The period 1996-1999 in Chechnya is characterized by a gradual and deep criminalization of society, which led to a certain destabilization of the southern borders of Russia. Kidnapping, explosions and drug trafficking flourished, and it was not always possible to fight them, especially if the Chechen bandits acted “on the road”. At the same time, the Russian leadership has repeatedly turned to A. Maskhadov with a proposal to provide assistance in the fight against organized crime, but received a constant refusal. A new extremist movement in Chechnya - Wahhabism - was rapidly spreading amid unemployment and social tension, although it was recognized by the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic as illegal. The situation in the region was heating up.

The culmination of this process was the invasion of Chechen militants under the command of Sh. Basayev and Khattab into Russian territory, into Dagestan in August 1999. At the same time, the bandits counted on the support of local Wahhabis, thanks to whom it was then supposed to sever Dagestan from Russia and thereby create the North Caucasian Emirate.

The beginning of the second Chechen war

However, the field commanders badly miscalculated, and the Russian army was no longer what it was 3 years ago. The militants almost immediately became involved in protracted battles along the Chechen-Dagestan border - in a mountainous and wooded area. And if before the separatists were often "saved" by the mountains, now they did not have an advantage. The militants' hopes for broad support of the people of Dagestan did not come true either - on the contrary, the invaders faced fierce resistance. As a result of the hostilities in Dagestan during August, the Chechen bandit formations were completely driven back to the territory of Ichkeria, and a relative calm was established for several weeks.

However, already in the first half of September 1999, explosions of apartment buildings in Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buinaksk thundered - and traces of terrorist attacks led to Chechnya. These events put an end to the possibility of a peaceful dialogue between Russia and Ichkeria.

Maskhadov's government officially condemned the actions of the militants, but in fact did absolutely nothing to prevent such actions. Taking this into account, on September 23, President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin signed a decree "On measures to improve the effectiveness of counterterrorist operations in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation", according to which it was necessary to create a Joint Group of Forces and begin to destroy bandit formations and terrorist bases in the republic. On the same day, Russian aircraft bombed Grozny, and a week later the troops entered the territory of the republic.

In the course of the fighting in the rebellious republic in the fall of 1999, the skill of the Russian army increased noticeably. The troops, combining various tactics (for example, luring militants into minefields) and maneuvers, were able to partially destroy and push the Chechen gangs back to Grozny in November-December. Nevertheless, the Russian leadership was not going to storm the city, which was announced by the commander of the eastern group of Russian troops G. Troshev.

Meanwhile, the Chechen side staked on the internationalization of the conflict, attracting mujahideen, instructors and capital from far and near abroad, and primarily from Arab countries. The main, but not the only reason for their interest was, of course, oil. Peace in the North Caucasus would allow the Russian side to make good profits from the exploitation of the Caspian fields, which would be unprofitable for the Arab countries. Another reason can be called the fashion for the radicalization of Islam, which then began to overwhelm the countries of the Middle East.

The Russian leadership, on the contrary, has relied on the massive involvement of civilians and former Chechen fighters on their side. Thus, the most notable figure who went over to the side of the federals was the mufti of Ichkeria, Akhmad Kadyrov, who declared jihad to Russia in the First Chechen War. Now, having condemned Wahhabism, he became an enemy of A. Maskhadov and headed the pro-Russian administration of Chechnya after the end of the Second Chechen War.

The storming of Grozny

By the winter of 1999-2000. Russian troops managed to blockade Grozny from the south. The initial decision to abandon the storming of the republican capital changed, and on December 26, an operation began to eliminate the bandit formations in the city.

In the early days, the situation developed favorably for the federal troops. On the second day of the operation, the federal forces, with the assistance of the pro-Russian detachments of the Chechen militia, took control of the Staropromyslovsky district of the capital. However, on December 29, fierce fighting broke out on the streets of Grozny, federal units were surrounded, but were able to escape at the cost of serious losses. These battles forced to slow down the pace of the offensive somewhat, but had no effect on the general situation.

In the following days, the Russian army continued to advance stubbornly, clearing more and more urban areas of militants. In the second half of January, fierce fighting broke out around a strategically important area - Minutka Square. Russian troops managed to drive out the militants and seize this line. On February 6, 2000, Acting President of the Russian Federation V. Putin announced that the operation to liberate Grozny had been victoriously completed.

The course of the second Chechen war in 2000-2009

Many Chechen fighters managed to escape from Grozny, and as a result, the war entered the partisan stage. Nevertheless, its intensity steadily decreased, and by 2002 the media began to talk about the "fading" of the Chechen conflict. Nevertheless, in 2002-2005, the militants carried out a number of brutal and daring terrorist attacks (hostage-taking in the recreation center on Dubrovka (Moscow), at a school in Beslan, an unsuccessful raid in Kabardino-Balkaria), thereby demonstrating that the conflict is far from over. ...

It should be noted that the period 2001-2005. was remembered for the frequent liquidations of the leaders of the Chechen separatists and foreign fighters, as a result of which the tension in the region significantly decreased. As a result, on April 15, 2009, on the territory of the Chechen Republic, the CTO (counter-terrorist operation) regime was canceled.

Results of the war

Since then, the situation in Chechnya has practically stabilized, and the intensity of hostilities has dropped to almost zero. The new administration of the republic has managed to restore order in the region and make Chechnya a completely safe place. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the special operations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the army in the North Caucasus continue - not only in Chechnya, but also in other regions. Therefore, the Second Chechen War can be called a completed chapter of history.

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	Chechnya, then the entire North Caucasus
	The invasion of militants into Dagestan, explosions of residential buildings
	Victory of the federal troops: 1 - Restoration of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation 2 - Actual liquidation of the CRI 3 - The militants switched to insurgent activities
Opponents
Russian Federation	Islamic State of Dagestan
	Caucasian Emirate
	Foreign fighters
	Al-qaeda
Commanders
Boris Yeltsin	Aslan Maskhadov †
Vladimir Putin	Abdul-Halim Saidulaev †
	Doku Umarov (wanted)
Victor Kazantsev	Ruslan Gelaev †
Gennady Troshev	Shamil Basayev †
Vladimir Shamanov	Vakha Arsanov †
Alexander Baranov	Arbi Baraev †
Valentin Korabelnikov	Movsar Baraev †
Anatoly Kvashnin	Abdul-Malik Mezhidov †
Vladimir Moltenskoy	Suleiman Elmurzaev †
Akhmad Kadyrov †	Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov †
Ramzan Kadyrov	Salman Raduev †
Dzhabrail Yamadaev †	Rappani Khalilov †
Sulim Yamadaev †	Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev †
Said-Magomed Kakiev	Aslanbek Ismailov †
	Vakha Dzhenaraliev †
	Akhmed Evloev
	Khattab †
	Abu al-Walid †
	Abu Hafs al-Urdani †
Forces of the parties
80,000 military personnel	22,000 fighters

More than 6,000 dead	Over 20,000 killed

(officially called counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus (WHO) is the common name for military operations on the territory of Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus. It began on September 30, 1999 (the date of the entry of the Russian Armed Forces into Chechnya). The active phase of hostilities lasted from 1999 to 2000, then, as the Russian Armed Forces established control over the territory of Chechnya, it grew into a smoldering conflict that actually continues to this day. From 0:00 on April 16, 2009, the CTO regime was canceled.

Background

After the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements and the withdrawal of Russian troops in 1996, peace and tranquility in Chechnya and the adjacent regions did not come.

Chechen criminal structures did business with mass kidnapping with impunity. Hostage-taking for the purpose of ransom took place on a regular basis - both Russian officials and foreign citizens who worked in Chechnya - journalists, humanitarian workers, religious missionaries and even people who came to the funerals of relatives. In particular, in Nadterechny district in November 1997, two citizens of Ukraine were seized who had come to the funeral of their mother, in 1998 in the neighboring republics of the North Caucasus, Turkish builders and businessmen were regularly abducted and taken to Chechnya, in January 1998 in Vladikavkaz / North Ossetia / abducted French citizen, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Vincent Kostel. He was released in Chechnya 11 months later; on October 3, 1998, four employees of the British firm Granger Telecom were abducted in Grozny, and in December they were brutally killed and beheaded). The bandits profited from the theft of oil from oil pipelines and oil wells, the production and smuggling of drugs, the issuance and distribution of counterfeit banknotes, terrorist attacks and attacks on neighboring Russian regions. On the territory of Chechnya, camps were set up to train militants - young people from the Muslim regions of Russia. Mine blasting instructors and Islamic preachers were sent here from abroad. Numerous Arab volunteers began to play a significant role in the life of Chechnya. Their main goal was to destabilize the situation in the Russian regions neighboring Chechnya and spread the ideas of separatism to the North Caucasian republics (primarily Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria).

In early March 1999, at the Grozny airport, terrorists abducted the plenipotentiary representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Chechnya, Gennady Shpigun. For the Russian leadership, this was evidence that the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Maskhadov is not able to independently fight terrorism. The federal center took measures to strengthen the fight against Chechen bandit formations: self-defense detachments were armed and police units were reinforced along the entire perimeter of Chechnya, the best operatives of units for combating ethnic organized crime were sent to the North Caucasus, several Tochka-U missile launchers were deployed from the Stavropol Territory. "Designed to inflict point strikes. An economic blockade of Chechnya was introduced, which led to the fact that the cash flow from Russia began to dramatically dry up. Due to the tightening of the border regime, it has become increasingly difficult to transport drugs to Russia and take hostages. Gasoline produced in clandestine factories has become impossible to export outside Chechnya. The fight against Chechen criminal groups, which actively financed the militants in Chechnya, was also intensified. In May-July 1999, the Chechen-Dagestan border turned into a militarized zone. As a result, the incomes of Chechen warlords fell sharply and they had problems purchasing weapons and paying mercenaries. In April 1999, Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov was appointed commander-in-chief of the internal troops, who successfully led a number of operations during the First Chechen War. In May 1999, Russian helicopters launched a missile attack on the positions of Khattab militants on the Terek River in response to an attempt by bandit groups to seize an outpost of internal troops on the Chechen-Dagestan border. After that, Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo announced the preparation of large-scale preventive strikes.

Meanwhile, Chechen gangs under the command of Shamil Basayev and Khattab were preparing for an armed invasion of Dagestan. From April to August 1999, conducting reconnaissance in force, they made more than 30 sorties in Stavropol and Dagestan alone, as a result of which several dozen military personnel, law enforcement officers and civilians were killed and injured. Realizing that the strongest groupings of federal troops are concentrated in the Kizlyar and Khasavyurt directions, the militants decided to strike at the mountainous part of Dagestan. When choosing this direction, the bandit formations proceeded from the fact that there were no troops there, and it would not be possible to transfer forces to this hard-to-reach area in the shortest possible time. In addition, the militants counted on a possible blow to the rear of the federal forces from the Kadar zone of Dagestan, which has been controlled by local Wahhabis since August 1998.

As the researchers note, the destabilization of the situation in the North Caucasus was beneficial to many. First of all, Islamic fundamentalists seeking to spread their influence over the whole world, as well as Arab oil sheikhs and financial oligarchs of the Persian Gulf countries who are not interested in starting the exploitation of oil and gas fields in the Caspian.

On August 7, 1999, from the territory of Chechnya, a massive invasion of militants into Dagestan was carried out under the general command of Shamil Basayev and the Arab field commander Khattab. The core of the militant group was made up of foreign mercenaries and fighters from the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, associated with Al-Qaeda. The militants' plan to go over to their side of the population of Dagestan failed, the Dagestanis put up desperate resistance to the invading bandits. The Russian authorities offered the Ichkerian leadership to conduct a joint operation with the federal forces against the Islamists in Dagestan. It was also proposed "to resolve the issue of eliminating the bases, storage and resting places of illegal armed formations, from which the Chechen leadership in every possible way refuses." Aslan Maskhadov verbally condemned the attacks on Dagestan and their organizers and inspirers, but did not take real measures to counter them.

For more than a month, federal forces fought the invading militants, which ended with the militants being forced to retreat from Dagestan back to Chechnya. On the same days - September 4-16 - in several cities of Russia (Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buinaksk) a series of terrorist acts were carried out - explosions of residential buildings.

Considering Maskhadov's inability to control the situation in Chechnya, the Russian leadership decided to conduct a military operation to destroy the militants on the territory of Chechnya. On September 18, the borders of Chechnya were blocked by Russian troops.

On September 23, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree "On Measures to Improve the Efficiency of Counter-Terrorist Operations in the North Caucasus Region of the Russian Federation." The decree provided for the creation of a Joint Group of Forces in the North Caucasus to conduct a counter-terrorist operation.

On September 23, Russian troops began massive bombing of Grozny and its environs; on September 30, they entered the territory of Chechnya.

Character

Having broken the resistance of the militants with the forces of army units and internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the command of the Russian troops successfully uses military tricks, such as, for example, luring militants into minefields, raids on the enemy's rear, and many others), the Kremlin has relied on the "Chechenization" of the conflict and poaching part of the elite and former members of the Chechen armed formations to their side. Thus, in 2000, a former supporter of the separatists, the chief mufti of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, became the head of the pro-Kremlin administration of Chechnya. The militants, on the contrary, relied on the internationalization of the conflict, involving armed detachments of non-Chechen origin in their struggle. By the beginning of 2005, after the destruction of Maskhadov, Khattab, Barayev, Abu al-Walid and many other field commanders, the intensity of the sabotage and terrorist activities of the militants had significantly decreased. During 2005-2008, not a single major terrorist act was committed in Russia, and the only large-scale operation of the militants (the Raid on Kabardino-Balkaria on October 13, 2005) ended in complete failure. However, since 2010, there have been several major terrorist attacks, the Terrorist attack in Vladikavkaz (2010), the Terrorist attack at Domodedovo airport).

In 2005, KGB General Philip Bobkov described the actions of the Chechen resistance: "These operations are not much different from the hostilities of the Israelis before the creation of their state in Palestine, and then the Palestinian extremists in Israel or now the Albanian armed formations in Kosovo."

