Career
In the early 1990s, Chitigov lived the United States. Upon his return to Chechnya, he oversaw military intelligence in the Chechen separatist government of Aslan Maskhadov. The Russian Financial Stability Board suspected that Chitigov had been maintaining ties with foreign intelligence services and was himself a Central Intelligence Agency agent.
According to the Russian state agency RIA Novosti, Chitigov previously served in the United States Marine Corps and was "planning to use chemical and bacteriological weapons against federal forces".