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Second Chechen War
Russian multiple rocket launcher in Chechnya
Date August 1999 – 2006 (see Conclusion) Location Chechnya, Russia Result Russia has severely disabled the Chechen separatistic movement, although sporadic violence still occurs throughout the North Caucasus.[1] Insurgency in Chechnya Terrorist attacks in Russia 2002-2004 Installment of the loyalist government Spread of the hostilities
Combatants
Russian Federation Chechen loyalists	Chechen rebels Caucasian insurgents and foreign fighters
Commanders
Vladimir Putin Akhmad Kadyrov† Ramzan Kadyrov	Aslan Maskhadov† Abdul Halim Sadulayev† Doku Umarov Shamil Basayev† Ibn al-Khattab†
Strength
At least 93,000 in Chechnya in 1999.[2] About 50,000 to over 60,000 federal and republican security forces (Russian Army and MVD) in Chechnya in 2006.[3]	22,000 in 1999 (Russian est.)[4]
Casualties
Unknown. Est. at least 2,898 army soldiers and 4,720 other servicemen killed in the first 4 years.[5] Hundreds of civilians.	Unknown. Est. at least 5,000 killed in the first 4 years.[5] Est. 15,000–100,000 civilians, including more than 2,800 missing.

Conflicts in the former Soviet Union
Nagorno-Karabakh – South Ossetia – 1st Abkhazia – Georgia – North Ossetia – Transnistria – Tajikistan – 1st Chechnya – 2nd Abkhazia – Dagestan – 2nd Chechnya

The Second Chechen War (Russian: Вторая чеченская война) was a military campaign conducted by Russia starting August 26, 1999, in which Russian forces largely recaptured the separatist region of Chechnya.^[6] The Second Chechen War was started in retaliation for the Dagestan War and Russian apartment bombings. The campaign largely reversed the outcome of the First Chechen War, in which the region gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Although it is regarded by many as an internal conflict within the Russian Federation, the war attracted a significant number of jihadist foreign fighters.

The war bolstered the domestic popularity of Vladimir Putin as the campaign was started one month after he had become Russian prime minister. However, the war eventually became less popular; according to a March 2007 poll 70 percent of Russians believe there should be negotiations with the separatists, and only 16 percent believe the military campaign should continue.^[7] The conflict greatly contributed to the deep changes in the Russian politics and society.^[8]

During the initial campaign, Russian military and pro-Russian Chechen paramilitary faced Chechen separatists in open combat, but eventually seized the Chechen capital of Grozny in February 2000 after a winter siege. After the full-scale offensive, Chechen guerrilla resistance throughout the North Caucasus region continued to inflict heavy Russian casualties and challenge Russian political control over Chechnya for several more years. Chechen separatists also carried out attacks against civilians in Russia, such as notably taking hostages inside a Moscow theater in 2002 and later doing so in a school in Beslan, North Ossetia in 2004. These terrorist attacks, as well as widespread human rights violations by Russian and separatist forces, drew international condemnation. The exact death toll from this conflict is unknown, yet estimates range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands dead or missing, mostly civilians in Chechnya. No clear figures for Russian losses exist, but military deaths in the two wars is thought to at least equal the losses suffered during the Soviet war in Afghanistan of 15,000.^[9]

Meanwhile, the fortunes of the Chechen independence movement sagged, plagued by the internal disunity between Chechen moderates and Islamist radicals and the changing global political climate after September 11, 2001, as well as the general war weariness of the Chechen population. The Russians have succeeded in installing a pro-Moscow Chechen regime, composed of the former separatists, and eliminating most of the more prominent Chechen separatist leaders, including former president Aslan Maskhadov and leading warlord Shamil Basayev. As of 2007, large-scale fighting has been replaced by occasional low-level skirmishing, hit and run attacks and bombings targeting federal troops and forces of the regional government, with the violence often spilling over into adjacent regions. Since 2005, the insurgency has largely shifted out of Chechnya proper and into the nearby Russian territories, such as Ingushetia and Dagestan; the Russian government, for its part, has focused on the stabilization of the North Caucasus. The conflict remained largely unpublicised in the West.^[10]

Contents 1 Historical basis of the conflict 1.1 Russian Empire 1.2 Soviet Union 1.3 The First Chechen War 2 Prelude to the Second Chechen War 2.1 Chaos in Chechnya 2.2 Russian-Chechen relations in 1996–1999 2.3 Terrorist and border incidents 2.4 Conflict in Dagestan 2.4.1 Airstrikes on Chechnya 2.5 Bombings in Russia 3 1999–2000 Russian offensive 3.1 Air war 3.2 Land war 3.3 Siege of Grozny 3.4 Battle for the mountains 4 Insurgency 4.1 Restoration of federal government 4.2 Guerilla war in Chechnya 4.3 Suicide attacks 4.4 Assassinations 4.5 Georgian factors 4.6 Political radicalization of the rebel movement 4.7 Caucasus Front 5 War crimes and terrorism 6 Conclusion 7 Other issues 7.1 Unilateral ceasefire of February 2005 7.2 Amnesties 7.3 Government censorship of the media coverage 8 Aftermath 8.1 Casualties 8.1.1 Military losses 8.1.2 Civilian losses 8.2 Environmental damage 8.3 Land mines 8.4 Social impact 8.4.1 Impact on the Chechen population 8.4.2 Impact on the Russian population 9 People of the Second Chechen War 9.1 Russian political leaders and commanders 9.2 Separatist political leaders and commanders 9.3 Other people 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

Main article: History of Chechnya

Main article: Caucasian War

Chechnya is a region in the Northern Caucasus which has constantly fought against foreign rule, including the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. The Russian Terek Cossack Host was established in lowland Chechnya in 1577 by free Cossacks who were resettled from the Volga to the Terek River. In 1783 Russia and the Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, under which Kartl-Kakheti became a Russian protectorate. To secure communications with Georgia and other regions of the Transcaucasia, the Russian Empire began spreading its influence into the Caucasus region, starting the Caucasian War in 1817. Russian forces first moved into highland Chechnya in 1830, and the conflict in the area lasted until 1859, when a 250,000 strong army under General Baryatinsky broke down the mountaineers' resistance. However, many troops from the annexed states of the Caucasus also fought unsuccessfully against Russia in the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78.