Chronology

1999

Aggravation of the situation on the border with Chechnya

Attack on Dagestan

August 1 - Armed detachments from the villages of Echeda, Gakko, Gigatl and Agvali of the Tsumadinsky region of Dagestan, as well as the Chechens supporting them, announced that Sharia rule was being introduced in the region.
August 2 - A clash between police and Wahhabis took place in the vicinity of the village of Echeda in the high-mountainous Tsumadinsky region of Dagestan. Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan Magomed Omarov flew to the scene. As a result of the incident, 1 riot policeman and several Wahhabis were killed. According to the local police department, the incident was provoked by Chechnya.
August 3 - As a result of shootings in the Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan with Islamic extremists who broke through from Chechnya, two more Dagestani police officers and one serviceman of the Russian internal troops were killed. Thus, the losses of the Dagestan militia reached four people killed, in addition, two militiamen were wounded and three more were missing. Meanwhile, one of the leaders of the Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan, Shamil Basayev, announced the creation of an Islamic Shura, which has its own armed detachments in Dagestan, which established control over several settlements of the Tsumadinsky region. The Dagestani leadership is asking the federal authorities for weapons for self-defense units that are planned to be created on the border of Chechnya and Dagestan. This decision was made by the State Council of the People's Assembly and the Government of the Republic. The official authorities of Dagestan qualified the sorties of the militants as: "open armed aggression of extremist forces against the Republic of Dagestan, an open encroachment on the territorial integrity and the foundations of its constitutional system, the life and safety of residents."
4 August - Up to 500 militants who were thrown away from the regional center of Aghvali dug in at prepared positions in one of the mountain villages, but they do not put forward any demands and do not enter into negotiations. Presumably, they have three employees of the Tsumadinsky regional department of internal affairs, who disappeared on August 3. The power ministers and ministries of Chechnya have been put on a round-the-clock basis. This was done in accordance with the decree of the President of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov. True, the Chechen authorities deny any connection between these measures and the hostilities in Dagestan. At 12.10 am Moscow time, on one of the roads in the Botlikh district of Dagestan, five armed people opened fire alongside the police, who tried to stop the Niva car for inspection. In the shootout, two bandits were killed and a car damaged. There are no victims among the security forces. Two Russian attack aircraft inflicted a powerful missile and bomb attack on the village of Kenkhi, where a large detachment of militants was prepared for dispatch to Dagestan. A regrouping of the forces of the internal troops of the Operational Group in the North Caucasus began to close the border with Chechnya. In the Tsumadinsky and Botlikhsky districts of Dagestan, it is planned to deploy additional units of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
August 5 - In the morning, the redeployment of units of the 102nd brigade of the internal troops began in the Tsumadinsky district in accordance with the plan to overlap the administrative Dagestan-Chechen border. This decision was made by the commander of the internal troops Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov during a trip to the places of recent hostilities. Meanwhile, sources in the Russian special services said that a mutiny was being prepared in Dagestan. According to the plan, a group of 600 militants was transferred to Dagestan through the village of Kenkhi. According to the same plan, the city of Makhachkala will be divided into zones of responsibility of field commanders, as well as the taking of hostages in the most crowded places, after which the official authorities of Dagestan will be asked to resign. However, the official authorities of Makhachkala deny this information.
August 7 - September 14 - detachments of field commanders Shamil Basayev and Khattab invaded Dagestan from the territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Fierce fighting continued for over a month. The CRI official government, unable to control the actions of various armed groups on the territory of Chechnya, dissociated itself from the actions of Shamil Basayev, but did not take practical action against him.
August 12 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation I. Zubov said that a letter was sent to the President of CRI Maskhadov with a proposal to conduct a joint operation with federal troops against Islamists in Dagestan.
August 13 - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that "strikes will be delivered on bases and clusters of militants, regardless of their location, including on the territory of Chechnya."
August 16 - President of the CRI Aslan Maskhadov introduced martial law in Chechnya for a period of 30 days, announced a partial mobilization of reservists and participants in the First Chechen War.

Aerial bombardment of Chechnya

25 August - Russian aviation strikes at militant bases in the Vedeno Gorge of Chechnya. In response to an official protest from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the command of the federal forces declares that it "reserves the right to strike at militant bases on the territory of any North Caucasian region, including Chechnya."
September 6 - 18 - Russian aviation inflicts numerous missile and bomb strikes on military camps and fortifications of militants on the territory of Chechnya.
September 11 - Maskhadov announced a general mobilization in Chechnya.
September 14 - Putin said that "the Khasavyurt agreements should be subjected to an impartial analysis," as well as "a temporary strict quarantine should be introduced" along the entire perimeter of Chechnya.
September 18 - Russian troops blockade the Chechen border from Dagestan, Stavropol Territory, North Ossetia and Ingushetia.
September 23 - Russian aviation began bombing the capital of Chechnya and its environs. As a result, several power substations, a number of oil and gas factories, a Grozny mobile communications center, a TV and radio broadcasting center, and an An-2 plane were destroyed. The press service of the Russian Air Force said that "the aviation will continue to strike targets that the bandit groups can use to their advantage."
September 27 - Prime Minister of Russia V. Putin categorically rejected the possibility of a meeting between the Presidents of Russia and the CRI. “There will be no meetings to let the militants lick their wounds,” he said.

Beginning of the ground operation

2000

2001

January 23 - Vladimir Putin made a decision to reduce and partially withdraw troops from Chechnya.
June 23-24 - in the village of Alkhan-Kala, a special combined detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB conducted a special operation to eliminate a detachment of militants of the field commander Arbi Barayev. 16 militants were killed, including Barayev himself.
June 25-26 - militants attack on Khankala
July 11 - in the village of Mayrtup, Shali district of Chechnya, during a special operation by the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Khattab's assistant Abu Umar was killed.
August 25 - in the city of Argun, during a special operation, FSB officers killed field commander Movsan Suleimenov, nephew of Arbi Barayev.
September 17 - in Grozny, a Mi-8 helicopter with a General Staff commission on board was shot down (2 generals and 8 officers were killed).
September 17-18 - militants attack on Gudermes: the attack was repulsed, as a result of the use of the Tochka-U missile system, a group of more than 100 people was destroyed.
November 3 - during a special operation, an influential field commander, Shamil Iriskhanov, who was part of Basayev's inner circle, was killed.
December 15 - 20 militants were killed by federal forces in Argun during a special operation.

2002

January 27 - an Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in the Shelkovsky district of Chechnya. Among the dead were Lieutenant General Mikhail Rudchenko, Deputy Minister of the Interior of the Russian Federation, and Major General Nikolai Goridov, commander of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chechnya.
March 20 - as a result of a special operation by the FSB, the terrorist Khattab was killed by poisoning.
April 18 - in his Address to the Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin announced the end of the military stage of the conflict in Chechnya.
May 9 - a terrorist attack took place in Kaspiysk during the Victory Day celebrations. 43 people were killed, more than 100 were injured.
August 19 - Chechen separatists from Igla MANPADS shot down a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-26 near the Khankala military base. Of the 147 people on board, 127 died.
August 25 - the famous field commander Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev was killed in Shali.
September 23 - Raid on Ingushetia (2002)
October 10 - an explosion occurred in the building of the Zavodskoy District ROVD in Grozny. The explosive device was planted in the office of the head of the department. 25 policemen were killed, about 20 were wounded.
October 23 - 26 - hostage-taking at the theater center on Dubrovka in Moscow, 129 hostages were killed. All 44 terrorists were killed, including Movsar Barayev.
December 27 - explosion of the Government House in Grozny. As a result of the terrorist attack, over 70 people were killed. Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the attack.

2003

May 12 - in the village of Znamenskoye, Nadterechny district of Chechnya, three suicide bombers carried out a terrorist attack in the area of the buildings of the administration of the Nadterechny district and the FSB of the Russian Federation. The KamAZ car, packed with explosives, demolished the barrier in front of the building and exploded. 60 people were killed, more than 250 were injured.
May 14 - in the village of Ilskhan-Yurt, Gudermes region, a suicide bomber blew herself up in a crowd at the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, where Akhmat Kadyrov was present. 18 people were killed, 145 people were injured.
5 June - a suicide bomber blew herself up next to a passenger bus carrying airbase employees on their way to a military base in Mozdok. 16 people died on the spot. Later, four more died from their wounds.
July 5 - a terrorist attack in Moscow at the Wings rock festival. 16 people were killed, 57 were injured.
August 1 - The bombing of a military hospital in Mozdok. A KamAZ army truck loaded with explosives rammed the gate and exploded near the building. There was one suicide bomber in the cockpit. The death toll was 52.
September 3 - a terrorist attack in the Kislovodsk-Minvody electric train on the Podkumok-Belyi Ugol stretch, railway tracks were blown up using a land mine: 5 people were killed and 20 were injured.
November 23 - Three kilometers east of Serzhen-Yurt, GRU special forces destroyed a gang of mercenaries from Germany, Turkey and Algeria, numbering about 20 people.
December 5 - a suicide bombing attack on the Kislovodsk-Minvody electric train in Yessentuki: 41 people died, 212 were injured.
December 9 - a suicide bombing attack near the National Hotel (Moscow).
December 15, 2003 - February 28, 2004 - Raid on Dagestan by a detachment under the command of Ruslan Gelayev.

2004

February 6 - a terrorist attack in the Moscow metro, on the stretch between the stations "Avtozavodskaya" and "Paveletskaya". 39 people were killed, 122 were injured.
February 28 - famous field commander Ruslan Gelayev was mortally wounded during a shootout with border guards
April 16 - Abu al-Walid al-Hamidi, the leader of foreign mercenaries in Chechnya, was killed during the shelling of the Chechen mountains
May 9 - in Grozny, at the Dynamo stadium, where the Victory Day parade was held, at 10:32 a powerful explosion thundered on the newly renovated VIP tribune. At that moment, the President of Chechnya Akhmat Kadyrov, the Chairman of the State Council of the Chechen Republic Kh. Isaev, the commander of the United Group of Forces in the North Caucasus General V. Baranov, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya Alu Alkhanov and the military commandant of the republic G. Fomenko were on it. Directly in the explosion, 2 people died, 4 more died in hospitals: Akhmat Kadyrov, Kh. Isaev, Reuters journalist A. Khasanov, a child (whose name was not disclosed) and two Kadyrov's security officers. In total, 63 people, including 5 children, were injured from the explosion in Grozny.
June 21 - 22 - Raid on Ingushetia
12-13 July - a large detachment of militants captured the village of Avtury, Shali District
August 21 - 400 militants attacked Grozny. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, 44 people were killed and 36 seriously wounded.
August 24 - Explosions of two Russian passenger airliners, killing 89 people.
August 31 - a terrorist attack near the metro station "Rizhskaya" in Moscow. 10 people were killed, more than 50 people were injured.
September 1 - 3 - the terrorist act in Beslan, as a result of which 334 people died, 186 of whom were children.
October 7 - In a battle to the north of the settlement of Niki-Khita, Kurchaloyevsky district, an African American Khalil Rudvan demolition instructor was destroyed.

2005

February 18 - as a result of a special operation in the Oktyabrsky district of Grozny, the forces of the PPS-2 detachment destroyed the "emir of Grozny" Yunadi Turchaev, the "right hand" of one of the leaders of the terrorists Doku Umarov.
March 8 - In the course of a special operation by the FSB in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt, President of the CRI Aslan Maskhadov was liquidated.
May 15 - former vice-president of CRI Vakha Arsanov was killed in Grozny. Arsanov and his accomplices, while in a private house, fired at a police patrol and were destroyed by the arriving reinforcements.
May 15 - Rasul Tambulatov (Volchek), the “emir” of the Shelkovsky district of the Chechen Republic, was destroyed in the Dubovsky forest of the Shelkovsky district as a result of a special operation of the Interior Ministry troops.
June 4 - Cleaning up in the village of Borozdinovskaya
October 13 - An attack by militants on the city of Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria), as a result of which, according to Russian authorities, 12 civilians and 35 members of the security forces were killed. Destroyed, according to various sources, from 40 to 124 militants.

2006

January 31 - Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference that at the present time we can talk about the end of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya.
February 9-11 - in the village of Tukui-Mekteb in the Stavropol Territory, 12 militants of the so-called. "Nogai battalion of the Armed Forces of the CRI", the federal forces lost 7 people killed. During the operation, the federal side actively uses helicopters and tanks.
March 28 - Sultan Geliskhanov, the former head of the ChRI state security department, voluntarily surrendered to the authorities in Chechnya.
June 16 - “President of CRI” Abdul-Halim Sadulayev was destroyed in Argun
July 4 - in Chechnya, a military convoy is attacked near the village of Avtury in the Shali region. Representatives of the federal forces report 6 killed servicemen, the bandits - more than 20.
July 9 - The Kavkaz Center website of Chechen militants announced the creation of the Ural and Volga fronts as part of the CRI Armed Forces.
July 10 - in Ingushetia, one of the terrorist leaders, Shamil Basayev, was destroyed as a result of a special operation (according to other sources, he was killed due to careless handling of explosives)
July 12 - On the border of Chechnya and Dagestan, the police of both republics destroy a relatively large but poorly armed gang of 15 militants. 13 bandits were killed, 2 more were detained.
August 23 - Chechen fighters attacked a military convoy on the Grozny-Shatoi highway, not far from the entrance to the Argun Gorge. The convoy consisted of a Ural vehicle and two escort armored personnel carriers. As reported in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic, four servicemen of the federal forces were wounded as a result.
November 7 - in the area of the village of Dai, Shatoi region, a gang of S.-E. Dadaev killed seven riot police from Mordovia.
November 26 - Abu Khafs al-Urdani, the leader of foreign mercenaries in Chechnya, was killed in Khasavyurt. Together with him, 4 more militants were killed.

