 Among his Russian enemies, he became known as "the Chechen Goebbels".Following the end of the First Chechen War, Udugov unsuccessfully ran for the post of President of Ichkeria in the January 1997 election, but got less than 1% percent of the votes (in his election campaign he was representing an unpopular radical Islamist platform).Udugov again became a Deputy Prime Minister and of the Minister of Information in the government of Aslan Maskhadov.