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Chechens established a short-lived independent emirate which included parts of Dagestan and Ingushetia. The Chechen state was opposed by both sides of the Russian Civil War and was crushed by Bolshevik troops in 1922. Then, months before the creation of the Soviet Union, the Chechen Autonomous Oblast of RSFSR was established. It annexed a part of territory of the former Terek Cossack Host. Chechnya and neighbouring Ingushetia formed the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936. During World War II Chechens were accused by Stalin of aiding Nazi forces. In February 1944 Stalin deported nearly all (522,000) the Chechens and Ingushs to Kazakh SSR and Kirghiz SSR, and Siberia. Up to a quarter of these people died during the "resettlement."^[11] In 1957 after the death of Stalin, Khrushchev allowed the Chechens to return and the Chechen republic was reinstated. Although the population of the republic experienced widespread political and religious repression, the authority of the Soviet government gradually eroded.

Main article: First Chechen War

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chechnya declared its independence from Russia. In 1992, Chechen and Ingush leaders signed an agreement splitting the joint Chechen-Ingush republic in two, with Ingushetia joining the Russian Federation and Chechnya remaining independent. From 1991 to 1994, as many as 300,000 people of non-Chechen ethnicity (mostly Russians) fled the Chechen Republic and Chechnya's industrial production began failing after Russian engineers and workers were expelled. The debate over independence ultimately led to a small-scale civil war in 1993, in which the Russians supported the anti-Dudayev opposition forces. The First Chechen War began in 1994, when Russian forces entered Chechnya to restore constitutional order and central rule. Following nearly two years of brutal fighting and the 1996 Khasavyurt ceasefire agreement, the defeated Russian troops were withdrawn from Chechnya.

Main article: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

Following the war, the separatist government's grip on the chaotic republic was weak, especially outside the ruined capital Grozny. The war ravages and lack of economic opportunities left large numbers of heavily armed and brutalized former guerillas with no occupation but further violence. In lieu of the devastated economic structure, kidnapping emerged as the principal source of income countrywide, procuring over $200 million during the three year independence of the chaotic fledgling state.^[12] Political violence and religious extremism, blamed on "Wahhabism", was rife as well. In 1998, a state of emergency was declared by Grozny.

Despite Russia's early recognition of Chechnya's independence and the 1997 Moscow peace treaty, a troubled relationship developed between the two nations. The 1997 election brought to power the separatist president Aslan Maskhadov. Further tensions arose in January and February of 1999 as Maskhadov announced that Islamic Sharia law would be introduced in Chechnya over the course of the next three years. In 1998 and 1999 President Maskhadov survived several assassination attempts, blamed on the Russian intelligence services. In March of 1999, General Gennady Shpigun, the Kremlin's envoy to Chechnya, was kidnapped at the airport in Grozny, and ultimately found dead in 2000.

Among ordinary Russian citizens, there existed a strong perception that Chechnya was firmly a part of Russia; the notion that it might secede was implausible and unacceptable, even after events of the First Chechen War. Within the Russian government, there was a concern that allowing Chechnya substantial autonomy might lead to a domino effect — other regions within the already-fragmented former Soviet Union might choose to follow suit. The political tensions were fueled in part by allegedly Chechen or pro-Chechen terrorist activity in Russia, as well as border clashes. Sergei Stepashin claimed in an interview in January 2000 that the autumn invasion in Chechnya had been planned since March 1999: "As to Chechnya, I can say the following. A plan for active operations has been shaped since March. And we were going to reach Terek in August or September."^[13]

On November 16, 1996 a bomb destroyed an apartment building in Kaspiysk (Dagestan); 69 people, mostly relatives of border guards, died. Three people died on April 23, 1997 when a bomb exploded in the Russian railway station of Armavir (Krasnodar Krai), and two on May 28, 1997, when another bomb exploded in the Russian railway station of Pyatigorsk (Stavropol Krai). On March 19, 1999 51 people died in an explosion which occurred in the central market of Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia).^[14]

On December 22, 1997, Central Front of Liberation of Caucasus and Dagestan fighters and the Chechnya-based Arab warlord Ibn al-Khattab raided the base of the 136th Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian Army in Buynaksk, Dagestan, inflicting severe losses on the men^{[citation needed]} and equipment of the unit. On April 16, 1998 a Russian army convoy was ambushed in Ingushetia near the Chechen border; among the dead was a general and two colonels, and the local Ingush militants were blamed. On April 7, 1999, four Russian policemen patrolling the border were killed near Stavropol. In late May Russia announced that it was closing the Russian-Chechnya border in an attempt to combat terrorist and criminal activity; border guards were ordered to shoot suspects on sight. On June 18, 1999, seven servicemen were killed when Russian border guard posts were attacked in Dagestan. On July 29, 1999, the Russian Interior Ministry troops destroyed a Chechen border post and captured a 800 meter-section of strategic road. On August 22, 1999 10 Russian policemen were killed by an anti-tank mine blast in North Ossetia, and on August 9, 1999 six servicemen were kidnapped in the Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz. On several occasions, Russian special forces raided deep inside the Chechen territory.

See: Dagestan War

In August and September of 1999, Shamil Basayev (in association with the Saudi born Khattab, Commander of the Mujahedeen) led two armies of up to 1,400 Chechen, Dagestani, Arab and Kazakh militants from Chechnya into the neighbouring Republic of Dagestan. The purpose was to help local Islamic fighters who were attacking Russian Federation forces in the villages of Kadar, Karamakhi, and Chabanmakhi. This conflict saw the first use of aerial-delivered fuel air explosives (FAE) in populated areas, notably in the village of Tando. By mid-September 1999, the militants were routed from the villages and pushed back into Chechnya. At least several hundred people were killed in the fighting; the Federal side reported 279 servicemen killed and approximately 987 wounded.