2007

April 4 - in the vicinity of the village of Agish-batoy, Vedeno region of Chechnya, one of the most influential leaders of the militants, the commander of the Eastern Front of ChRISuleiman Ilmurzaev (call sign "Khairulla"), who was involved in the assassination of Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov, was killed.
June 13 - in the Vedeno region, on the Verkhniye Kurchali-Belgatoy road, militants shot at a convoy of police cars.
July 23 - a battle near the village of Tazen-Kale in the Vedensky district between the Vostok battalion of Sulim Yamadayev and a detachment of Chechen fighters led by Doku Umarov. The death of 6 militants is reported.
September 18 - as a result of a counter-terrorist operation in the village of Novy Sulak, "Amir Rabbani" - Rappani Khalilov was destroyed.
October 7 - Doku Umarov announced the abolition of the CRI and its transformation into "vilayat Nokhchiycho of the Caucasus Emirate"

2008

January - during special operations in Makhachkala and the Tabasaran region of Dagestan, at least 9 militants were killed, and 6 of them were part of the grouping of field commander I. Mallochiev. On the part of the security forces, no one was killed in these clashes. At the same time, during the clashes in Grozny, the Chechen militia killed 5 militants, among them was the field commander U. Techiev, the "emir" of the capital of Chechnya.
March 19 - an armed attack by militants was carried out on the village of Alkhazurovo. As a result, seven people were killed, five law enforcement officers and two civilians.
May 5 - a military vehicle was blown up by a land mine in the suburb of Grozny, the village of Tashkola. 5 policemen were killed, 2 were wounded.
June 13 - night outing of militants in the village of Benoi-Vedeno
September 2008 - major leaders of the illegal armed groups of Dagestan, Ilgar Mallochiev and A. Gudaev, were killed, up to 10 militants in total.
December 18 - a battle in the city of Argun, 2 policemen were killed and 6 wounded. From the side of the militants in Argun, 1 person was killed.
December 23-25 - a special operation of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the village of Verkhniy Alkun in Ingushetia. Field commander Vakha Dzhenaraliev, who fought against federal troops in Chechnya and Ingushetia since 1999, was killed, his deputy Khamkhoev was killed, a total of 12 militants were killed. 4 bases of illegal armed groups were liquidated.
June 19 - Said Buryatsky announced his joining the underground.

2009

April 15 is the last day of the counter-terrorist operation regime.

Aggravation of the situation in the North Caucasus in 2009

Despite the official cancellation of the counter-terrorist operation on April 16, 2009, the situation in the region did not become calmer, rather the opposite. The militants waging a partisan war have become more active, and the number of terrorist attacks has increased. Since the fall of 2009, a number of large-scale special operations have been carried out to eliminate bandit formations and militant leaders. In response, a series of terrorist attacks were committed, including, for the first time in a long time, in Moscow.

Fighting clashes, terrorist attacks and police operations are actively taking place not only on the territory of Chechnya, but also on the territory of Ingushetia, Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkaria. In some territories, the CTO regime was repeatedly introduced temporarily.

Beginning on May 15, 2009, Russian security forces intensified operations against militant groups in the mountainous regions of Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan, which triggered a retaliatory intensification of terrorist activities by the militants. At the end of July 2010, there are all signs of an escalation of the conflict and its spread to the surrounding regions.

Command

Heads of the Regional Operational Headquarters for the Counter-Terrorist Operation in the North Caucasus (2001-2006)

The Regional Operations Headquarters (ROSH) was created by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of January 22, 2001 No. 61 "On measures to combat terrorism in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation."

German Ugryumov (January - May 2001)
Anatoly Yezhkov (June 2001 - July 2003)
Yuri Maltsev (July 2003 - September 2004)
Arkady Yedelev (September 2004 - August 2006)

In 2006, on the basis of the ROSh, the Operational Headquarters of the Chechen Republic was created to conduct a counter-terrorist operation.

Commanders of the Joint Group of Forces (Forces) for Counter-Terrorist Operations in the North Caucasus Region of the Russian Federation (since 1999)

The united group was formed by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of September 23, 1999 No. 1255c "On measures to increase the effectiveness of counter-terrorist operations in the North Caucasian region of the Russian Federation."

Victor Kazantsev (September 1999 - February 2000)
Gennady Troshev (acting February - March 2000, commander April - June 2000)
Alexander Baranov (acting March 2000)
Alexander Baranov (acting July - September 2000, Commander September 2000 - October 2001, September 2003 - May 2004)
Vladimir Moltenskoy (acting May - August 2001, commander October 2001 - September 2002)
Sergey Makarov (acting July - August 2002, commander October 2002 - September 2003)
Mikhail Pankov (acting May 2004)
Vyacheslav Dadonov (acting June 2004 - July 2005)
Evgeny Lazebin (July 2005 - June 2006)
Evgeny Baryaev (June - December 2006)
Jacob Nedobitko (December 2006 - January 2008)
Nikolay Sivak (January 2008 - August 2011)
Sergey Melikov (since September 2011)

Conflict in literature, cinema, music

Books

Alexander Karasev. Traitor. Ufa: Vagant, 2011, 256 p. ISBN 978-5-9635-0344-7.
Alexander Karasev. Chechen stories. M .: Literaturnaya Rossiya, 2008, 320 p. ISBN 978-5-7809-0114-3.
Zherebtsova, Polina Viktorovna. Diary of Zherebtsova Polina. Detective Press, 2011, 576 pp. ISBN 978-5-89935-101-3
Vyacheslav Mironov. "I was in that war."

Films and series

War is a feature film.
Alexandra is a feature film.
Throw March is a feature film.
Caucasian Roulette is a feature film.
Male work (8 part film).
Storm Gates (4-episode film).
Special Forces (TV series).
I have the honor (TV series).
Destructive force-3 "Tensile strength" (1st - 4th series)
Distrust is a documentary.
Alive (film, 2006) - feature film
Breakthrough (film, 2006) - feature film

Songs and Music

The songs are dedicated to the second Chechen war:

"Lube"- "After the war" (2000), "Soldier" (2000), Come on ... (2002)
Yuri Shevchuk- Star (2006), Smoke (2009)
Timur Gordeev- Tell me, Major, We are going home
Timur Mutsuraev- "Khava Baraeva" (a view from the side of the militants)
Igor Rasteryaev- "Song about Yura Prischepny" (2011)
Nikolay Anisimov- The Rooks Have Arrived (2010)

On September 30, 2015, Russia launched a military campaign in Syria. After the end of World War II, the USSR and then Russia participated in dozens of military operations, in which they suffered losses. From China and Cuba to Angola and Czechoslovakia - where and what the Russian armed forces have achieved - in the special project "Kommersant"

In early August 1999, armed clashes broke out on the border of Dagestan and Chechnya. On August 7, more than 400 bandit groups under the leadership of field commanders Shamil Basayev and Khattab invaded the territory of the Botlikh district of Dagestan from Chechnya. Fighting continued until the end of August, after which federal forces launched an assault on the Wahhabi villages of Karamakhi, Chabanmakhi and Kadar in Dagestan.
On the night of September 5, about 2,000 extremists crossed the Chechen-Dagestan border again. Fighting in Dagestan continued until September 15. By the end of September, up to 90 thousand soldiers and about 400 tanks were concentrated on the border with Chechnya. Colonel-General Viktor Kazantsev was in command of the united group of federal forces. The separatist forces were estimated at 15-20 thousand militants, up to 30 tanks and 100 armored vehicles.

On October 2, 1999, Russian troops entered Chechnya. They managed to occupy the northern part of Chechnya with minimal losses, without a fight to take control of the cities of Urus-Martan and Gudermes.

On December 22, Russian border guards and airborne forces landed in the south of the Argun Gorge, blocking the path to Georgia. The assault on Grozny took place in December 1999-January 2000.

On 1–3 February, as part of Operation Wolf Hunt, militant detachments were successfully lured out of the Chechen capital with the help of disinformation and sent to minefields (the losses of the militants amounted to approximately 1,500 people).

The last major combined arms operation was the destruction of a detachment of militants in the village of Komsomolskoye on March 2-15, 2000 (about 1,200 people were killed and taken prisoner). On April 20, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Valery Manilov said that the military part of the operation in Chechnya had been completed and now it was being carried out "a special part - conducting special operations to complete the defeat of the remaining unbroken bandit formations." It was announced that about 28 thousand servicemen would be stationed in the republic on a permanent basis, including the advanced units of the 42nd motorized rifle division, 2.7 thousand border guards, and nine battalions of internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Moscow staked on the settlement of the conflict with the involvement of a part of the local elites on its side. On June 12, 2000, by presidential decree, Akhmat Kadyrov, a former close associate of Maskhadov and the mufti of Ichkeria, was appointed head of the Chechen administration.

Since the spring and summer of 2000, the militants switched to partisan actions: shelling, mining roads, terrorist attacks. Terrorist activity quickly spread beyond the borders of the republic. The militants took hostages at the musical "Nord-Ost" in Moscow, organized the bombing of the government building in Grozny (2002), the explosion at the Wings rock festival in Tushino (2003), the bombing of suicide bombers in the Moscow metro and on board passenger planes (2004) ...

On May 9, 2004, Akhmat Kadyrov was killed in an explosion at the Dynamo stadium in Grozny.
Interview of Vladimir Putin to Sergei Dorenko (1999)
On September 1, 2004, the loudest terrorist attack in Russian history was committed - the seizure of more than 1,000 hostages at a school in Beslan. The terrorist attack killed 334 people.

On October 13, 2005, the militants made their last major sortie - up to 200 people attacked 13 targets in Nalchik, including the airport, FSB and police buildings. 95 militants were killed, 71 were detained over the next year.

On July 10, 2006, Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the attack on Nalchik and a number of other high-profile terrorist attacks, was killed during a special operation by the FSB in Ingushetia. By that time, many separatist leaders had already been killed, including the President of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov.

In 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of Akhmat Kadyrov, came to power in Chechnya.

From 00:00 hours on April 16, 2009, the counter-terrorist operation regime on the territory of the Chechen Republic was canceled. The report of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that from now on, measures to combat terrorism in Chechnya will be carried out by local law enforcement agencies, as in other regions of the country. This moment is considered the official end of the second Chechen war.

The total losses of power structures during the active phase of hostilities (from October 1999 to December 23, 2002) amounted to 4,572 dead and 15,549 wounded. According to statistics from the Ministry of Defense, from 1999 to September 2008, 3,684 servicemen were killed in the line of duty in Chechnya. According to the main personnel department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the losses of the internal troops in August 1999-August 2003 amounted to 1,055 people. The losses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, according to data for 2006, were estimated at 835 people killed. It was also reported that 202 FSB officers were killed in Chechnya in 1999-2002. The total losses of the Russian law enforcement agencies can be estimated at at least 6 thousand people.

According to the UGV headquarters, 15.5 thousand militants were killed in 1999-2002. From 2002 to 2009, the security forces reported on the elimination of about 2,100 more members of illegal armed groups: the main part in 2002 (600) and 2003 (700). The separatist leader Shamil Basayev in 2005 estimated the losses of the militants at 3,600 people. The human rights organization Memorial in 2004 estimated the number of civilian casualties at 10–20 thousand people, and Amnesty International in 2007 - up to 25 thousand.

As a result of the second Chechen campaign, Russia managed to completely take control of the republic's territory and secure a government loyal to the center. At the same time, a terrorist organization "Imarat Kavkaz" was formed in the region, aiming to create an Islamist state on the territory of all the Caucasian republics of the Russian Federation. After 2009, the underground organized a number of major terrorist attacks in the country (explosions in the Moscow metro in 2010, at Domodedovo airport in 2011, at a railway station and in a trolleybus in Volgograd in 2013). The counter-terrorist operation regime is periodically introduced in the territories of the republics of the region.

Territory: Chechen Republic
Period: August 1999-April 2009
Duration: 9.5 years
Participants: Russia / Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, "Caucasus Emirate"
The forces of the USSR / Russia involved: a combined group of troops of up to 100 thousand people
Losses: more than 6 thousand people, of which 3.68 thousand military personnel of the Ministry of Defense (as of September 2008)
Supreme Commander-in-Chief: Boris Yeltsin
Conclusion: two Chechen wars helped to "pacify" Chechnya, but turned the entire North Caucasus into a powder keg

Second Chechen War

(officially called the Counter-Terrorism Operation (CTO)- hostilities on the territory of Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus. It began on September 30, 1999 (the date of the entry of Russian troops into Chechnya). The active phase of hostilities lasted from 1999 to 2000, then, as the Russian Armed Forces established control over the territory of Chechnya, it grew into a smoldering conflict that actually continues to this day. From 0:00 on April 16, 2009, the CTO regime was canceled.

1. Background

After the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements and the withdrawal of Russian troops in 1996, peace and tranquility in Chechnya and the adjacent regions did not come.

Chechen criminal structures did business with mass kidnapping with impunity,

hostage-taking (including Russian officials working in Chechnya), the theft of oil from oil pipelines and oil wells, the production and smuggling of drugs, the issuance and distribution of counterfeit banknotes, terrorist attacks and attacks on neighboring Russian regions. On the territory of Chechnya, camps were set up to train militants - young people from the Muslim regions of Russia. Mine blasting instructors and Islamic preachers were sent here from abroad. Numerous Arab mercenaries began to play a significant role in the life of Chechnya. Their main goal was to destabilize the situation in the Russian regions neighboring Chechnya and spread the ideas of separatism to the North Caucasian republics (primarily Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria).

"Point-U"

An economic blockade of Chechnya was introduced, which led to the fact that the cash flow from Russia began to dramatically dry up. Due to the tightening of the border regime, it has become increasingly difficult to transport drugs to Russia and take hostages. Gasoline produced in clandestine factories has become impossible to export outside Chechnya. The fight against Chechen criminal groups, which actively financed the militants in Chechnya, was also intensified. In May-July 1999, the Chechen-Dagestan border turned into a militarized zone. As a result, the incomes of Chechen warlords fell sharply and they had problems purchasing weapons and paying mercenaries. In April 1999, Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov was appointed commander-in-chief of the internal troops, who successfully led a number of operations during the First Chechen War.

In May 1999, Russian helicopters launched a missile attack on the positions of Khattab militants on the Terek River in response to an attempt by bandit groups to seize an outpost of internal troops on the Chechen-Dagestan border. After that, Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo announced the preparation of large-scale preventive strikes.

On August 7, 1999, a massive invasion of militants into Dagestan was carried out from the territory of Chechnya under the general command of Shamil Basayev and the Arab mercenary Khattab.

The core of the militant group was made up of foreign mercenaries and fighters from the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, associated with Al-Qaeda. The militants' plan to go over to their side of the population of Dagestan failed, the Dagestanis put up desperate resistance to the invading bandits. The Russian authorities offered the Ichkerian leadership to conduct a joint operation with the federal forces against the Islamists in Dagestan. It was also proposed "to resolve the issue of eliminating the bases, storage and resting places of illegal armed formations, from which the Chechen leadership in every possible way refuses." Aslan Maskhadov verbally condemned the attacks on Dagestan and their organizers and inspirers, but did not take real measures to counter them.
For more than a month, federal forces fought the invading militants, which ended with the militants being forced to retreat from Dagestan back to Chechnya.

