The second Chechen war took place with. War in Chechnya: history, beginning and results

The second Chechen war took place with.  War in Chechnya: history, beginning and results
The second Chechen war took place with. War in Chechnya: history, beginning and results

Second Chechen Campaign.

"Only the one who kicks back gets stronger."

The Second Chechen War was a serious test for Russia, which our country survived with honor. The peculiarity of this war was that this time the military actions of the Russian Army met with complete encouragement from the general public, and the influence of political forces on the actions of the Russian army was reduced to a minimum.

This was largely due to the fact that the Wahhabi movement in Chechnya was gaining more and more scope, and this "scope" more and more acquired a "foreign flavor". In Chechnya, the presence of radical forces was felt more and more, which caused strong rejection even among the native Chechens.

There were rumors in Chechnya about detachments commanded by foreign mercenaries (in particular, there are persistent rumors that one of the prominent field commanders of Chechnya was a resident of Jordan). Also, in the Russian media of that time it was very "deaf" (the Russian media during the described period of time were hostile towards the Russian army - let's recall at least the then NTV) there were rumors that the notorious Osama bin Laden "drooled" about 30,000,000 dollars to some influential people in Chechnya. (It is believed that these were some Basaev and Khottab).

Some sources (again - the author cannot say with certainty that this is true) calmly declare that the same Osama bin Laden personally (!!!) visited the sabotage camps of militants near a certain town of Serzhen-Yurt, shortly before the attack of the Wahhabis on Dagestan.

And there are absolutely wild rumors that a certain B.A. Berezovsky (absolutely unfamiliar to modern "sofa Yksperts"), shortly before the invasion of the Wahhabis in Dagestan, sponsored the militants as much as 1 (one !!!) million dollars to "strengthen the friendship of peoples).

The goal of the Wahhabis was to create a "United Islamic Caspian Republic", which would allow "covering" the entire Caucasus, Transnistria, Georgia, etc. It was not specified what was under "pr" there, but we can conclude that the Wahhabis' plans included the idea of ​​capturing "the whole of Russia along Washington and London itself."

The Wahhabis began to fulfill their plans, but these plans ran into sharp opposition from the Russian Federation. And even the legendary B.A.B turned out to be powerless to oppose something to the oncoming blow of the Russian Federation.

Thus began the Second Chechen War. And this war ended - with the victory of Russia, which managed to take revenge for the defeat in the First Chechen War.

Militias from among local residents at a parade in memory of the dead Dagestan soldiers and local residents during the invasion of Chechen fighters. Agvali village. Tsumadinsky district. The Republic of Dagestan. RF. October 2000

Mi-24 combat helicopter loitering over the location of Russian troops. Chechen Republic, October 16, 1999.

The crew of the BMP-2 on the road to Grozny. Samashki village. Chechen Republic. Russian Federation. December 1999

Chechen militant with a Borz submachine gun, 1995.

And about. President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin among the fighters of the federal forces of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus. Chechen Republic. December 31, 1999.

Russian soldiers during a break between battles. Grozny. Chechen Republic. Russian Federation. January 2000

After the assault on the village of Komsomolskoye. Chechen Republic. Russian Federation. year 2000.

Soldiers of the 101st Special Operative Brigade of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The inscription on the BMP - "Let her be wrong - she is my Motherland!" Grozny. Chechen Republic. February 9, 2000

Surrender of weapons by illegal armed groups. S. Zandag. Chechen Republic. August 16, 1995.

Plan
Introduction
1 Background
2 Character
3 Timeline
3.1 1999
3.1.1 Aggravation of the situation on the border with Chechnya
3.1.2 Attack on Dagestan
3.1.3 Aerial bombardments of Chechnya
3.1.4 Start of ground operation

3.2 2000
3.3 2001
3.4 2002
3.5 2003
3.6 2004
3.7 2005
3.8 2006
3.9 2007
3.10 2008
3.11 2009

4 Aggravation of the situation in the North Caucasus in 2009
5 Command
6 Victims
7 Conflict in art, cinema, music
7.1 Movies and series
7.2 Songs and music

Bibliography
Second Chechen War

Introduction

The second Chechen war (officially called the counter-terrorist operation (CTO) - fighting on the territory of Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus. It began on September 30, 1999 (the date of 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 escalated into a smoldering conflict, which actually continues to this day. From 00:00 on April 16, 2009, the CTO regime was canceled.