The Russian government then began a bombing campaign in southeastern Chechnya, a region which they saw as a staging area for separatistic militants. On September 23, Russian fighter jets bombed targets in and around Grozny. Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev vowed that the bombing of Chechnya would continue until "the last bandit is destroyed."^[15]

Main article: Russian apartment bombings

Before the wake of the Dagestani invasion had settled, a series of bombings took place in Russia (in Moscow and in Volgodonsk) and in the Dagestani town of Buynaksk. On September 4, 1999, 62 people died in an apartment building housing members of families of Russian soldiers. Over the next two weeks, the bombs targeted three other apartment buildings and a mall; in total nearly 300 people were killed. The Russian government, including then-President Boris Yeltsin, blamed Chechen separatists for the attacks; accused Khattab and Basayev however denied involvement in the bombings. Some high-profile individuals, including the self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky^[16] and U.S. Senator John McCain^[17], as well as former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, have suggested that the FSB (the Russian domestic intelligence service) staged the bombings to provide a pretext for an invasion of Chechnya.^[18] On September 29, Russia demanded that Chechnya extradite the criminals responsible for the bombings in Russia; a day later, Russian troops began their ground offensive.

On January 12, 2004, in a hearing at Moscow City Court closed to the public and the press, Adam Dekushev and Jusuf Krymshankhalov were sentenced to life sentences for delivering explosives to the residential buildings. Both were the members of Karachay-based pro-Chechen Wahhabi group, trained by emir Khattab in Chechnya. The alleged mastermind of the bombings, Achemez Gochiyaev, has never been apprehended.^[19] The bombing trial, however, has raised questions by observers.^[20][21] One week prior to the trial, the former FSB officer and lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin had been arrested; Trepashkin represented a victim's family and claimed to have obtained evidence of FSB involvement.^[21] The bombings and related events continue to remain the matter of controversies.

Second Chechen War (1999-2000 Russian offensive)
Grozny - Hill 776 - Komsomolskoye - Zhani-Vedeno

Main article: 1999 Russian bombing of Chechnya

In late August and September 1999, Russia mounted a massive air campaign over Chechnya, with the stated aim of wiping out militants who invaded Dagestan the previous month. On August 26, 1999 Russia acknowledged bombing raids in Chechnya.^[22] The Russian air strikes were reported to have killed hundreds of civilians and forced at least 100,000 Chechens to flee their homes to the safety; the neighbouring region of Ingushetia was reported to have appealed for United Nations aid to deal with tens of thousands of refugees.^[23] On October 2, 1999, Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations admitted that 78,000 people have fled the air strikes in Chechnya; most of them were heading for Ingushetia, where they were arriving at a rate of 5,000 to 6,000 a day.

See also: List of Russian aircraft losses in the Second Chechen War

As of September 22, 1999 Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said that Russian troops had surrounded Chechnya and were prepared to retake the region, but the military planners were advising against a ground invasion because of the likelihood of heavy Russian casualties. By the end of September Russian forces made repeated incursions onto Chechen soil, and had captured some territory.^[15]

The Chechen conflict entered a new phase on October 1, 1999, when Russia's new Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared the authority of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and his parliament illegitimate. At this time, Vladimir Putin announced that Russian troops would initiate a land invasion but progress only as far as the Terek River, which cuts the northern third of Chechnya off from the rest of the republic. Putin's stated intention was to take control of Chechnya's northern plain and establish a cordon sanitaire against further Chechen aggression; however, later recalled that the cordon alone was “pointless and technically impossible,” apparently because of Chechnya's rugged terrain. According to Russian accounts, Putin accelerated a plan for a major crackdown against Chechnya that had been drawn up months earlier.^[24]

The Russian army moved with ease in the wide open spaces of northern Chechnya and on October 5, 1999, reached the Terek River. On this day, a bus filled with refugees was hit by a Russian tank shell, killing as many as 40 civilians and wounding several others^[25]; two days later, Russian Su-24 fighter bombers dropped cluster bombs on the village of Elistanzhi, killing some 48 people, mostly women and children.^[26] On October 10, 1999, Maskhadov outlined a peace plan offering a crackdown on renegade warlords;^[26] the offer was rejected by the Russian side.

On October 12, 1999 the Russian forces crossed the Terek and began a two-pronged advance on the capital Grozny to the south. Hoping to avoid the significant casualties which plagued the first Chechen War, the Russians advanced slowly and in force, making extensive use of artillery and air power in an attempt to soften Chechen defences. Many thousands of civilians fled the Russian advance, leaving Chechnya for neighbouring Russian republics. Their numbers were later estimated to reach 200,000 to 350,000, out of the approximately 800,000 residents of the Chechen Republic. The Russians appeared to be taking no chances with the Chechen population in its rear areas, setting up notorious "filtration camps" in October in northern Chechnya for detaining suspected members of bandformirovaniya ("bandit formations").

On October 15, 1999, Russian forces took control of a strategic ridge within artillery range of the Chechen capital Grozny after mounting an intense tank and artillery barrage against Chechen fighters. In response, President Maskhadov declared a gazavat (holy war) to confront the approaching Russian army. Martial law was declared in Ichkeria and reservists were called; no martial law and no state of emergency had been declared in Chechnya or Russia by the Russian government.^[27] The next day, Russian forces captured strategic Tersky heights within sight of Grozny, dislodging 200 entrenched Chechen fighters. After heavy fighting, Russia seized Chechen base in the village of Goragorsky, west of the city.^[28]

On October 21, 1999, a Russian short-range ballistic missile strike on the central Grozny killed more than 140 people, including many women and children, and left hundreds more wounded.^[29] Eight days later Russian aircraft carried out a rocket attack on a large convoy of refugees heading into Ingushetia, killing at least 50 civilians including Red Cross workers and journalists. Two days later the Russian forces conducted a heavy artillery and rocket attack on Samashki, despite the demilitarization of the village.^[30] Reports claimed civilians were killed in Samashki in revenge for the heavy casualties suffered there by Russian forces during the first war.^[31]

On November 12, 1999, the Russian flag was raised over Chechnya's second largest city, Gudermes, when local Yamadayev brothers commanders defected to the federal side; the Russians also entered the bombed-out former Cossack village of Asinovskaya. Two days later, 30 Russian solders were killed during a Chechen counterattack on the outskirts of the village of Kulary; the fighting in and around Kulary continued until January 2000. On November 17, 1999, Russian soldiers dislodged rebels in Bamut, the symbolic rebel stronghold in the first war; dozens of Chechen fighters and many civilians were reported killed, and the village was leveled in the FAE bombing. Two days later, after a failed attempt five days earlier, Russian forces managed to capture the village of Achkhoy-Martan.