On the same days - September 4-16 - in several cities of Russia (Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buinaksk) a series of terrorist acts were carried out - explosions of residential buildings.

The explosion of 6 along the Kashirskoye highway in Moscow on 09/13/1999.

On September 23, Russian troops began massive bombing of Grozny and its environs; on September 30, they entered the territory of Chechnya.

2. Character

Having broken the resistance of the militants by the force of the army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the command of the Russian troops successfully uses military tricks, such as, for example, luring militants into minefields, raids on the rear of bandit formations, and many others), the Kremlin has relied on the “Chechenization” of the conflict and side of part of the elite and former militants. Thus, in 2000, a former supporter of the separatists, the chief mufti of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, became the head of the pro-Kremlin administration of Chechnya.

The militants, on the contrary, relied on the internationalization of the conflict, involving armed detachments of non-Chechen origin in their struggle. By the beginning of 2005, after the destruction of Maskhadov, Khattab, Barayev, Abu al-Walid and many other field commanders, the intensity of the sabotage and terrorist activities of the militants had significantly decreased. In 2005-2008, not a single major terrorist act was committed in Russia, and the only large-scale operation of the militants (the Raid on Kabardino-Balkaria on October 13, 2005) ended in complete failure.

3. Chronology

3.1. 1999

Aggravation of the situation on the border with Chechnya

June 18 - from Chechnya, attacks were made on 2 outposts on the Dagestan-Chechen border, as well as an attack on a Cossack company in the Stavropol Territory. The Russian leadership is closing most of the checkpoint on the border with Chechnya.
June 22 - for the first time in the history of the Russian Interior Ministry, an attempt was made to commit a terrorist attack in its main building. The bomb was defused in time. According to one version, the terrorist attack was a response of Chechen militants to the threats of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Vladimir Rushailo to carry out retaliatory actions in Chechnya.
June 23 - shelling from the Chechen side of the outpost near the village of Pervomayskoye in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan.
June 30 - Rushailo said: “We must respond to the blow with a more crushing blow; on the border with Chechnya, an order was given to use preventive strikes against armed gangs. "
July 3 - Rushailo announced that the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs "is starting to tightly regulate the situation in the North Caucasus, where Chechnya acts as a criminal" think tank "run by foreign special services, extremist organizations and the criminal community." Deputy Prime Minister of the CRI Kazbek Makhashev said in response: "We cannot be intimidated by threats, and Rushailo is well aware of this."
July 5 - Rushailo said that "early in the morning of July 5, a preemptive strike was launched against clusters of 150-200 armed militants in Chechnya."
July 7 - a group of militants from Chechnya attacked an outpost near the Grebensky bridge in the Babayurtovsky district of Dagestan. The Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and Director of the FSB of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin said that "Russia will henceforth take not preventive, but only adequate actions in response to attacks in the regions bordering with Chechnya." He stressed that "the Chechen authorities do not fully control the situation in the republic."
July 16 - the commander of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation V. Ovchinnikov said that "the question of creating a buffer zone around Chechnya is being considered."
July 23 - Chechen militants attacked an outpost on the territory of Dagestan protecting the Kopaevsky hydroelectric complex. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan said that "this time the Chechens carried out reconnaissance in force, and soon large-scale actions of bandit formations will begin along the entire perimeter of the Dagestan-Chechen border."

Attack on Dagestan

The invasion of militants into Dagestan also known as Dagestan war(actually considered the beginning Second Chechen campaign), - armed clashes accompanying the entry of the Chechnya detachments "Islamic Peacekeeping Brigade" under the command Shamilya Basaeva and Khattaba to the territory Dagestan August 7 - September 14, 1999 Initially, militant units entered Botlikh(operation "ImamGazi Muhammad » - August 7-23), and then in Novolaksky district Dagestan(operation "ImamGamzat-bek » - September 5-14).

According to Russian military sources, the number of gangs ranged from 1,500 to 2,000 militants. Most of the militants were processed in terrorist center "Caucasus" and in the camp of the Urus-Martan Jamaat. Part of the inhabitants Dagestan supported the gangs.

The leader of the gangs was a well-known Chechen terrorist, Amir Congress of the peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan, divisional general of the Armed Forces of the CRI Shamil Basayev, and his closest assistant was the head of the terrorist center "Kavkaz", Colonel of the Armed Forces of the CRI Khattab... Russian sources reported that gangs were also involved in the invasion of Dagestan. Vakhi Arsanova , Ruslana Gelaeva , Arbi Baraeva and Khunkara Israpilova, however, independent sources confirm the participation of only Barayev's bandit group “ IPON ».

The religious leader of the invasion was Bagautdin Kebedov which from autumn 1998 year lived on the territory of Ichkeria. The political leadership was taken over by the so-called. "Islamic Shura of Dagestan", which included Sirazhudin Ramazanov, Magomed Tagaev, Nadirshah Khachilaev , Adallo Aliev, Ahmad Sardali, Magomed Kuramagomedov and others

Bagautdin Kebedov

August 7 - September 14 - detachments of field commanders Shamil Basayev and Khattab invaded Dagestan from the territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Fierce fighting continued for over a month. The CRI official government, unable to control the actions of various armed groups on the territory of Chechnya, dissociated itself from the actions of Shamil Basayev, but did not take practical action against him.
August 12 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation I. Zubov said that a letter was sent to the President of CRI Maskhadov with a proposal to conduct a joint operation with federal troops against Islamists in Dagestan.
August 13 - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that "strikes will be delivered on bases and clusters of militants, regardless of their location, including on the territory of Chechnya."
August 16 - President of the CRI Aslan Maskhadov introduced martial law in Chechnya for a period of 30 days, announced a partial mobilization of reservists and participants in the First Chechen War.

Aerial bombardment of Chechnya

25 August - Russian aviation strikes at militant bases in the Vedeno Gorge of Chechnya. In response to an official protest from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the command of the federal forces declares that it "reserves the right to strike at militant bases on the territory of any North Caucasian region, including Chechnya."
4 - 16 September - explosions of residential buildings in Buinaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk
September 6 - 18 - Russian aviation inflicts numerous missile and bomb strikes on military camps and fortifications of militants on the territory of Chechnya.

September 11 - Maskhadov announced a general mobilization in Chechnya.
September 14 - V. Putin said that “the Khasavyurt agreements should be subjected to an impartial analysis”, as well as “temporarily imposed strict quarantine” along the entire perimeter of Chechnya.
September 18 - Russian troops blockade the Chechen border from Dagestan, Stavropol Territory, North Ossetia and Ingushetia.
September 23 - Russian aviation began bombing the capital of Chechnya and its environs. As a result, several power substations, a number of oil and gas factories, a Grozny mobile communications center, a TV and radio broadcasting center, and an An-2 plane were destroyed. The press service of the Russian Air Force said that "the aviation will continue to strike targets that the bandit groups can use to their advantage."
September 27 - Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin categorically rejected the possibility of a meeting between the President of Russia and the head of the CRI. “There will be no meetings to let the militants lick their wounds,” he said.

Beginning of the ground operation

September 30 - Vladimir Putin promised in an interview to reporters that there would be no new Chechen war. He also stated that "Military operations are already underway, our troops entered the territory of Chechnya several times, already two weeks ago they occupied the commanding heights, liberated them, and so on."... As Putin said, “You need to be patient and do this work - to completely clear the territory of terrorists. If this work is not done today, they will return, and all the sacrifices made will be in vain. "... On the same day, armored units of the Russian army from the Stavropol Territory and Dagestan entered the territory of the Naursky and Shelkovsky regions of Chechnya.
October 4 - at a meeting of the military council of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, it was decided to form three directions to repel the attacks of the federal forces. The western direction was headed by Ruslan Gelayev, the eastern one - Shamil Basayev, the central one - Magomed Khambiev.

M. Khambiev

October 6 - in accordance with Maskhadov's decree, martial law began to operate in Chechnya. Maskhadov proposed to all religious leaders of Chechnya to declare a holy war on Russia - gazavat.
October 15 - the troops of the Western group of General Vladimir Shamanov entered Chechnya from the side of Ingushetia.

V. Shamanov

October 16 - federal forces occupied a third of the territory of Chechnya north of the Terek River and began the second stage of the anti-terrorist operation, the main goal of which is to destroy the bandit formations in the remaining territory of Chechnya.
October 18 - Russian troops crossed the Terek.
October 21 - Federal forces launched a missile attack on the central market in Grozny, killing 140 civilians
November 11 - field commanders, the Yamadayev brothers and the mufti of Chechnya Akhmat Kadyrov, surrendered Gudermes to the federal forces
November 16 - Federal forces took control of the settlement of Novy Shatoi.
November 17 - the first large losses of federal forces since the beginning of the campaign. At Vedeno, the reconnaissance group of the 31st separate airborne brigade (12 dead, 2 prisoners) was lost.
November 18 - according to the NTV television company, federal forces took control of the regional center Achkhoy-Martan "without firing a single shot."
November 25 - President of CRI Maskhadov appealed to the Russian soldiers fighting in the North Caucasus with a proposal to surrender and go over to the side of the militants.
December 7 - Federal forces occupied Argun.
By December 1999, federal forces controlled the entire flat part of Chechnya. The militants concentrated in the mountains (about 3,000 people) and in Grozny.
December 8 - federal forces launched an assault on Urus-Martan
December 14 - federal forces occupied Khankala
December 17 - a large landing of federal forces blocked the road connecting Chechnya with the village of Shatili (Georgia).
December 26, 1999 - February 6, 2000 - the siege of Grozny

3.2. 2000

January 5 - federal forces took control of the regional center Nozhai-Yurt.
January 9 - a breakthrough of militants in Shali and Argun. Federal forces regained control over Shali on January 11, and over Argun on January 13.
January 11 - federal forces took control of the regional center of Vedeno
January 27 - Field commander Isa Astamirov, deputy commander of the militants' southwestern front, was killed during the battles for Grozny.
February 4 - 7-8 am, the bombing of a peaceful village (with a population of 25,000 including refugees) of Katyr-Yurt began.
The bombing of a small village lasted from 4 to 11 February. About 450 people died, about a thousand were wounded. Many cases have been won and many more are pending before the European Court.
February 5 - the famous field commander Khunker Israpilov was killed in minefields during a breakthrough from the besieged by federal troops Grozny.
February 9 - federal troops blocked an important center of militant resistance - the village of Serzhen-Yurt, and in the Argun gorge, so famous since the time of the Caucasian War, 380 servicemen landed and occupied one of the dominant heights. Federal troops blocked more than three thousand militants in the Argun Gorge, and then methodically processed them with volume-detonating ammunition.

February 10 - federal forces took control of the Itum-Kale regional center and the village of Serzhen-Yurt
February 21 - 33 Russian servicemen, mainly from the GRU special forces unit, were killed in the battle in the Kharsenoi area.
February 29 - capture of Shatoy. Maskhadov, Khattab and Basayev left the encirclement again. Colonel-General Gennady Troshev, first deputy commander of the united grouping of federal forces, announced the end of the full-scale military operation in Chechnya.
February 28 - March 2 - Fight at height 776 - militants (Khattab) breakthrough through Ulus-Kert. The death of the paratroopers of the 6th paratrooper company of the 104th regiment.

The battle in the Argun gorge during the second Chechen war, when a whole company of Pskov paratroopers died

Argun gorge

Before the fight

Today there is another tragic date in Russia ...

Today in Russia is another tragic date - February 29 2000 in Chechnya at an altitude of 776 (in the Argun gorge) in a fierce battle with Chechen militants, the 6th company of the 104th regiment of the 76th Pskov airborne division was killed. Of the ninety paratroopers who took the battle against the superior forces of terrorists, 84 were killed, including 13 officers. They did not flinch, did not retreat, fully fulfilled their military duty, stopping the advance of the bandit formation.

Then, in February 2000, the military phase - an important stage - of the second Chechen war ended. After the fall of Grozny and Shatoi (the last large settlements of Chechnya that remained in the hands of the militants), in the opinion of the federal command, the defeated militants were to split into small detachments and disperse across the mountain bases. However, the militants concentrated. Most of their commanders, including Sh.Basaev and Khattab, offered to break through in a northeastern direction, towards the Dagestan border. One of the most obvious retreat routes was the Argun Gorge. In total, in the area of the village of Ulus-Kert, then, according to various sources, from 1.5 to 2.5 thousand well-trained militants were concentrated.

From the side of the federal troops, to cover this direction, among other units, the 6th company was sent - a consolidated detachment of paratroopers under the command of the guard lieutenant colonel M.Yevtyukhin, who was tasked to occupy a line four kilometers southeast of Ulus-Kert, with the aim of to prevent a possible breakthrough by the militants in the direction of Vedeno.

The 6th company established itself at the dominant height of 776. But the militants went ahead. The battle near Ulus-Kert began on February 29, 2000 and lasted the entire next day. Although the paratroopers received no help, except for the breakthrough of 10 scouts of the 4th company and fire support of the artillery units, they fought to the death. The gunners "worked" at the heights all night. On the morning of March 1, hand-to-hand fighting ensued, and at a critical moment Lieutenant Colonel Yevtyukhin called out artillery fire: "At yourself!"

The soldiers of the 1st company of the 1st battalion also sought to help their comrades. But during the crossing of the Abazulgol River, they were ambushed and were forced to gain a foothold on the bank. Only in the morning of March 2, they managed to break through, but it was too late - the 6th company died, only 6 fighters remained alive. The losses of the militants, according to the federal forces, ranged from 400 to 700 people. The remaining militants managed to break through from the Argun Gorge. They went into the mountains and disappeared. Later, some of the field commanders were killed.

The death of the paratroopers, left without help and cut off from reinforcements, caused a large number of questions from the public and the relatives of the victims to the authorities and the military command. According to many military analysts and media representatives, the death of the 6th company was caused by a number of mistakes and miscalculations of the Russian command.