1. Background

After the signing of the Khasavyurt Accords and the withdrawal of Russian troops in 1996, there was no peace and tranquility in Chechnya and its adjacent regions.

Chechen criminal structures, with impunity, did business on mass kidnappings, hostage-taking (including official Russian representatives working in Chechnya), theft of oil from oil pipelines and oil wells, the production and smuggling of drugs, the production and distribution of counterfeit banknotes, terrorist attacks and attacks on neighboring Russian regions. On the territory of Chechnya, camps were set up for the training of 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).

In early March 1999, Gennady Shpigun, the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Interior Ministry in Chechnya, was abducted by terrorists at the Grozny airport. For the Russian leadership, this was evidence that CRI President Maskhadov was not in a position to fight terrorism on his own. federal center took measures to intensify the fight against Chechen gangs: self-defense detachments were armed and police units were reinforced along the entire perimeter of Chechnya, on North Caucasus the best operatives of the units to combat ethnic organized crime were sent, from the Stavropol Territory several Tochka-U missile launchers were deployed, designed to deliver pinpoint strikes. An economic blockade of Chechnya was introduced, which led to the fact that cash flow from Russia began to dry up sharply. Due to the tightening of the regime at the border, it has become increasingly difficult to smuggle drugs into Russia and take hostages. Gasoline produced at clandestine factories has become impossible to take out of Chechnya. The fight against the Chechens was also intensified. criminal gangs who actively financed the militants in Chechnya. In May-July 1999, the Chechen-Dagestan border turned into a militarized zone. As a result, the incomes of Chechen warlords were sharply reduced and they had problems with the purchase of weapons and payment of mercenaries. In April 1999 the commander-in-chief internal troops Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov was appointed, who successfully led a number of operations during the First Chechen War. In May 1999, Russian helicopters struck missile attack on the positions of Khattab militants on the Terek River in response to an attempt by gangs 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 combat, 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 were 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 are no troops there, and it will 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 since August 1998 has been controlled by local Wahhabis.

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 throughout the world, as well as Arab oil sheikhs and financial oligarchs of countries Persian Gulf, not interested in the beginning of the exploitation of oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea.

On August 7, 1999, a massive invasion of militants into Dagestan was carried out from the territory of Chechnya under the overall command of Shamil Basayev and the Arab mercenary Khattab. The core of the militant group was made up of foreign mercenaries and fighters of the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade associated with al-Qaeda. The plan of the militants to transfer the population of Dagestan to their side 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 liquidating the bases, places of storage and recreation of illegal armed groups, from which the Chechen leadership in every possible way disowns." 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 there were battles between the federal forces and the invading militants, which ended with the fact that the militants were forced to retreat from the territory of Dagestan back to Chechnya. On the same days - September 4-16 - in several Russian cities (Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buynaksk) 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 in Chechnya. On September 18, the borders of Chechnya were blocked Russian troops.

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

On September 23, Russian troops began a massive bombardment 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 troops 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 gangs, and many others), the Kremlin relied on the "Chechenization" of the conflict and poaching side of the elite and former militants. So, 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 in 2000. 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, Baraev, 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 attack was committed in Russia, and the only large-scale operation of militants (Raid on Kabardino-Balkaria on October 13, 2005) ended in complete failure.

3. Chronology

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 closes most of the checkpoints on the border with Chechnya.

· June 22 - for the first time in the history of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, an attempt was made to commit a terrorist attack in its main building. The bomb was defused in time. According to one version, the attack was a response of Chechen fighters to the threats of Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo to carry out retaliatory actions in Chechnya.

· June 23 - shelling from Chechnya of the outpost near the village of Pervomayskoye, Khasavyurt district of Dagestan.

June 30 - Rushailo said: “We must respond to the blow with a more crushing blow; on the border with Chechnya, a command was given to use preventive strikes against armed gangs.

· July 3 - Rushailo announced that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation "starts to strictly regulate the situation in the North Caucasus, where Chechnya acts as a criminal" think tank "controlled by foreign intelligence services, extremist organizations and the criminal community." Kazbek Makhashev, Deputy Prime Minister of the CRI government, said in response: "We cannot be intimidated by threats, and Rushailo is well known."