On November 26, 1999, Deputy Army Chief of Staff Valery Manilov said that phase two of the Chechnya campaign was just about complete, and a final third phase was about to begin. According to Manilov, the aim of the third phase was to destroy "bandit groups" in the mountains. A few days later Russia's Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said Russian forces might need up to three more months to complete their military campaign in Chechnya, while some generals said the offensive could be over by New Year's Day. Ramazan Tsakayev, one of the most influential Chechen field commanders, was killed in an explosion in Grozny. The next day the Chechens briefly recaptured the town of Novogroznensky.^[32]

On December 1, 1999, after weeks of heavy fighting, Russian forces under Major General Vladimir Shamanov took control of Alkhan-Yurt, a village just south of Grozny. The Chechen and foreign fighters inflicted heavy losses on the Russian forces, killing more than 70 Russian soldiers before retreating. During the two weeks that followed, Russian forces went on a rampage, looting and burning the village and executing at least 14 civilians. On the same day, Chechen separatistic forces began carrying out a series of counterattacks against federal troops in several villages as well as in the outskirts of Gudermes. Chechen fighters in Argun, a small town five kilometers east of Grozny, put up some of the strongest resistance to federal troops since the start of Moscow's military offensive. The rebels in the town of Urus-Martan also offered fierce resistance, employing guerrilla tactics Russia had been anxious to avoid; by December 9, 1999, Russian forces were still bombarding Urus-Martan, although Chechen commanders said their fighters had already pulled out.

On December 4, 1999, the commander of Russian forces in the North Caucasus, General Viktor Kazantsev, claimed that Grozny was fully blockaded by Russian troops. The Russian military's next task was the seizure of the town of Shali, 20 kilometers southeast of the capital, one of the last remaining separatist-held towns apart from Grozny. Russian troops started by capturing two bridges that link Shali to the capital, and by December 11, 1999, Russian troops had encircled Shali and were slowly forcing rebel forces out. On December 13, 1999, two Russian helicopters were destroyed while searching for the Su-25 attack plane that crashed near the village of Bachi-Yurt earlier. Ultimatum issued by General Gennady Troshev ordered Shali to surrender or face "destruction". By mid-December the Russian military was concentrating attacks in southern parts of Chechnya and preparing to launch another offensive from Dagestan.

Main article: 1999-2000 battle of Grozny

Meanwhile, the assault on Grozny started in early December. The battle accompanied by the struggle for the neighbouring settlements ended when the Russian army seized the city on February 2, 2000. According to the official Russian figures, at least 368 federal troops and an unknown number of pro-Russian militiamen died in Grozny. The rebel forces too suffered heavy losses, including losing several top commanders. The siege and fighting left the capital devastated like no other European city since World War II; in 2003 the United Nations called Grozny the most destroyed city on Earth.^[33]

The Russians suffered heavy losses also as they advanced elsewhere, and from the series of Chechen counter attacks and convoy ambushes. On January 26, 2000, the Russian government announced that 1,173 servicemen had been killed in Chechnya since October^[34] - a more than double rise from 544 killed reported just 19 days earlier.^[35] On February 4, 2000, in an attempt to stop the Chechen retreat, Russian forces bombed the village of Katyr-Yurt and then a civilian convoy under white flags, killing at least 170 civilians in the action later proven in the court to be a war crime.

Heavy fighting accompanied by a massive shelling and bombing continued through the winter of 2000 in the mountainous south of Chechnya, particularly in the areas around Argun, Vedeno and Shatoy, where the fighting involving Russian paratroopers raged since the late 1999.

On February 9, 2000 a Russian tactical missile hit a crowd of people who had came to the local administration building in Shali, a town previously declared as one of the "safe areas", to collect their pensions. The missile is estimated to have killed some 150 civilians, and was followed by an attack by combat helicopters causing further casualties.^[36] Human Rights Watch has called on the Russian military to stop using FAE, known in Russia as "vacuum bombs", in Chechnya, concerned about the large number of civilian casualties caused by what it calls "the widespread and often indiscriminate bombing and shelling by Russian forces".^[37] On February 18, 2000, a Russian army transport helicopter was shot down in the south, killing 15 men abroad, Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo said in a rare admission by Moscow of losses in the war.^[38]

On February 29, 2000, United Army Group commander Gennady Troshev said that "the counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya is over. It will take a couple of weeks longer to pick up splinter groups now." Russia's Defense Minister, Marshal of the Russian Federation Igor Sergeyev, evaluated numerical strength of the rebels at between 2,000 and 2,500 men, "scattered all over Chechnya." On the same day, a Russian VDV paratroop company from Pskov was attacked by Chechen and Arab fighters near the village of Ulus-Kert in Chechnya's southern lowlands; about 85 Russian soldiers were killed in the especially heavy fighting. On March 2, 2000, a unit of OMON from Podolsk opened fire in Grozny on another OMON unit from Sergiyev Posad; at least 24 servicemen were killed and 31 wounded in the incident.

In March a large group of more than 1,000 Chechen fighters led by field commander Ruslan Gelayev, pursued since their withdrawal from Grozny, entered the village of Komsomolskoye in the Chechen foothills; they held off a full-scale Russian attack on the town for over two weeks, but suffered hundreds of casualties in the process; the Russians also admitted more than 350 dead and wounded. On March 29, 2000, a total of about 52 Russian soldiers were killed and more than 15 wounded as a result of the rebel ambush on the OMON convoy from Perm.