August 2, 2000, on the day of the 70th anniversary of the Airborne Forces, the President of the Russian Federation V. Putin arrived at the Pskov division and personally apologized to the relatives of the victims for "gross miscalculations that have to be paid for with the lives of Russian soldiers", admitting the guilt of the Kremlin. But even years later, neither the president nor the military prosecutor's office explained who exactly made these gross mistakes, paid for by the soldiers' lives.

Monument to the 6th company in Pskov

Subsequently, all the dead paratroopers were forever entered into the lists of the 104th Guards Regiment. By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, 22 paratroopers were awarded the title of Hero of Russia (21 posthumously), and 68 were awarded the Order of Courage (63 posthumously). All of them are guys from 47 republics, territories and regions of Russia and the republics of the near abroad.

The films "I Have the Honor", "Breakthrough", "Russian Victim", the musical "Warriors of the Spirit", the books "Rota", "Breakthrough", "Step into Immortality", songs are dedicated to the memory of the Pskov paratroopers. The streets of their hometowns are named in their honor, memorial plaques are installed in educational institutions where the heroes-paratroopers studied. Monuments were erected to them in Moscow and Pskov.

However, the anniversary of this fight is usually not celebrated at the official level. Commemorative events in the last days of February - early March are held, as a rule, by the efforts of public organizations and relatives.

Paratroopers of the 6th company of the 104th regiment of the 76th Pskov Guards Airborne Division heroically killed in the Argun Gorge, February 29 and March 1, 2000:

Guard Captain Romanov Viktor Viktorovich
Guard Senior Lieutenant Panov Andrey Alexandrovich
Guard Senior Lieutenant Vorobyov Alexey Vladimirovich
Guard Lieutenant Ermakov Oleg Viktorovich
Guard Lieutenant Dmitry Kozhemyakin
Guards Major Dostalov Alexander Vasilievich
Guard Lieutenant Colonel Evtyukhin Mark Nikolaevich
Guard Private Shevchenko Denis Petrovich
Guard Private Zinkevich Denis Nikolaevich
Guard Sergeant Grigoriev Dmitry Viktorovich
Guard Private Vladimir Vladimirovich Arkhipov
Guard Private Shikov Sergei Alexandrovich
Guard Junior Sergeant Shvetsov Vladimir Alexandrovich
Guard Private Travin Mikhail Vitalievich
Guard Private Islentyev Vladimir Anatolyevich
Guard Private Ivanov Dmitry Ivanovich
Guard Senior Lieutenant Kolgatin Alexander Mikhailovich,
Guard Private Vorobyov Alexey Nikolaevich,
Guard Senior Lieutenant Andrey Nikolaevich Sherstyannikov
Guard Private Hrabrov Alexey Alexandrovich
Guard Captain Sokolov Roman Vladimirovich,
Guard Private Nishchenko Alexey Sergeevich
Guard Lieutenant Ryazantsev Alexander Nikolaevich,
Guard corporal Lebedev Alexander Vladislavovich
Guard Senior Lieutenant Dmitry Vladimirovich Petrov
Guard Private Alexander V. Karoteev
Guard Senior Sergeant Medvedev Sergei Yurievich
Guard Private Mikhailov Sergey Anatolyevich,
Guard Private Shukaev Alexey Borisovich,
Guard Private Trubenok Alexander Leonidovich
Guard Private Nekrasov Alexey Anatolyevich
Guard Private Kiryanov Alexey Valerievich
Guard Senior Sergeant Siraev Rustam Flaridovich,
Guard Private Valentin Ivanovich Savin,
Guard Private Stanislav Igorevich Grudinsky,
Guard Junior Sergeant Khvorostukhin Igor Sergeevich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Krivushev Konstantin Valerievich,
Guard Private Roman Sergeevich Piskunov,
Guard Private Batretdinov Dmitry Mansurovich,
Guard Private Timoshinin Konstantin Viktorovich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Lyashkov Yuri Nikolaevich,
Guard Private Zaitsev Andrey Yurievich,
Guard Private Roman Valerievich Sudakov,
Guard Private Ivanov Yaroslav Sergeevich
Guard Private Chugunov Vadim Vladimirovich
Guard Private Erdyakov Roman Sergeevich,
Guard Private Pakhomov Roman Alexandrovich
Guard Junior Sergeant Zhukov Sergey Valerievich ,.
Guard private Vladimir Aleksandrov ,.
Guard Junior Sergeant Shchemlev Dmitry Sergeevich,
Guard Sergeant Kuptsov Vladimir Ivanovich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Dukhin Vladislav Anatolyevich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Vasiliev Alexey Yurievich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Khamatov Evgeny Kamitovich,
Guard Private Shalaev Nikolai Vasilievich,
Guard Private Lebedev Viktor Nikolaevich,
Private guard Zagoraev Mikhail Vyacheslavovich.
Guard Junior Sergeant Strebin Denis Sergeevich,
Guard Private Timashev Denis Vladimirovich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Pavlov Ivan Gennadievich
Private guard Denis Alexandrovich Tregubov,
Guard Junior Sergeant Kozlov Sergey Olegovich,
Guard Private Sergei Vasilev,
Guard Private Ambetov Nikolay Kamitovich,
Guard corporal Sokovanov Vasily Nikolaevich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Ivanov Sergey Alekseevich,
Guard Private Vladimir Izyumov,
Guard Senior Sergeant Andrey Vladimirovich Aranson.
Guard Private Storytelling Alexey Vasilievich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Eliseev Vladimir Sergeevich
Guard corporal Gerdt Alexander Alexandrovich,
Guard Private Galim Mukhambetovich Kuatbayev,
Guard Private Vladimir Ivanovich Biryukov,
Guard Private Isaev Alexander Dmitrievich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Afanasyev Roman Sergeevich,
Guard Private Belykh Denis Igorevich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Bakulin Sergey Mikhailovich,
Guard Junior Sergeant Evdokimov Mikhail Vladimirovich,
Guard sergeant Evgeny Valerievich Isakov,
Guard Private Kenzhiev Amangeldy Amantayevich,
Guard Private Igor Popov,
Guard Sergeant Komyagin Alexander Valerievich

March 2 - the tragic death of the Sergiev Posad OMON as a result of "friendly fire" *
5 - 20 March - Battle for the village of Komsomolskoye

Battle for the village of Komsomolskoye (2000) - an episode of the Second Chechen War, when federal forces (commanded by Colonel-General Mikhail Labunets) surrounded a large formation of Chechen fighters (retreated from the fallen Grozny in February 2000), under the command of field commander R. Gelayev) in his native village of Komsomolskoye (Saadi-Kotar) (Urus-Martan district) and carried out an operation to block and destroy it. During the fighting in the village, at least 552 people died, of which about 350 died while trying to break out of the encirclement. In addition, more than 70 were taken prisoner (mostly wounded and shell-shocked). The federal side also suffered losses. According to unconfirmed reports, more than 50 servicemen of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense were killed and more than 300 were injured. The detachment of the commander Seyfully (about 300 people) responded to Gelayev's calls for help, but on the way to the village it was destroyed by air fire and artillery. Gelayev and several groups of militants nevertheless managed to break through the encirclement and retreat to the territory of Georgia (to the Pankisi Gorge). During the assault on the village, Buratino installations were used.

In the opinion of Gennady Troshev, the commander of the federal troops during the hostilities, "the active phase of hostilities in Chechnya practically ended with the operation in Komsomolskoye."

March 12 - in the village of Novogroznensky, terrorist Salman Raduyev was seized in the village of Novogroznensky and taken to Moscow, who was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment and died in detention.
March 19 - in the vicinity of the village of Duba-Yurt, FSB officers detained a Chechen field commander named Salautdin Temirbulatov, nicknamed Tractor Driver, who was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
March 20 - on the eve of the presidential elections, Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Chechnya. He arrived in Grozny on a Su-27UB fighter piloted by the head of the Lipetsk air center, Alexander Kharchevsky.
March 29 - the death of the Perm riot police near the village of Dzhaney-Vedeno. More than 40 people died.
April 20 - First Deputy Chief of the General Staff Colonel-General Valery Manilov announced the end of the military unit of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya and the transition to special operations.
May 19 - Deputy Minister of Sharia Security of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Abu Movsayev was killed.
May 21 - in the city of Shali, special services officers detained (in their own house) one of Aslan Maskhadov's closest accomplices - field commander Ruslan Alikhadzhiev.
June 11 - by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Akhmat Kadyrov was appointed head of the Chechen administration
July 2 - A series of terrorist attacks involving mined trucks killed more than 30 police officers and federal servicemen. The greatest losses were incurred by employees of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Chelyabinsk Region in Argun.
October 1 - Field commander Isa Munaev was killed during a clash in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny.
3.3. 2001
June 23-24 - in the village of Alkhan-Kala, a special combined detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB conducted a special operation to eliminate a detachment of militants of the field commander Arbi Barayev. 16 militants were killed, including Barayev himself.
July 11 - in the village of Mayrtup, Shali district of Chechnya, during a special operation by the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Khattab's assistant Abu Umar was killed.
August 25 - in the city of Argun, during a special operation, FSB officers killed field commander Movsan Suleimenov, nephew of Arbi Barayev.
September 17 - an attack by militants (300 people) on Gudermes, the attack was repulsed. As a result of the use of the Tochka-U missile system, a group of more than 100 people was destroyed. A Mi-8 helicopter with a General Staff commission on board was shot down in Grozny (2 generals and 8 officers were killed).
November 3 - during a special operation, an influential field commander, Shamil Iriskhanov, who was part of Basayev's inner circle, was killed.
December 15 - 20 militants were killed by federal forces in Argun during a special operation.

3.4. 2002

January 27 - an Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in the Shelkovsky district of Chechnya. Among the dead were Lieutenant General Mikhail Rudchenko, Deputy Minister of the Interior of the Russian Federation, and Major General Nikolai Goridov, commander of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chechnya.
March 20 - as a result of a special operation by the FSB, the terrorist Khattab was killed by poisoning.

April 14 - MTL-B was blown up in Vedeno, in which there were sappers, cover submachine gunners, an FSB officer. The explosion occurred as a result of false information passed among the population about the poisoning of a water source by militants. 6 servicemen were killed, 4 were injured. FSB officer among the dead
April 18 - in his Address to the Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin announced the end of the military stage of the conflict in Chechnya.
May 9 - a terrorist attack took place in Dagestan during the Victory Day celebrations. 43 people were killed, more than 100 were injured.
August 19 - Chechen fighters from Igla MANPADS shot down a Russian military transport helicopter Mi-26 near the Khankala military base. Of the 147 people on board, 127 died.
September 23 - Raid on Ingushetia (2002)
October 23 - 26 - hostage-taking at the theater center on Dubrovka in Moscow, 129 hostages were killed. All 44 terrorists were killed, including Movsar Barayev.

October 23, 2002 at 21:15, armed men in camouflage broke into the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka. At that time the musical "Nord-Ost" was going on in the Palace of Culture, there were more than 700 people in the hall. The terrorists declared all people - spectators and theater workers - hostages and began to mine the building.

At 10 pm it became known that the theater building was seized by a detachment of Chechen militants led by Movsar Barayev; among the terrorists there are female suicide bombers hung with explosives.

Movsar Baraev

At 19:00 the next day, the Qatari TV channel "Al-Jazeera" broadcast an appeal from the militants of Movsar Barayev, recorded several days before the seizure of the DC: the terrorists declare themselves suicide bombers and demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. From 7 pm to midnight, unsuccessful attempts to persuade the militants to accept food and water for the hostages continued.

Aslambek Aslakhanov, a State Duma deputy from Chechnya, Iosif Kobzon, British journalist Mark Franchetti, and two Red Cross doctors took part in the negotiations. On October 25, at 1 am, terrorists allowed Leonid Roshal, head of the emergency surgery and trauma department of the Disaster Medicine Center, into the building. He brought medicines to the hostages and gave them first aid.

In the morning, a spontaneous rally broke out at the cordon near the Palace of Culture. Relatives and friends of the hostages demanded to fulfill all the demands of the terrorists. At 15 o'clock in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. Following the meeting, FSB director Nikolai Patrushev said that the authorities are ready to save the terrorists' lives if they release all the hostages.

On October 26, at 5:30 am, three explosions and several automatic rounds are heard near the building of the Palace of Culture. At about six o'clock, special forces began an assault, during which nerve gas was used. At half past seven in the morning, an FSB official said that the Theater Center was under the control of the special services, Movsar Barayev and most of the terrorists had been destroyed. The number of neutralized terrorists in the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka was 50 people - 18 women and 32 men.

On November 7, 2002, the Moscow prosecutor's office published a list of citizens who died as a result of the terrorists' actions who seized the Theater Center on Dubrovka. This mournful list included 128 people: 120 Russians and 8 citizens from near and far abroad.

December 27 - explosion of the Government House in Grozny. As a result of the terrorist attack, over 70 people were killed. Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the attack.

3.5. 2003

May 12 - in the village of Znamenskoye, Nadterechny district of Chechnya, three suicide bombers carried out a terrorist attack in the area of the buildings of the administration of the Nadterechny district and the FSB of the Russian Federation. The KamAZ car, packed with explosives, demolished the barrier in front of the building and exploded. 60 people were killed, more than 250 were injured.
May 14 - in the village of Ilskhan-Yurt, Gudermes region, a suicide bomber blew herself up in a crowd at the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, where Akhmat Kadyrov was present. 18 people were killed, 145 people were injured.
July 5 - a terrorist attack in Moscow at the Wings rock festival. 16 people were killed, 57 were injured.
August 1 - The bombing of a military hospital in Mozdok. A KamAZ army truck loaded with explosives rammed the gate and exploded near the building. There was one suicide bomber in the cockpit. The death toll was 50.
September 3 - a terrorist attack on the Kislovodsk-Minvody electric train on the Podkumok-Belyi Ugol stretch, railway tracks were blown up using a land mine.
December 5 - a terrorist attack using suicide bombers in a train in Yessentuki.
December 9 - a suicide bombing attack near the National Hotel (Moscow).
2003-2004 - Raid on Dagestan by a detachment under the command of Ruslan Gelayev.

