest warrant in Russia, but continued to command Special Battalion Vostok uninterrupted during the Russian invasion of Georgia.

On 5 March 2003, Yamadayev's older brother Dzhabrail was assassinated in a bombing attack. On 24 September 2008, his oldest brother Ruslan was shot dead on Smolenskaya Embankment in Moscow, and though initial press reports identified him as Sulim, the name was later corrected. On 28 March 2009, Yamadayev himself was shot multiple times at an underground parking garage in Dubai; it was believed that he had been killed at the scene, but his younger brother Isa claimed that he had actually been taken to a hospital and died two days later. At the time, Yamadayev had been locked in a year-long power struggle with Kadyrov.

Said-Magomed Shamaevich Kakiyev (Russian: Саид-Магомед Шамаевич Какиев, also spelled Kakiev; born 22 February 1970) is a colonel in the Russian Army, who was the leader of the GRU Spetsnaz Special Battalion Zapad ("West"), a Chechen military force, from 2003 to 2007. Inside Chechnya his men were sometimes referred to as the Kakievtsy. Unlike the other Chechen pro-Moscow forces in Chechnya, Kakiyev and his men are not former rebels and during the First Chechen War were some of the few Chechen militants who fought on the Russian side.

Kakiyev has been declared a Hero of the Russian Federation, has twice received the Order of Courage and was awarded two specially engraved guns by the Russian Minister of Defense. He had been engaged in power struggles for overall military authority with the president of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and the commander of the Special Battalion Vostok ("East") Sulim Yamadayev. In 2007, having left the post of battalion commander, he was appointed deputy military commissar of Chechnya for military-patriotic education of youth.