On April 23, 2000, a 22-vehicle convoy carrying ammunition and other supplies to the airborne unit was ambushed near Serzhen-Yurt, in the Vedeno Gorge; in ensuing 4-hour battle the federal side lost up to 25 dead, according to official Russian report (the rebels claimed killing more than 50 soldiers and suffering no casualties, while General Troshev told the press that the bodies of four rebel fighters were found).^[39] Soon, the Russian forces seized last centres of the organized resistance.

Second Chechen War
(Insurgency) Galashki - 1st suicide bombings - 2nd suicide bombings - Alkhan-Kala - 1st Vedeno - 1st Grozny - Tsotsin-Yurt - Shelkovskaya - 2nd Grozny - Khankala - 3rd Grozny - Znamenskoye - 4rd Grozny - 1st Urus-Martan - Nazran - 1st Avtury - 5th Grozny - 2nd Avtury - Dagestan - 2nd Urus-Martan - Makhachkala - Nalchik - Gimry - Vladikavkaz - Dair - Shatoy - 2nd Vedeno

Main article: Federal government in Chechnya

Russian President Vladimir Putin established direct rule of Chechnya in May 2000. The following month, Putin appointed Akhmad Kadyrov interim head of the government. This development met with early approval in the rest of Russia, but the continued deaths of Russian troops dampened public enthusiasm.

On March 23, 2003, a new Chechen constitution was passed in a controversial referendum. The 2003 Constitution granted the Chechen Republic a significant degree of autonomy, but still tied it firmly to Russia and Moscow's rule, and went into force on April 2, 2003. The referendum was strongly supported by the Russian government but met a harsh critical response from Chechen separatists; many citizens chose to boycott the ballot. Since December 2005, Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the pro-Moscow militia leader known as kadyrovites, has been functioning as the Chechnya's de-facto ruler. Kadyrov, whose irregular forces are accused of carrying out many of the abductions and atrocities, has become Chechnya's most powerful leader and on February 2007, with support from Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov replaced Alu Alkhanov as president.

Main article: Guerilla phase of the Second Chechen War

Although large-scale fighting within Chechnya has ceased, daily attacks continue particularly in the southern portions of Chechnya, spilling into nearby territories. Typically small rebel units target Russian and pro-Russian officials, security forces, and military and police convoys and vehicles. The rebel units employ IEDs and sometimes group up for larger raids. Russian forces then retaliate with artillery and air strikes, as well as counter-insurgency operations. Most soldiers in Chechnya are now kontraktniki (contract soldiers) as opposed to the earlier conscripts. While Russia continues to maintain military presence within Chechnya, Russia's federal forces play less of a direct role in Chechnya. Pro-Kremlin Chechen forces under the command of the local strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, known as the kadyrovtsy now dominate law enforcement and security operations, with many members (including Kadyrov himself) being former Chechen rebels who have defected since 1999.

Main article: Chechen suicide attacks

Between June 2000 and September 2004 Chechen insurgents added suicide attacks to their tactics. During this period there have been 23 Chechen related suicide attacks in and outside Chechnya. The profiles of the Chechen suicide bombers have varied just as much as the circumstances surrounding the bombings, most of which targeted military or government-related targets.

Main article: List of Second Chechen War assassinations

Both sides of the war carried out multiple assassinations. The most prominent of these included the February 13, 2004, killing of exiled former separatist Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Qatar, and the May 9, 2004, killing of pro-Russian Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov during the parade in Grozny.

Main article: Georgian-Russian relations

Russian officials have accused the bordering republic of Georgia of allowing Chechen rebels to operate on Georgian territory and permitting the flow of guerrillas and materiel across the Georgian border with Russia. In February 2002, the United States began offering assistance to Georgia in combating "criminal elements" as well as alleged Arab mujahideen activity in Pankisi Gorge as part of the War on Terrorism. Without resistance, Georgian troops have detained an Arab man and six criminals, and declared the region under control.^[40] In August 2002, Georgia accused Russia of a series of secret air strikes on purported rebel havens in the Pankisi Gorge in which a Georgian civilian was reported killed.

On October 8, 2001, a UNOMIG helicopter carrying observers was shot down in Georgia in Kodori Valley gorge near Abkhazia, resulting in the deaths of all nine people aboard.^[41] Georgia denied having troops in the area, and the suspicion fell on the armed group headed by Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev, who was speculated to have been hired by the Georgian government to wage proxy war against separatist Abkhazia. On March 2, 2004, following a number of cross-border raids from Georgia into Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan, Gelayev was killed in a clash with Russian border guards while trying to get back from Dagestan into Georgia.

The Chechen rebels are becoming increasingly more radicalized. Former Soviet Army officers Dzhokhar Dudayev and Aslan Maskhadov have been succeeded by people who rely more and more on religious ideology, rather than the nationalistic feelings of the population. While Dudayev and Maskhadov were seeking from Moscow recognition of the independence of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria, Sadulayev and Basayev spoke out more and more about the need to expel Russia from the territory of the whole North Caucasus, an impoverished mountain region inhabited mostly by Muslim, non-Russian ethnic groups.

In April 2006, asked whether negotiations with Russians are possible, the top rebel commander and future president Doku Umarov answered: "We offered them many times. But it turned out that we constantly press for negotiations and it's as if we are always standing with an extended hand and this is taken as a sign of our weakness. Therefore we don't plan to do this any more. And the reshuffle of the (rebel) Cabinet of Ministers is connected to this." In the same month, the new rebel spokesman Movladi Udugov said that attacks should be expected anywhere in Russia: "The minimum goal -- not to surrender -- has been met. Today, we have a different task on our hands -- total war, war everywhere our enemy can be reached. (...) And this means mounting attacks at any place, not just in the Caucasus but in all Russia." Reflecting growing radicalization of the Chechen-led guerrillas, Udugov said their goal was no longer Western-style democracy and independence, but the Islamist "North Caucasian Emirate".