3.6. 2004

February 6 - a terrorist attack in the Moscow metro, on the stretch between the stations "Avtozavodskaya" and "Paveletskaya". 39 people were killed, 122 were injured.
February 28 - famous field commander Ruslan Gelayev was mortally wounded during a shootout with border guards
April 16 - Abu al-Walid al-Hamidi, the leader of foreign mercenaries in Chechnya, was killed during the shelling of the Chechen mountains
May 9 - in Grozny, at the Dynamo stadium, where the Victory Day parade was held, at 10:32 a powerful explosion thundered on the newly renovated VIP tribune. At that moment, the President of Chechnya Akhmat Kadyrov, Chairman of the State Council of the Chechen Republic Kh. Isaev, Commander of the United Group of Forces in the North Caucasus General V. Baranov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya Alu Alkhanov and Military Commandant of the Republic G. Fomenko were on it. Directly in the explosion, 2 people died, 4 more died in hospitals: Akhmat Kadyrov, Kh. Isaev, Reuters journalist A. Khasanov, a child (whose name was not disclosed) and two Kadyrov's security officers. In total, 63 people, including 5 children, were injured from the explosion in Grozny.
May 17 - as a result of an explosion in the suburbs of Grozny, the crew of an armored personnel carrier of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was killed and several people were wounded
June 22 - Raid on Ingushetia
12-13 July - a large detachment of militants captured the village of Avtury, Shali District
August 21 - 400 militants attacked Grozny. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, 44 people were killed and 36 seriously wounded.
August 24 - Explosions of two Russian passenger airliners, killing 89 people.
August 31 - a terrorist attack near the metro station "Rizhskaya" in Moscow. 10 people died, more than 50 people were injured
September 1 - the terrorist act in Beslan, as a result of which over 350 people from among the hostages, civilians and servicemen were killed. Half of those killed are children.

On September 1, 2004, a group of armed masked men drove up to the building of School No. 1 in Beslan in several cars and took 1128 people - children and their parents - hostage right from the school line, and drove them into the school gym.

The terrorists were armed with at least 20 Kalashnikov assault rifles of various modifications, including those with grenade launchers; 2 Kalashnikov light machine guns (RPK - 74); 2 modernized Kalashnikov machine guns (PKM); 1 Kalashnikov tank machine gun (PKT); 2 hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers (RPG-7v) and "Fly" grenade launchers; explosive devices: two improvised explosive devices of a similar design, made using explosives - plastic and hexogen, ready-made destructive elements - metal balls, electric detonators, with a hit radius of at least 200 m, at least six improvised explosive devices made on the basis of anti-personnel fragmentation mines of circular destruction OZM-72 of industrial production with homemade modifications, as well as the so-called "suicide belts" - improvised explosive devices.

The terrorists demanded that the authorities release the militants, previously detained on suspicion of participation in the attack on Ingushetia on June 21-22, 2004, and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. They also demanded that the President of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov, the President of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov and the pediatrician Leonid Roshal, who took part in the negotiations during the terrorist attack on Dubrovka in October 2002, should appear for negotiations with them. At the same time, the terrorists threatened to blow up the school building in the event of an assault and kill 50 hostages for each terrorist killed. The prosecutor of Beslan and the mufti of North Ossetia volunteered to act as negotiators, but the terrorists did not let them into the school building.

On the first day, the terrorists shot 12 (according to other sources - 14) men who were among the hostages.

On the night of September 2, negotiations between the terrorists and Dr. Roshal took place. The representatives of the special services conveyed to the terrorists that they were ready to provide them with the possibility of safe travel to Ingushetia and Chechnya. In addition, it was proposed to replace the child hostages with adults. There was no response to these proposals; the terrorists also refused to accept food and medicine for the hostages.

On September 2, the former President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev visited the seized school. At his request, the militants released a group of hostages of 26 people (mothers with babies). Then, at the headquarters, Aushev and Alexander Dzasokhov contacted by phone with Akhmed Zakayev with a request that he contact Aslan Maskhadov and ask him to fly to Beslan and enter into negotiations with the terrorists. The latter expressed his agreement in principle, stating, however, that his connection with Maskhadov was one-sided. On September 3 at 12-00 Zakayev informs Dzasokhov of Maskhadov's consent (subject to the provision of security guarantees to Maskhadov) to arrive in Beslan (no guarantees were provided). Zakayev told Dzasokhov about the conversation with Maskhadov and his and Maskhadov's readiness to immediately arrive in Beslan and release the hostages "on any terms", but demanded security guarantees. Dzasokhov replied that "our conversation is an invitation to talk about it." Zakayev expressed his readiness to fly out immediately, but Dzasokhov asked him to call back in one and a half (according to other sources, two) hours needed for him to resolve the technical issues of Zakayev and Maskhadov's arrival. However, Zakayev did not call back, because an hour after the conversation, explosions were heard at the school and an assault began.

At 12:40 pm, the operational headquarters managed to negotiate with the terrorists about the evacuation of the bodies of the killed hostages from the school. At 12:55 pm, Emergency Situations Ministry officials are advancing to the school to pick up the bodies of those killed. At 13: 03-13: 05, two explosions were heard in the school building, and hostages began to run out of the school. After that, the special forces of the Russian army and the FSB undertook an assault. As a result of the assault, both the terrorists and the assaults suffered losses (10 special forces were killed). Hostage casualties: 331 dead, about 500 wounded.

3.7. 2005

February 18 - as a result of a special operation in the Oktyabrsky district of Grozny, the forces of the PPS-2 detachment destroyed the "emir of Grozny" Yunadi Turchaev, the "right hand" of one of the leaders of the terrorists Doku Umarov.
March 8 - during a special operation of the FSB in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt, President of the CRI Aslan Maskhadov was liquidated
May 15 - former vice-president of CRI Vakha Arsanov was killed in Grozny. Arsanov and his accomplices, while in a private house, fired at a police patrol and were destroyed by the arriving reinforcements.
May 15 - Rasul Tambulatov (Volchek), the “emir” of the Shelkovsky district of the Chechen Republic, was destroyed in the Dubovsky forest of the Shelkovsky district as a result of a special operation of the Interior Ministry troops.
October 13 - An attack by militants on the city of Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria), as a result of which, according to Russian authorities, 12 civilians and 35 members of the security forces were killed. Destroyed, according to various sources, from 40 to 124 militants.

3.8. 2006

January 3-5 - in the Untsukul region of Dagestan, federal and local security forces are trying to liquidate a gang of 8 militants under the command of field commander O. Sheikhulaev. According to official information, 5 militants were killed, the terrorists themselves admit the death of only one. The losses of the federal forces amounted to 1 killed, 10 wounded.
January 31 - Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference that at the present time we can talk about the end of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya.
February 9-11 - in the village of Tukui-Mekteb in the Stavropol Territory, during a special operation, 12 militants of the so-called. "Nogai battalion of the Armed Forces of the CRI", the federal forces lost 7 people killed. During the operation, the federal side actively uses helicopters and tanks.
March 28 - Sultan Geliskhanov, the former head of the ChRI state security department, voluntarily surrendered to the authorities in Chechnya.
June 16 - “President of CRI” Abdul-Halim Sadulayev was destroyed in Argun

July 4 - in Chechnya, a military convoy is attacked near the village of Avtury in the Shali region. Representatives of the federal forces report 6 killed servicemen, militants - more than 20.
July 9 - The Kavkaz Center website of Chechen militants announced the creation of the Ural and Volga fronts as part of the CRI Armed Forces.
July 10 - in Ingushetia, one of the terrorist leaders, Shamil Basayev, was destroyed as a result of a special operation (according to other sources, he was killed due to careless handling of explosives)
July 12 - On the border of Chechnya and Dagestan, the police of both republics destroy a relatively large but poorly armed gang of 15 militants. 13 bandits were killed, 2 more were detained.
August 23 - Chechen fighters attacked a military convoy on the Grozny-Shatoi highway, not far from the entrance to the Argun Gorge. The convoy consisted of a Ural vehicle and two escort armored personnel carriers. As reported in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic, four servicemen of the federal forces were wounded as a result.
November 7 - Seven riot policemen from Mordovia were killed in Chechnya.
November 26 - Abu Khafs al-Urdani, the leader of foreign mercenaries in Chechnya, was killed in Khasavyurt. Together with him, 4 more militants were killed.

3.9. 2007

April 4 - in the vicinity of the village of Agish-batoy, Vedeno region of Chechnya, one of the most influential leaders of the militants, the commander of the Eastern Front of the CRI, Suleiman Ilmurzaev (call sign "Khairulla"), who was involved in the assassination of Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov, was killed.
June 13 - in the Vedeno region, on the Verkhniye Kurchali-Belgatoy road, militants shot at a convoy of police vehicles.
July 23 - a battle near the village of Tazen-Kale in the Vedensky district between the Vostok battalion of Sulim Yamadayev and a detachment of Chechen fighters led by Doku Umarov. The death of 6 militants is reported.

September 18 - as a result of a counter-terrorist operation in the village of Novy Sulak, "Amir Rabbani" - Rappani Khalilov was destroyed.

3.10. 2008

January - during special operations in Makhachkala and the Tabasaran region of Dagestan, at least 9 militants were killed, and 6 of them were part of the grouping of field commander I. Mallochiev. On the part of the security forces, no one was killed in these clashes. At the same time, during the clashes in Grozny, the Chechen militia killed 5 militants, among them was the field commander U. Techiev, the "emir" of the capital of Chechnya.
May 5 - a military vehicle was blown up by a land mine in the suburb of Grozny, the village of Tashkola. 5 policemen were killed, 2 were wounded.
June 13 - night outing of militants in the village of Benoi-Vedeno
September 2008 - major leaders of the illegal armed groups of Dagestan, Ilgar Mallochiev and A. Gudaev, were killed, up to 10 militants in total.
December 18 - a battle in the city of Argun, 2 policemen were killed and 6 wounded. On the side of the militants in Argun, 1 person was killed.
December 23-25 - a special operation of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the village of Verkhniy Alkun in Ingushetia. Field commander Vakha Dzhenaraliev, who fought against federal troops in Chechnya and Ingushetia since 1999, was killed, his deputy Khamkhoev was killed, a total of 12 militants were killed. 4 bases of illegal armed groups were liquidated.
June 19 - Said Buryatsky announced his joining the underground.

3.11. 2009

March 21-22 - a large special operation of the security forces in Dagestan. As a result of heavy fighting with the use of helicopters and armored vehicles, the forces of the local Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, with the support of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, liquidate 12 militants in the Untsukul region of the republic. The losses of the federal troops are 5 people killed (two servicemen of the special forces of the Internal Troops later received the title of Hero of Russia posthumously for participating in these hostilities). At the same time, in Makhachkala, the police are killing 4 more armed extremists in battle.
April 15 - the last day of the counter-terrorist operation regime
4. Aggravation of the situation in the North Caucasus in 2009

Fighting clashes, terrorist attacks and police operations are actively taking place not only on the territory of Chechnya, but also on the territory of Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia. In some territories, the CTO regime was repeatedly introduced temporarily.

1. The first Chechen war (the Chechen conflict of 1994-1996, the First Chechen campaign, Restoration of constitutional order in the Chechen Republic) - hostilities between the troops of Russia (the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Internal Affairs) and the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in Chechnya, and some settlements of the neighboring regions of the Russian North Caucasus, with the aim of taking control of the territory of Chechnya, where in 1991 the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was proclaimed.

2. Officially, the conflict was defined as “measures to maintain constitutional order”, military actions were called “the first Chechen war”, less often “Russian-Chechen” or “Russian-Caucasian war”. The conflict and the events preceding it were characterized by a large number of victims among the population, military and law enforcement agencies, and facts of ethnic cleansing of the non-Chechen population in Chechnya were noted.

3. Despite certain military successes of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the results of this conflict were the withdrawal of Russian units, massive destruction and casualties, the de facto independence of Chechnya before the Second Chechen War and a wave of terror that swept across Russia.

4. With the beginning of perestroika in various republics of the Soviet Union, including Checheno-Ingushetia, various nationalist movements became more active. One of such organizations was the National Congress of the Chechen People (ACCN), created in 1990, which aimed at the secession of Chechnya from the USSR and the creation of an independent Chechen state. It was headed by the former general of the Soviet Air Force Dzhokhar Dudayev.

5. On June 8, 1991, at the II session of the OKChN, Dudayev proclaimed the independence of the Chechen Republic Nokhchi-cho; thus, a dual power took shape in the republic.

6. During the "August putsch" in Moscow, the leadership of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic supported the GKChP. In response, on September 6, 1991, Dudayev announced the dissolution of the republican state structures, accusing Russia of "colonial" policy. On the same day, Dudayev's guards stormed the building of the Supreme Soviet, the television center and the House of Radio. More than 40 deputies were beaten, and the chairman of the Grozny city council, Vitaly Kutsenko, was thrown out of the window, as a result of which he died. On this occasion, the head of the Chechen Republic Zavgaev D. G. spoke in 1996 at a meeting of the State Duma "

Yes, on the territory of the Chechen-Ingush Republic (today it is divided), the war began in the fall of 1991, precisely the war against the multinational people, when the criminal criminal regime, with some support from those who today also show an unhealthy interest in the situation here, drenched these people with blood. The first victim of what was happening was precisely the people of this republic, and the Chechens above all. The war began when Vitaly Kutsenko, chairman of the Grozny city council, was killed in broad daylight during a meeting of the republic's Supreme Soviet. When Besliyev, Vice-Rector of the State University, was shot in the street. When Kankalik was killed, the rector of the same state university. When every day in the fall of 1991, up to 30 people were found killed on the streets of Grozny. When, from the fall of 1991 to 1994, Grozny's morgues were packed to the ceiling, announcements were made on local television with a request to pick up, establish who was there, and so on.

8. The Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Ruslan Khasbulatov then sent them a telegram: "I was pleased to learn about the resignation of the Armed Forces of the republic." After the collapse of the USSR, Dzhokhar Dudayev announced the final withdrawal of Chechnya from the Russian Federation. On October 27, 1991, presidential and parliamentary elections were held in the republic under the control of the separatists. Dzhokhar Dudayev became the president of the republic. These elections were declared illegal by the Russian Federation

9. On November 7, 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree "On the introduction of a state of emergency in the Chechen-Ingush Republic (1991)". After these actions by the Russian leadership, the situation in the republic sharply deteriorated - supporters of the separatists surrounded the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB, military camps, blocked railroad and air hubs. In the end, the introduction of the state of emergency was thwarted, the Decree "On the introduction of a state of emergency in the Chechen-Ingush Republic (1991)" was canceled on November 11, three days after its signing, after a heated discussion at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and from the republic The withdrawal of Russian military units and units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began, which was finally completed by the summer of 1992. The separatists began to seize and loot military depots.

