On this day, 28 years ago, February 1, 1997 (December 24, 1996 in the lunar calendar), Maskhadov was elected President of the Chechen Republic. Chechen President Maskhadov Like On January 27, 1997, The Russian Federation held its first presidential election since the end of the war, with 407,700 voters voting. On February 1, the Chechen Central Election Commission announced the final statistical results. Maskhadov, former Prime Minister of the "Chechen Coalition Government", received 59.3% of the votes and was elected President of the Chechen Republic. Maskhadov is a Chechen ethnic group. He is 48 years old and graduated from the Leningrad Military Academy in 1981. He served in the Soviet artillery for many years and received the rank of colonel. After retiring from the army in 1992, he returned to Chechnya to follow Dudayev and was appointed chief of staff of the Chechen rebels. In August 1996, on behalf of the Chechen Republic, he held many negotiations with Lebed, the representative of the Russian Federation and former Secretary of the Russian Security Council, and signed the Chechen Peace Agreement. From October 1996 to January 1997 before the election, Maskhadov served as prime minister of the "Chechen coalition government" and was the most influential figure with military and political power.