This trend ultimately resulted in the October 2007 declaration of Caucasian Emirate by Doku Umarov and the political schism between the moderates, mostly exiled to the Western countries, and the radical Islamists fighting in Chechnya and the neighbouring regions with ties in the Middle East.^[42]

Main article: Caucasian Front (Chechen War)

While the anti-Russian local insurgencies in the North Caucasus started even before the war, in May 2005, two months after Maskahdov's death, the Chechen separatists officially announced that they had formed a Caucasus Front within the framework of "reforming the system of military-political power." Along with the Chechen, Dagestani and Ingush "sectors," the Stavropol, Kabardin-Balkar, Krasnodar, Karachai-Circassian, Ossetian and Adyghe jamaats were included in it. This, in essence, means that practically all the regions of the Russia's south are involved in the hostilities.

The Chechen separatist movement has taken on a new role as the official ideological, logistical and, probably, financial hub of the new insurgency in the North Caucasus.^[43] Increasingly frequent clashes between federal forces and local militants continue in Dagestan, while sporadic fighting erupts in the other southern Russia regions, most notably in Ingushetia, but also elsewhere, notably in Nalchik on October 13, 2005.

v • d • e Attacks on civilians during the Second Chechen War
Samashki - Elistanzhi - Grozny - Shami-Yurt - Goity - Alkhan-Yurt - Staropromyslovski - Novye Aldi - Katyr-Yurt - Tsotsin-Yurt - Borozdinovskaya

Terrorist attacks of the Second Chechen War
Kaspiysk bombing - Moscow hostage crisis – Stavropol bombing - Red Square bombing - Moscow metro bombing - Aircraft bombings – Beslan hostage crisis

Main article: Second Chechen War crimes and terrorism

Russian officials and Chechen rebels have regularly and repeatedly accused the opposing side of committing various war crimes including kidnapping, murder, hostage taking, looting, rape, and assorted other breaches of the laws of war. International and humanitarian organizations, including the Council of Europe and Amnesty International, have criticized both sides of the conflict for blatant and sustained violations of international humanitarian law. Russian rights groups estimate there have been 3,000-5,000 disappearances in Chechnya since 1999. They say Russian troops have used abduction, rape and torture as weapons there and that the government has done too little to punish those responsible.

US Secretary Madeleine Albright noted in her March 24, 2000, speech to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights:

We cannot ignore the fact that thousands of Chechen civilians have died and more than 200,000 have been driven from their homes. Together with other delegations, we have expressed our alarm at the persistent, credible reports of human rights violations by Russian forces in Chechnya, including extrajudicial killings. There are also reports that Chechen separatists have committed abuses, including the killing of civilians and prisoners. ... The war in Chechnya has greatly damaged Russia's international standing and is isolating Russia from the international community. Russia's work to repair that damage, both at home and abroad, or its choice to risk further isolating itself, is the most immediate and momentous challenge that Russia faces.^[44]

According to the 2001 annual report by Amnesty International:

There were frequent reports that Russian forces indiscriminately bombed and shelled civilian areas. Chechen civilians, including medical personnel, continued to be the target of military attacks by Russian forces. Hundreds of Chechen civilians and prisoners of war were extra judicially executed. Journalists and independent monitors continued to be refused access to Chechnya. According to reports, Chechen fighters frequently threatened, and in some cases killed, members of the Russian-appointed civilian administration and executed Russian captured soldiers.^[45]

In 2001 the Holocaust Memorial Museum has placed Chechnya on its Genocide Watch List.^[46]

The Russian government failed to pursue any accountability process for human rights abuses committed during the course of the conflict in Chechnya. Unable to secure justice domestically, hundreds of victims of abuse have filed applications with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In March 2005 the court issued the first rulings on Chechnya, finding the Russian government guilty of violating the right to life and the prohibition of torture with respect to civilians who had died or forcibly disappeared at the hands of Russia's federal troops.^[47] Many similar claims were ruled since against Russia.

In a July 10, 2006 interview with the BBC, Sergei Ivanov, Russia's current prime minister and former minister of defense, said that the "the war is over," and that "the military campaign lasted only 2 years,"^[48] reiterating President Vladimir Putin's earlier declaration in April 2002 that the war in Chechnya was over.^[49] The Russian government maintains the war officially ended in April 2002,^[50][49] and since then has continued largely as a peacekeeping operation. Ramzan Kadyrov, the current president of the Chechnya, has also stated the war is over.^[51] Others believe the war ended in 2003 with the passage of a Moscow-backed constitutional referendum and the election of pro-Moscow Akhmad Kadyrov, while some consider the conflict on-going.^[52] Most independent observers, however, including Álvaro Gil-Robles, the human rights envoy for the Council of Europe, and Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, agree that the war had concluded as of 2006.^[53][54]

On February 2, 2005, Chechen rebel president Aslan Maskhadov issued a call for a ceasefire lasting until at least February 22 (the day preceding the anniversary of Stalin's deportation of the Chechen population). The call was issued through a separatist website and addressed to President Putin, described as a gesture of goodwill. On March 8, 2005, Maskhadov was killed in an operation by Russian security forces in the Chechen community of Tolstoy-Yurt, northeast of Grozny.

Shortly following Maskhadov's death, the Chechen rebel council announced that Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev had assumed the leadership, a move that was quickly endorsed by Shamil Basayev. On February 2, 2006, Sadulayev made large-scale changes in his government, ordering all its members to move into Chechen territory. Among other things, he removed First Vice-Premier Akhmed Zakayev from his post (although later Zakayev was appointed a Foreign Minister^[55]). Sadulayev himself was killed in June 2006, after which he was succeeded as the rebel leader by the veteran guerilla commander Doku Umarov.

As of November 2007, there were at least seven amnesties for separatist guerrillas, as well as federal servicemen who committed crimes, declared in Chechnya by Moscow since the start of the second war. The first one was announced in 1999 when about 400 Chechen switched sides. (However, according to Putin's advisor and aide Aslambek Aslakhanov most of them were since killed, both by their former comrades and by the Russians, who by then perceived them as a potential "fifth columnists".)^[56] Some of the other amnesties included one during September 2003 in connection with the adoption of the republic's new constitution, and then another between mid-2006 and January 2007. According to Ramzan Kadyrov, himself former rebel, more than 7,000 separatist fighters defected to the federal side ("returned to the peaceful life") by 2005. In 2007 the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights published a report entitled Amnestied People as Targets for Persecution in Chechnya, which documents the fate of several persons who have been amnestied and subsequently abducted, tortured and killed.