10. Dudaev's forces got a lot of weapons: Two launchers of an operational-tactical missile system in a sky-ready state. 111 trainer aircraft L-39 and 149 L-29, aircraft converted into light attack aircraft; three MiG-17 fighters and two MiG-15 fighters; six An-2 and two Mi-8 helicopters, 117 R-23 and R-24 aircraft missiles, 126 R-60; about 7 thousand GSh-23 air shells. 42 T-62 and T-72 tanks; 34 BMP-1 and BMP-2; 30 BTR-70 and BRDM; 44 MT-LB, 942 vehicles. 18 MLRS Grad and more than 1000 shells for them. 139 artillery systems, including 30 122-mm D-30 howitzers and 24 thousand shells for them; as well as ACS 2S1 and 2S3; anti-tank guns MT-12. Five air defense systems, 25 memory units of various types, 88 MANPADS; 105 pcs. SAM S-75. 590 units of anti-tank weapons, including two ATGM Competition, 24 ATGM Fagot complexes, 51 ATGM Metis complexes, 113 RPG-7 complexes. About 50 thousand small arms, more than 150 thousand grenades. 27 wagons of ammunition; 1620 tons of fuels and lubricants; about 10 thousand sets of clothing items, 72 tons of food; 90 tons of medical equipment.

12. In June 1992, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Pavel Grachev ordered to transfer to the Dudayevites half of all weapons and ammunition available in the republic. According to him, this was a forced step, since a significant part of the "transferred" weapons had already been captured, and the rest could not be taken out due to the lack of soldiers and echelons.

13. The victory of the separatists in Grozny led to the collapse of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Malgobeksky, Nazranovsky and most of the Sunzhensky region of the former Chechen-Ingush ASSR formed the Republic of Ingushetia within the Russian Federation. Legally, the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ceased to exist on December 10, 1992.

14. The exact border between Chechnya and Ingushetia has not been demarcated and to date (2012) has not been defined. During the Ossetian-Ingush conflict in November 1992, Russian troops were brought into the Prigorodny region of North Ossetia. Relations between Russia and Chechnya have sharply deteriorated. The Russian high command suggested at the same time solving the "Chechen problem" by force, but then the entry of troops into the territory of Chechnya was prevented by the efforts of Yegor Gaidar.

16. As a result, Chechnya became de facto independent, but not legally recognized by any country, including Russia, as a state. The republic had state symbols - a flag, coat of arms and anthem, authorities - the president, parliament, government, secular courts. It was supposed to create a small Armed Forces, as well as the introduction of its own state currency - nahara. In the constitution, adopted on March 12, 1992, CRI was described as an "independent secular state", its government refused to sign a federal agreement with the Russian Federation.

17. In fact, the state system of the CRI turned out to be extremely ineffective and in the period 1991-1994 it was rapidly criminalized. In 1992-1993, over 600 premeditated murders were committed on the territory of Chechnya. For the period of 1993, 559 trains were attacked at the Grozny branch of the North Caucasian Railway, with full or partial looting of about 4 thousand wagons and containers worth 11.5 billion rubles. For 8 months of 1994, 120 armed attacks were committed, as a result of which 1156 wagons and 527 containers were looted. Losses amounted to more than 11 billion rubles. In 1992-1994, 26 railway workers were killed as a result of armed attacks. The current situation forced the Russian government to make a decision to stop traffic on the territory of Chechnya from October 1994

18. A special trade was the production of false advice notes, for which more than 4 trillion rubles were received. Hostage-taking and the slave trade flourished in the republic - according to Rosinformtsentr, in total 1,790 people have been kidnapped and illegally detained in Chechnya since 1992.

19. Even after that, when Dudayev stopped paying taxes to the general budget and prohibited Russian special services from entering the republic, the federal center continued to transfer funds from the budget to Chechnya. In 1993, 11.5 billion rubles were allocated to Chechnya. Until 1994, Russian oil continued to flow to Chechnya, while it was not paid for and was resold abroad.

21. In the spring of 1993 in the CRI, the contradictions between President Dudayev and the parliament sharply escalated. On April 17, 1993, Dudayev announced the dissolution of the parliament, the constitutional court and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On June 4, armed Dudayevites under the command of Shamil Basayev seized the building of the Grozny City Council, which hosted parliamentary and constitutional court sessions; thus, a coup d'etat took place in CRI. Amendments were made to the constitution adopted last year, Dudaev's personal power regime was established in the republic, which lasted until August 1994, when legislative powers were returned to parliament.

22. After the coup d'état on June 4, 1993, in the northern regions of Chechnya, not controlled by the separatist government in Grozny, an armed anti-Dudaev opposition was formed, which began an armed struggle against the Dudayev regime. The first opposition organization was the Committee for National Salvation (KNS), which carried out several armed actions, but was soon defeated and disintegrated. It was replaced by the Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic (VSChR), which proclaimed itself the only legal authority on the territory of Chechnya. The HSCR was recognized as such by the Russian authorities, who provided him with all kinds of support (including weapons and volunteers).

23. Since the summer of 1994, hostilities have unfolded in Chechnya between the troops loyal to Dudayev and the forces of the opposition Provisional Council. Troops loyal to Dudayev carried out offensive operations in the Nadterechny and Urus-Martan districts controlled by the opposition forces. They were accompanied by significant losses on both sides, tanks, artillery and mortars were used.

24. The forces of the parties were approximately equal, and none of them was able to gain the upper hand in the struggle.

25. In Urus-Martan alone in October 1994, the Dudayevites lost 27 people killed, according to opposition figures. The operation was planned by the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov. The commander of the opposition detachment in Urus-Martan, Bislan Gantamirov, lost from 5 to 34 people killed, according to various sources. In Argun in September 1994, a detachment of the opposition field commander Ruslan Labazanov lost 27 people. The opposition, in turn, carried out offensive actions in Grozny on September 12 and October 15, 1994, but each time it retreated without achieving a decisive success, although it did not suffer large losses.

26. On November 26, oppositionists unsuccessfully stormed Grozny for the third time. At the same time, a number of Russian servicemen, who "fought on the side of the opposition" under a contract with the Federal Counterintelligence Service, were captured by Dudaev's supporters.

27. Entry of Troops (December 1994)

At that time, the use of the expression "the introduction of Russian troops into Chechnya", according to the deputy and journalist Alexander Nevzorov, was, to a greater extent, caused by publicistic terminological confusion - Chechnya was part of Russia.

Even before the announcement of any decision by the Russian authorities, on December 1, Russian aviation struck the Kalinovskaya and Khankala airfields and disabled all the planes at the disposal of the separatists. On December 11, President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin signed Decree No. 2169 "On Measures to Ensure Legality, Law and Order and Public Safety in the Territory of the Chechen Republic." Later, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognized most of the decrees and decisions of the government, which justified the actions of the federal government in Chechnya, as consistent with the Constitution.

On the same day, units of the United Group of Forces (UGV), consisting of units of the Ministry of Defense and Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, entered the territory of Chechnya. The troops were divided into three groups and entered from three different sides - from the west from North Ossetia through Ingushetia), from the north-west from the Mozdok region of North Ossetia, directly bordering Chechnya, and from the east from the territory of Dagestan).

The eastern group was blocked in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan by local residents - Chechens-Akkins. The western group was also blocked by local residents and came under fire near the village of Barsuki, however, using force, it nevertheless broke through into Chechnya. The most successful was the Mozdok group, which already on December 12 approached the village of Dolinsky, located 10 km from Grozny.

Near Dolinsky, Russian troops came under fire from the Chechen rocket artillery "Grad" and then fought for this settlement.

A new offensive by the UGV units began on December 19. The Vladikavkaz (western) grouping blocked Grozny from the west, bypassing the Sunzhensky ridge. On December 20, the Mozdok (northwestern) grouping took Dolinsky and blocked Grozny from the northwest. The Kizlyar (eastern) grouping blocked Grozny from the east, and the paratroopers of the 104th airborne regiment blocked the city from the side of the Argun Gorge. At the same time, the southern part of Grozny was unblocked.

Thus, at the initial stage of hostilities, in the first weeks of the war, Russian troops were able to occupy the northern regions of Chechnya practically without resistance.

In mid-December, federal troops began shelling the suburbs of Grozny, and on December 19, the first bombing strike was made on the city center. During the shelling and bombing, many civilians (including ethnic Russians) were killed and injured.

Despite the fact that Grozny still remained unblocked from the southern side, the storming of the city began on December 31, 1994. About 250 units of armored vehicles entered the city, extremely vulnerable in street battles. The Russian troops were poorly prepared, there was no interaction and coordination between the various units, and many soldiers had no combat experience. The troops had aerial photographs of the city, outdated city plans in limited numbers. Communication facilities were not equipped with closed communication equipment, which allowed the enemy to intercept the negotiations. The troops were informed of the order to occupy only industrial buildings, squares and the inadmissibility of intrusion into the houses of the civilian population.

The western grouping of forces was stopped, the eastern one also retreated and did not take any action until January 2, 1995. In the northern direction, the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 131st separate Maykop motorized rifle brigade (more than 300 people), a motorized rifle battalion and a tank company of the 81st Petrakuvsky motorized rifle regiment (10 tanks), under the command of General Pulikovsky, reached the railway station and the Presidential Palace. The federal forces were surrounded - the losses of the battalions of the Maikop brigade, according to official data, amounted to 85 people killed and 72 missing, 20 tanks were destroyed, the brigade commander, Colonel Savin, was killed, more than 100 servicemen were captured.

The eastern group under the command of General Rokhlin was also surrounded and bogged down in battles with separatist units, but, nevertheless, Rokhlin did not give the order to retreat.

On January 7, 1995, the "North-East" and "North" groupings were united under the command of General Rokhlin, and Ivan Babichev became the commander of the "West" grouping.

Russian troops changed their tactics - now, instead of the massive use of armored vehicles, they used maneuverable airborne assault groups, supported by artillery and aviation. Fierce street fighting broke out in Grozny.

Two groups moved to the Presidential Palace and by January 9 occupied the building of the oil institute and the Grozny airport. By January 19, these groups met in the center of Grozny and seized the Presidential Palace, but detachments of Chechen separatists withdrew across the Sunzha River and took up defensive positions on Minutka Square. Despite the successful offensive, Russian troops at that time controlled only about a third of the city.

By the beginning of February, the number of UGVs had been increased to 70,000. General Anatoly Kulikov became the new commander of the UGV.

Only on February 3, 1995 was the "South" grouping formed and the implementation of the plan to blockade Grozny from the southern side began. By February 9, Russian units reached the border of the federal highway "Rostov - Baku".

On February 13, in the village of Sleptsovskaya (Ingushetia), negotiations were held between the commander of the UGV Anatoly Kulikov and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov on the conclusion of a temporary truce - the parties exchanged lists of prisoners of war, and both sides were given the opportunity to take out the dead and wounded from the streets of the city. The truce, however, was violated by both sides.

In the 20th of February, street fighting continued in the city (especially in its southern part), but the Chechen detachments, deprived of support, gradually retreated from the city.

Finally, on March 6, 1995, a detachment of militants of the Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev retreated from Chernorechye, the last region of Grozny controlled by the separatists, and the city finally came under the control of Russian troops.

In Grozny, a pro-Russian administration of Chechnya was formed, headed by Salambek Khadzhiev and Umar Avturkhanov.

As a result of the storming of Grozny, the city was virtually destroyed and turned into ruins.

29. Establishment of control over the plain areas of Chechnya (March - April 1995)

After the storming of Grozny, the main task of the Russian troops was to establish control over the flat regions of the rebellious republic.

The Russian side began to conduct active negotiations with the population, convincing local residents to expel the militants from their settlements. At the same time, Russian units occupied dominant heights over villages and cities. Thanks to this, on March 15-23, Argun was taken, on March 30 and 31, the cities of Shali and Gudermes were taken without a fight, respectively. However, the militant detachments were not destroyed and left the settlements without hindrance.

Despite this, local battles took place in the western regions of Chechnya. On March 10, fighting began for the village of Bamut. On April 7-8, a combined detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, consisting of the Sofrinskaya brigade of internal troops and supported by detachments of SOBR and OMON, entered the village of Samashki (Achkhoi-Martanovsky district of Chechnya). It was alleged that the village was defended by more than 300 people (the so-called "Abkhaz battalion" of Shamil Basayev). After Russian servicemen entered the village, some residents who had weapons began to resist, and shootings broke out in the streets of the village.

According to a number of international organizations (in particular, the UN Commission on Human Rights - UNCHR), many civilians died during the battle for Samashki. This information, disseminated by the separatist agency Chechen-Press, however, turned out to be quite contradictory - for example, according to representatives of the human rights center Memorial, these data are “not credible”. According to Memorial, the minimum number of civilians killed during the cleansing of a village was 112-114 people.

One way or another, this operation caused a great resonance in Russian society and strengthened anti-Russian sentiments in Chechnya.

On April 15-16, the decisive assault on Bamut began - Russian troops managed to enter the village and gain a foothold on the outskirts. Then, however, the Russian troops were forced to leave the village, since now the militants occupied the commanding heights over the village, using the old missile silos of the Strategic Missile Forces, designed for conducting a nuclear war and invulnerable to Russian aviation. A series of battles for this village continued until June 1995, then the fighting was suspended after the terrorist attack in Budyonnovsk and resumed in February 1996.

By April 1995, Russian troops occupied almost the entire flat territory of Chechnya and the separatists focused on sabotage and partisan operations.

30. Establishment of control over the mountainous regions of Chechnya (May - June 1995)

From April 28 to May 11, 1995, the Russian side announced the suspension of hostilities on its part.

The offensive was resumed only on May 12. The attacks of the Russian troops fell on the villages of Chiri-Yurt, which covered the entrance to the Argun gorge and Serzhen-Yurt, which was located at the entrance to the Vedeno gorge. Despite the significant superiority in manpower and equipment, the Russian troops got bogged down in the enemy's defense - it took General Shamanov a week of shelling and bombing to take Chiri-Yurt.

