The Republic of Chechnya is a constituent republic and federal subject of the Russian Federation. It is located in the Caucasus region in southwest Russia. It is the political successor of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. From a centralized form of government during the existence of the Soviet Union, the republic's political system went upheavals during the 1990s with the establishment of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, leading to the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War which left the republic in total devastation. In 2000, following Russia's renewed rule, a local, republican form of government was established in the republic under the control of the Russian federal government.

In November 1990, the first Chechen National Congress (NCChP) was convened. It was an opposition movement headed by Major-General Dzhokhar Dudayev. In March 1991, the Supreme Soviet refused to take part in the All-Russian referendum on the introduction of the position of the President of the Russian Federation. That was the beginning of Chechnya's refusal to be involved with any All-Russia voting, which lasted for many years.

The Soviet coup d'état attempt on 19 August 1991 became the spark for the so-called Chechen Revolution. On 21 August the NCChP called for the overthrow of the Supreme Soviet of the Chechen-Ingush Republic. On September 11, 1991 Gennady Burbulis and Mikhail Poltoranin were dispatched from Moscow by the federal authorities to try restore order. On September 14, Ruslan Khasbulatov, a Chechen elected in 1990 to the Supreme Soviet of Russia from Grozny and its acting chairman after June 1991, arrived in Grozny. On September 15, at a special session of the Chechen-Ingush Supreme Soviet, he persuaded the deputies to remove Zavgayev and to disband, in anticipation of new parliamentary elections, which were set for November 17. The political struggle between the radical nationalist forces, grouped around Dudayev and pushing for independence, and the conservative nomenklatura, trying to preserve the status quo, continued.

In September 1991, NCChP squads seized the local KGB headquarters, and took over the building of the Supreme Soviet. The NCChP declared itself the only legitimate authority in the region. Checheno-Ingush First Secretary Doku Zavgayev, who had supported the 1991 Coup (GKChP), was overthrown on September 6 by the Dudayev-led National Congress, and on October 27 presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Chechnya.

In October 1991, Dudayev was elected president of the Chechen-Ingush Republic, with 85% of the vote. Dudayev, in his new position as president, issued a unilateral declaration of independence on 2 November 1991.

Increasing instability in the Chechen Republic in 1992-1993 was related primarily to the competition between several major teips (clans) which started to struggle for control over oil, drugs-trafficking and arms smuggling. In 1993, several presidential decrees and government orders were issued in Moscow for tightening control on the Chechnya borders but with little practical effect, since Dagestan was not particularly interested in implementing those while the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia was not even demarcated after the split.

After the conclusion of the Second Chechen War, newly elected Russian President Vladimir Putin established direct rule of Chechnya in May 2000. The following month, Putin appointed Akhmad Kadyrov interim head of the government.

Since December 2005, the pro-Moscow militia leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of Akhmad Kadyrov, has ruled Chechnya as Chechnya's prime minister and the republic's de facto ruler and subsequently under the new title as Head of the Chechnya Republic. Kadyrov, whose irregular forces are accused of carrying out many of the abductions and atrocities; has become Chechnya's most powerful leader since the 2004 assassination of his father.