Main article: Russian censorship of Chechnya coverage

The first war, with its extensive and largely unrestricted coverage (despite deaths of many journalists), convinced the Kremlin more than any other event that it needed to control national television channels, which most Russians rely on for news, to successfully undertake any major national policy. By the time the second war began, federal authorities had designed and introduced a comprehensive system to limit the access of journalists to Chechnya and shape their coverage.^[57]

The Russian government's control of all Russian television stations and its use of repressive rules, harassment, censorship, intimidation^[58] and attacks on journalists almost completely deprived the Russian public of the independent information on the conflict. Practically all the local Chechen media are under total control of the pro-Moscow government, Russian journalists in Chechnya face intense harassment and obstruction^[59] leading to widespread self-censorship, while foreign journalists and media outlets too are pressured into censoring their reports on the conflict.^[60] In some cases Russian journalists reporting on Chechnya were jailed (Boris Stomakhin) or kidnapped by the federal forces (Andrei Babitsky), and foreign media outlets (American Broadcasting Company) banned from Russia;^[61] the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society human rights group was shut down. According to a 2007 poll only 11 percent of Russians said they were happy with media coverage of Chechnya.^[7]

Main article: Casualties of the Second Chechen War

Military casualty figures from both sides are impossible to verify and are generally believed to be higher. In September 2000, the Prague Watchdog website compiled the list of casualties officially announced in the first year of the conflict; although incomplete and with little factual value, the numbers there provide a minimum insight in the information war. According to the figures released by the Russian Ministry of Defence on in August 2005, at least 3,450 Russian Armed Forces soldiers have been killed in action 1999-2005.^[62] This death toll did not include losses of the Internal Troops, Federal Security Service, Militsiya and a local paramilitaries, all of whom at least 4,720 were killed by October 2003.^[63] The independent Russian and Western estimates are much higher; the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia for instance estimated about 11,000 Russian Army servicemen have been killed between 1999 and 2003.

Civilian casualty estimates also vary widely. According to Taus Dzhabrailov, top official in the local government, 160,000 combatants and non-combatants died or have gone missing in the two wars, including 30,000–40,000 Chechens and about 100,000 Russians;^[64][65] while killed rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov repeatedly claimed about 200,000 ethnic Chechens died in the two conflicts.^[66] As in the case of military losses, these claims can not be independently verified - furthermore, independent estimates are often much lower. According to the count by the Russian human rights group Memorial between 15,000 to 25,000 civilians died or disappeared 1999-2006.^{[citation needed]} According to Amnesty International in 2007, the second war has killed up to 25,000 civilians since 1999, with up to another 5,000 people missing.^[67] However, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society set their "perhaps a too conservative" estimate of the total death toll in two wars at about 150,000 to 200,000 civilians.^[63]

Environmental agencies warn that the Russian republic of Chechnya, devastated by war, now faces ecological disaster. A former aide to Boris Yeltsin believes Russian bombing has rendered Chechnya an "environmental wasteland."^[68] There is a special concern over widespread oil spills and pollution from sewers damaged by war, and chemical and radioactive pollution, as a result of the bombardment of chemical facalities and storages during the conflict.^[69] The water is polluted to a depth of 250 m.^[70] Chechnya's wildlife also substained heavy damage during the hostilities. Because of the military operations, animals that had once populated the Chechen forests have moved off to seek safer havens.^[71] The Russian government itself has designated one-third of Chechnya a "zone of ecological disaster" and another 40 per cent "a zone of extreme environmental distress".^[72]

Main article: Land mine situation in Chechnya

Chechnya is the most land mine-affected region worldwide.^[73] Since 1999 there have been widespread use of mines, by both sides (Russia is a party to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons but not the 1996 protocol on land mines, booby traps, and other devices). The most heavily mined areas are those in which rebels continue to put up resistance, namely the southern regions, as well as the borders of Chechnya.^[74] No humanitarian mine clearance has taken place since the HALO Trust was evicted by Russia in December 1999. In June 2002, Olara Otunnu, the UN official, estimated that there were 500,000 land mines placed in the region. UNICEF has recorded 2,340 civilian landmine and unexploded ordnance casualties occurring in Chechnya between 1999 and the end of 2003.

According to the 2003 World Health Organization in-depth study of the psychological health in Chechnya, 86 percent of the Chechen population was suffering from physical or emotional distress. 31 percent of those studied showed symptoms of ill health recognizable as post-traumatic stress syndrome.^[75]

A whole generation of Chechen children is showing symptoms of psychological trauma. In 2006 Sultan Alimkhadzhiyev, pro-Russian Chechnya's deputy health minister, said the Chechen children had become "living specimens" of what it means to grow up with the constant threat of violence and chronic poverty: "Our children have seen bombings, artillery attacks, large-caliber bombardment. They saw houses, schools and hospitals burning. They lost parents, brothers, sisters, neighbors. And they still see tanks and armored vehicles every day in the street."^[76] In 2007 UNICEF initiated a network of psychosocial school programmes and rehabilitation centres in Chechnya.^[77] Same year the Chechen interior ministry has identified 1,000 street children involved in vagrancy; the number was increasing.^[78]

There is growing a number of genetic disorders in babies and unexplained illnesses among schoolchildren.^[69] One child in 10 is born with some kind of genetic anomaly that requires treatment, not avaible in the republic.^[79]

See also: Human rights in Russia and Anti-national sentiment in Russia

Since the Chechen conflict began in 1994, cases of a young veterans returning embittered and traumatized to their home towns have been reported all across Russia. Psychiatrists, law-enforcement officials and journalists have started calling the condition of psychologically scarred soldiers "Chechen syndrome" (CS), drawing a parallel with the post-traumatic stress disorders suffered by Soviet soldiers who fought in Afghanistan. According to Yuri Alexandrovsky, deputy director of the Moscow Serbsky Institute, "at least 70% of the estimated 1.5 million Chechnya veterans suffer CS. Some readjust. Many don't. All need help."^[80] Many of the veterans came back alcoholic, unemployable and anti-social.^[8]

