 Upon his return to Chechnya, he oversaw military intelligence in the Chechen separatist government of Aslan Maskhadov.The Russian FSB suspected that Chitigov had been maintaining ties with foreign intelligence services and was himself a CIA agent.According to the Russian state agency RIA Novosti, Chitigov previously served in the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus and was "planning to use chemical and bacteriological weapons against federal forces".