Under these conditions, the Russian command decided to change the direction of the strike - instead of Shatoi to Vedeno. Militant units were pinned down in the Argun gorge and on June 3 Vedeno was taken by Russian troops, and on June 12 the regional centers Shatoi and Nozhai-Yurt were taken.

Also, as in the lowland areas, the separatist forces were not defeated and were able to withdraw from the abandoned settlements. Therefore, even during the "truce", the militants were able to transfer a significant part of their forces to the northern regions - on May 14, the city of Grozny was fired upon by them more than 14 times.

On June 14, 1995, a group of Chechen fighters of 195 people, led by field commander Shamil Basayev, drove into the territory of the Stavropol Territory in trucks and stopped in the city of Budennovsk.

The first object of the attack was the GOVD building, then the terrorists occupied the city hospital and drove the captured civilians into it. In total, there were about 2,000 hostages in the hands of the terrorists. Basayev put forward demands to the Russian authorities - the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, negotiations with Dudayev through the mediation of UN representatives in exchange for the release of the hostages.

Under these conditions, the authorities decided to storm the hospital building. Due to information leakage, the terrorists managed to prepare to repel the assault, which lasted four hours; As a result, the special forces recaptured all the corps (except for the main one), freeing 95 hostages. The losses of the special forces amounted to three people killed. On the same day, an unsuccessful second assault attempt was made.

After the failure of forceful actions to free the hostages, negotiations began between the then Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Chernomyrdin and the field commander Shamil Basayev. The terrorists were provided with buses, on which they, together with 120 hostages, arrived in the Chechen village of Zandak, where the hostages were released.

The total losses of the Russian side, according to official data, amounted to 143 people (of which 46 were members of the security forces) and 415 wounded, the loss of terrorists - 19 killed and 20 wounded.

32. Situation in the republic in June - December 1995

After the terrorist attack in Budyonnovsk, from 19 to 22 June, the first round of negotiations between the Russian and Chechen sides took place in Grozny, at which it was possible to achieve the introduction of a moratorium on hostilities for an indefinite period.

From June 27 to June 30, the second stage of negotiations took place there, at which an agreement was reached on the exchange of prisoners "all for all", the disarmament of the CRI detachments, the withdrawal of Russian troops and the holding of free elections.

Despite all the agreements concluded, the ceasefire was violated by both sides. Chechen units returned to their villages, but not as members of illegal armed groups, but as “self-defense units”. Local battles took place throughout Chechnya. For some time, the emerging tensions were resolved through negotiations. Thus, on August 18-19, Russian troops blocked Achkhoy-Martan; the situation was resolved at the talks in Grozny.

On August 21, a detachment of fighters of the field commander Alaudi Khamzatov captured Argun, but after a heavy shelling undertaken by Russian troops, left the city, into which Russian armored vehicles were then introduced.

In September, Achkhoy-Martan and Sernovodsk were blocked by Russian troops, since there were militant detachments in these settlements. The Chechen side refused to leave the occupied positions, since, according to them, these were "self-defense units" that had the right to be in accordance with the agreements reached earlier.

On October 6, 1995, General Romanov, commander of the United Group of Forces (UGV), was assassinated, as a result of which he ended up in a coma. In turn, “retaliation strikes” were inflicted on Chechen villages.

On October 8, an unsuccessful attempt was made to eliminate Dudaev - an air strike was delivered to the village of Roshni-Chu.

Before the elections, the Russian leadership decided to replace the leaders of the pro-Russian administration of the republic, Salambek Khadzhiev and Umar Avturkhanov, with the former head of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR Dokka Zavgaev.

On December 10-12, the city of Gudermes, occupied by Russian troops without resistance, was captured by the detachments of Salman Raduev, Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov and Sultan Geliskhanov. On December 14-20, there were battles for this city, and about a week of "cleansing" operations were needed for the Russian troops to finally take Gudermes under their control.

On December 14-17, elections were held in Chechnya, which were held with a large number of violations, but nevertheless, they were recognized as valid. Supporters of the separatists announced in advance about boycotting and non-recognition of the elections. Dokku Zavgaev won the elections, receiving over 90% of the votes; at the same time, all servicemen of the UGA took part in the elections.

On January 9, 1996, a detachment of militants of 256 people under the command of field commanders Salman Raduev, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev and Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov raided the city of Kizlyar. Initially, the militants' target was a Russian helicopter base and an armory. The terrorists destroyed two Mi-8 transport helicopters and took several hostages from among the military personnel guarding the base. The Russian military and law enforcement agencies began to move to the city, so the terrorists seized the hospital and the maternity hospital, driving about 3,000 more civilians there. This time, the Russian authorities did not give the order to storm the hospital, so as not to increase anti-Russian sentiments in Dagestan. During the negotiations, it was possible to agree on the provision of buses to the militants to the border with Chechnya in exchange for the release of the hostages, who were supposed to be dropped off at the very border. On January 10, a convoy with militants and hostages moved to the border. When it became clear that the terrorists would leave for Chechnya, the bus convoy was stopped by warning shots. Taking advantage of the confusion of the Russian leadership, the militants seized the village of Pervomayskoye, disarming the police checkpoint there. Negotiations took place from January 11 to January 14, and an unsuccessful assault on the village took place on January 15-18. In parallel with the assault on Pervomaiskoye, on January 16, in the Turkish port of Trabzon, a group of terrorists seized the Avrasia passenger ship with threats to shoot Russian hostages if the assault was not stopped. After two days of negotiations, the terrorists surrendered to the Turkish authorities.

The losses of the Russian side, according to official figures, amounted to 78 people killed and several hundred wounded.

On March 6, 1996, several detachments of militants attacked Grozny, which was controlled by Russian troops, from various directions. The militants seized the Staropromyslovsky district of the city, blockaded and fired at Russian checkpoints and checkpoints. Despite the fact that Grozny remained under the control of the Russian armed forces, the separatists, when retreating, took with them supplies of food, medicine and ammunition. According to official data, the losses of the Russian side amounted to 70 people killed and 259 wounded.

On April 16, 1996, a column of the 245th motorized rifle regiment of the Russian Armed Forces, moving to Shatoi, was ambushed in the Argun Gorge near the village of Yaryshmardy. The operation was led by the field commander Khattab. The militants knocked out the head and trailing convoy of the vehicle, thus the convoy was blocked and suffered significant losses - almost all armored vehicles and half of the personnel were lost.

From the very beginning of the Chechen campaign, the Russian special services have repeatedly tried to eliminate the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Dzhokhar Dudayev. Attempts to dispatch killers ended in failure. We managed to find out that Dudayev often speaks on the satellite phone of the Inmarsat system.

On April 21, 1996, the Russian AWACS A-50 aircraft, on which equipment for bearing the satellite phone signal was installed, received an order to take off. At the same time, Dudaev's cortege left for the area of the village of Gekhi-Chu. Unfolding his phone, Dudayev contacted Konstantin Borov. At that moment, the signal from the phone was intercepted, and two Su-25 attack aircraft took off. When the planes reached the target, two missiles were fired at the motorcade, one of which hit the target directly.

By a closed decree of Boris Yeltsin, several military pilots were awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation

37. Negotiations with separatists (May - July 1996)

Despite some successes of the Russian Armed Forces (the successful liquidation of Dudayev, the final capture of the settlements of Goiskoye, Stary Achkhoy, Bamut, Shali), the war began to take on a protracted nature. In the context of the upcoming presidential elections, the Russian leadership decided to once again negotiate with the separatists.

On May 27-28, a meeting of the Russian and Ichkerian (headed by Zelimkhan Yandarbiev) delegations took place in Moscow, at which it was possible to agree on an armistice from June 1, 1996 and an exchange of prisoners. Immediately after the end of negotiations in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin flew to Grozny, where he congratulated the Russian military on the victory over the "rebellious Dudayev regime" and announced the abolition of military duty.

On June 10, in Nazran (Republic of Ingushetia), during the next round of negotiations, an agreement was reached on the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Chechnya (with the exception of two brigades), disarming separatist detachments, and holding free democratic elections. The question of the status of the republic was temporarily postponed.

The agreements concluded in Moscow and Nazran were violated by both sides, in particular, the Russian side was in no hurry to withdraw its troops, and the Chechen field commander Ruslan Khaikhoroev took responsibility for the explosion of a regular bus in Nalchik.

On July 3, 1996, the current president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, was re-elected as president. The new secretary of the Security Council, Alexander Lebed, announced the resumption of hostilities against the militants.

On July 9, after the Russian ultimatum, hostilities resumed - aviation launched strikes on militant bases in the mountainous Shatoisky, Vedensky and Nozhai-Yurtovsky regions.

On August 6, 1996, detachments of Chechen separatists, numbering from 850 to 2000, again attacked Grozny. The separatists did not aim at capturing the city; they blocked administrative buildings in the city center, and fired at checkpoints and checkpoints. The Russian garrison under the command of General Pulikovsky, despite the significant superiority in manpower and equipment, could not hold the city.

Simultaneously with the storming of Grozny, the separatists also captured the cities of Gudermes (taken by them without a fight) and Argun (Russian troops held only the commandant's office building).

According to Oleg Lukin, it was the defeat of the Russian troops in Grozny that led to the signing of the Khasavyurt ceasefire agreements.

On August 31, 1996, representatives of Russia (Chairman of the Security Council Alexander Lebed) and Ichkeria (Aslan Maskhadov) in the city of Khasavyurt (Dagestan) signed an armistice agreement. Russian troops were completely withdrawn from Chechnya, and the decision on the status of the republic was postponed until December 31, 2001.

40. The result of the war was the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements and the withdrawal of Russian troops. Chechnya has again become de facto independent, but de jure unrecognized by any country in the world (including Russia) as a state.

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42. The destroyed houses and villages were not restored, the economy was exclusively criminal, however, it was criminal not only in Chechnya, so, according to the former deputy Konstantin Borovoy, kickbacks in the construction business under contracts of the Ministry of Defense, during the First Chechen War, reached 80% of the contract amount. ... Due to ethnic cleansing and hostilities, almost all of the non-Chechen population left (or were killed) in Chechnya. An interwar crisis and the growth of Wahhabism began in the republic, which later led to the invasion of Dagestan, and then to the beginning of the Second Chechen War. "

43. According to the data released by the UGV headquarters, the losses of Russian troops amounted to 4103 people killed, 1231 - missing / deserted / prisoners, 19 794 wounded

44. According to the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, at least 14,000 people were killed (documented deaths according to the mothers of soldiers killed).

45. However, it should be borne in mind that the data of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers include only the losses of conscripts, excluding the losses of contract servicemen, soldiers of special units, etc. The losses of fighters, according to the Russian side, amounted to 17,391 people. According to the chief of staff of the Chechen units (later President of the CRI) A. Maskhadov, the losses of the Chechen side amounted to about 3000 people killed. According to Memorial Human Rights Center, the losses of the militants did not exceed 2,700 killed. The number of civilian casualties is not known for certain - according to the human rights organization Memorial, they amount to 50 thousand people killed. The Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation A. Lebed estimated the losses of the civilian population of Chechnya at 80,000 people perished.

46. On December 15, 1994, the Mission of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the North Caucasus began to operate in the conflict zone, which included deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and a representative of Memorial (later called the Mission of Public Organizations under the leadership of S. A. Kovalev "). The Kovalev Mission did not have official powers, but acted with the support of several human rights public organizations, and the Memorial Human Rights Center coordinated the work of the Mission.

47. On December 31, 1994, on the eve of the storming of Grozny by Russian troops, Sergei Kovalev, as part of a group of State Duma deputies and journalists, negotiated with Chechen militants and parliamentarians in the presidential palace in Grozny. When the assault began and Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers began to burn in the square in front of the palace, civilians took refuge in the basement of the presidential palace, and soon wounded and captured Russian soldiers began to appear there. Correspondent Danila Galperovich recalled that Kovalev, being at the headquarters of Dzhokhar Dudaev among the militants, "was almost all the time in the basement room equipped with army radio stations," offering Russian tankers "to leave the city without firing if they indicated a route." According to Galina Kovalskaya, a journalist who was there, after being shown burning Russian tanks in the city center,

48. According to the Institute for Human Rights headed by Kovalev, this episode, as well as the entire human rights and anti-war position of Kovalev, caused a negative reaction from the military leadership, representatives of state authorities, as well as numerous supporters of the “state” approach to human rights. In January 1995, the State Duma adopted a draft resolution in which his work in Chechnya was recognized as unsatisfactory: as Kommersant wrote, "because of his 'unilateral position' aimed at justifying illegal armed groups." In March 1995, the State Duma removed Kovalev from the post of Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, according to Kommersant, "for his statements against the war in Chechnya."

49. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched an extensive victim assistance program since the beginning of the conflict, providing over 250,000 internally displaced persons with food parcels, blankets, soap, warm clothing and plastic covers in the first months. In February 1995, of the 120,000 residents remaining in Grozny, 70,000 were completely dependent on ICRC assistance. In Grozny, the water supply and sewerage system were completely destroyed, and the ICRC hastily set about organizing the supply of drinking water to the city. In the summer of 1995, about 750,000 liters of chlorinated water every day, calculated to meet the needs of more than 100,000 residents, were transported in tank trucks to 50 distribution points throughout Grozny. Over the next year, 1996, more than 230 million liters of drinking water were produced for the inhabitants of the North Caucasus.

51. During 1995-1996, the ICRC carried out a number of programs to help victims of the armed conflict. Its delegates visited about 700 people detained by federal forces and Chechen militants in 25 places of detention in Chechnya itself and neighboring regions, delivered to addressees more than 50,000 letters on Red Cross letterheads, which became the only opportunity for separated families to establish contacts with each other, so how all communications were interrupted. The ICRC provided medicines and medical supplies to 75 hospitals and medical institutions in Chechnya, North Ossetia, Ingushetia and Dagestan, participated in the rehabilitation and provision of medicines to hospitals in Grozny, Argun, Gudermes, Shali, Urus-Martan and Shatoi, and provided regular assistance to homes for the disabled and children's homes. shelters.