This conflict was linked to the rising brutality and general criminalisation of the Russian police forces. According to human rights activists and journalists, tens of thousands of police and security forces have been to Chechnya learned patterns of brutality and impunity and brought them to their home regions, often returning with disciplinary and psychological problems. In the most extreme cases, hundreds of people were rounded en masse on streets at random and arbitrary arrested, beaten, and raped by special police forces in the actions resembling notorious zachistka security sweeps in Chechnya. Reliable numbers on police brutality are hard to come by, but in a statement released in 2006, the internal affairs department of Russia's Interior Ministry said that the number of recorded crimes committed by police officers rose 46.8 percent in 2005. In one nationwide poll in 2005, 71 percent of respondents said they didn't trust their police at all; in another, 41 percent Russians said they lived in fear of police violence.^[81][82] According to Amnesty International, torture of detainees in Russia is now endemic.^[8]

The wars in Chechnya, and the associated Caucasian terrorism in Russia, were a major factors in the grow of intolerance, xenophobia and racist violence in Russia, directed in a great part against the people from Caucasus.^[8] The Russian authorities were unlikely to label random attacks on people of non-Russian ethnicity as racist, preferring calling it "hooliganism" The number of murders officially classified as racist more than doubled in Russia between 2003 and 2004. The violence included an acts of terrorism such as the 2006 Moscow market bombing which killed 13 people.^[83][84] In 2007, 18-year old Artur Ryno claimed responsibility for over 30 racially-motivated murders in the course of one year, saying that "since school [he] hated people from the Caucasus."^[85] Massive anti-Chechen pogrom-style riots took place in several regions of Russia, with fatalities among the Chechens and the locals.^[86] The Caucasians also face ethnic-related violence in the ranks of Russian Army.^[87]

President of Russia

(in chronological order) Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin

Chiefs of the FSB, the GRU, and the General Staff of the Armed Forces

Nikolai Patrushev - Valentin Korabelnikov - Anatoly Kvashnin, Yuri Baluyevsky

Commander of the Joint Group of Forces in the North Caucasus

(in chronological order) Vladimir Moltenskoy, Sergey Makarov, Valery Baranov, Yakov Nedobitko

Commander of the North Caucasus Military District

(in chronological order) Viktor Kazantsev, Gennady Troshev, Vladimir Boldyrev, Alexander Baranov

Defence Minister of the Russian Federation

(in chronological order) Igor Sergeyev, Sergei Ivanov, Anatoliy Serdyukov

Interior Minister of Russia

(in chronological order) Vladimir Rushailo, Boris Gryzlov, Rashid Nurgaliyev

President of the Chechen Republic

(in chronological order) Akhmad Kadyrov, Alu Alkhanov, Ramzan Kadyrov

Russian commanders

Movladi Baisarov, Viktor Barsukov, Boris Fadeyev, Grigory Fomenko, Gaidar Gadzhiyev, Nikolai Goridov, Said-Magomed Kakiyev, Ibragim Khultygov, Oleg Khotin, Alexander Kolmakov, Mikhail Malofayev, Valery Manilov, Magomed Omarov, Mikhail Rudchenko, Vladimir Shamanov, Georgy Shpak, Dzhabrail Yamadayev, Sulim Yamadayev

Russian politicians

Sergei Abramov, Ruslan Aushev, Adam Deniyev, Rudnik Dudayev, Idris Gaibov, Bislan Gantamirov, Hussein Isayev, Magomedali Magomedov, Malik Saidullayev, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Akhmad Zavgayev, Sergei Zveryev, Murat Zyazikov

President of Ichkeria

(in chronological order) Aslan Maskhadov, Sheikh Abdul Halim, Doku Umarov

Chechen militant leaders

Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev, Akhmed Avtorkhanov, Arbi Barayev, Movsar Barayev, Shamil Basayev, Rizvan Chitigov, Ruslan Gelayev, Sultan Geliskhanov

North Caucasian and foreign militant leaders

Abu Hafs al-Urduni, Abu al-Walid, Anzor Astemirov, Rappani Khalilov, Ibn Al-Khattab, Rasul Makasharipov, Muhannad, Akhmed Yevloyev

Separatist politicians

Ilyas Akhmadov, Vakha Arsanov, Movladi Udugov, Akhmed Zakayev

Journalists

Andrei Babitsky, Supian Ependiyev, Adlan Khasanov, Ramzan Mezhidov, Anna Politkovskaya, Fatima Tlisova

Victims of human rights abuses

Shakhid Baysayev, Zura Bitiyeva, Elza Kungayeva, Nura Luluyeva, Zelimkhan Murdalov, Malika Umazheva, Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev

Other people

Ruslan Alikhadzhyev, Aslambek Aslakhanov, Yuri Budanov, Aleksey Galkin, Sergei Lapin, Timur Mucuraev, Khozh-Ahmed Noukhayev, Gennady Shpigun, Lidia Yusupova

• Chechen people
• Command responsibility
• International response to the Second Chechen War
• Islam in Russia
• List of wars
• Peoples of the Caucasus

Timelines and chronologies

• BBC Timeline: Chechnya

Summaries

• Analysis of Chechen Conflict at the site Chechnya Free
• Second Chechnya War - 1999-??? Global Security
• Three Years of the Second Chechen War Chechen Times
• The Chechen resistance movement: 2006 in review Jamestown Foundation

Human rights issues

• Human Rights Violations in Chechnya Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship
• Council of Europe Resolutions on 'The human rights situation in the Chechen Republic'
  • Resolution 1323 (2003)
  • Resolution 1403 (2004)

2005 ceasefire events

• Moscow News Ceasefire announcement 2 February 2005.
• BBC News Aslan Maskhadov's death 8 March 2005.

Articles

• "The North Caucasus," Russian Analytical Digest No. 22 (5 June 2007)
• Critical media coverage of Chechnya stifled
• Shifting Battlefields of the Chechen War (April 2006)
• ISN Case Study: The North Caucasus on the Brink (August 2006)

Advocacy groups and mailing lists

• The Terror of 9/99: Fact Sheet
• Chechnya-sl mailing list