· July 5 - Rushailo said that "in the early morning of July 5, a preemptive strike was carried out on concentrations 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. 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 areas bordering Chechnya." He stressed that "the Chechen authorities do not fully control the situation in the republic."

Armed conflict in 1994-1996 (the first Chechen war)

The Chechen armed conflict of 1994-1996 - hostilities between Russian federal troops (forces) and armed formations of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, created in violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation.

In the autumn of 1991, in the conditions of the beginning of the collapse of the USSR, the leadership of the Chechen Republic declared the state sovereignty of the republic and its secession from the USSR and the RSFSR. The bodies of Soviet power on the territory of the Chechen Republic were dissolved, the laws of the Russian Federation were canceled. The formation of the armed forces of Chechnya began, headed by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief President of the Chechen Republic Dzhokhar Dudayev. Defense lines were built in Grozny, as well as bases for waging a sabotage war in mountainous regions.

The Dudayev regime had, according to the calculations of the Ministry of Defense, 11-12 thousand people (according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, up to 15 thousand) regular troops and 30-40 thousand armed militia, of which 5 thousand were mercenaries from Afghanistan, Iran, Jordan, the republics of the North Caucasus and etc.

On December 9, 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed Decree No. 2166 "On Measures to Suppress the Activities of Illegal Armed Groups on the Territory of the Chechen Republic and in the Ossetian-Ingush Conflict Zone." On the same day, the Government of the Russian Federation adopted Decree No. 1360, which provided for the disarmament of these formations by force.

On December 11, 1994, the advance of troops began in the direction of the Chechen capital - the city of Grozny. On December 31, 1994, troops, on the orders of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, began the assault on Grozny. Russian armored columns were stopped and blocked by Chechens in different areas cities, combat units of the federal forces that entered Grozny suffered heavy losses.

(Military encyclopedia. Moscow. In 8 volumes 2004)

The further course of events was extremely negatively affected by the failure of the eastern and western groupings of troops, and the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also failed to complete the task.

Fighting stubbornly, federal troops took Grozny by February 6, 1995. After the capture of Grozny, the troops began to destroy illegal armed formations in other settlements and in the mountainous regions of Chechnya.

From April 28 to May 12, 1995, in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, a moratorium was implemented on the use of armed force in Chechnya.

Illegal armed formations (IAF), using the negotiation process that had begun, carried out the redeployment of part of the forces from the mountainous regions to the locations of Russian troops, formed new groups of militants, fired at checkpoints and positions of federal forces, organized unprecedented in scale Act of terrorism in Budennovsk (June 1995), Kizlyar and Pervomaisky (January 1996).

On August 6, 1996, after heavy defensive battles, the federal troops left Grozny, having suffered heavy losses. The illegal armed formations also entered Argun, Gudermes and Shali.

On August 31, 1996, ceasefire agreements were signed in Khasavyurt, ending the first Chechen war. After the conclusion of the agreement, the troops were withdrawn from the territory of Chechnya within the shortest possible time from September 21 to December 31, 1996.

On May 12, 1997, the Treaty on Peace and Principles of Relations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was concluded.

The Chechen side, not observing the terms of the agreement, took a line towards the immediate withdrawal of the Chechen Republic from Russia. Terror against employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and representatives of local authorities has intensified, attempts have intensified to rally around Chechnya on an anti-Russian basis the population of other North Caucasian republics.

Counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya in 1999-2009 (second Chechen war)

In September 1999, a new phase of the Chechen military campaign began, which was called the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus (CTO). The reason for the start of the operation was the massive invasion of Dagestan on August 7, 1999 from the territory of Chechnya by militants under the overall command of Shamil Basayev and the Arab mercenary Khattab. The group included foreign mercenaries and Basayev's militants.

For more than a month there were battles between the federal forces and the invading militants, which ended with the fact that the militants were forced to retreat from the territory of Dagestan back to Chechnya.

On the same days - September 4-16 - a series of terrorist attacks were carried out in several cities of Russia (Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buynaksk) - 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 in Chechnya. On September 18, the borders of Chechnya were blocked by Russian troops. On September 23, the President of the Russian Federation issued a Decree "On Measures to Increase the Efficiency of Counter-Terrorist Operations on the Territory of the North Caucasus Region of the Russian Federation", which provides for the creation of a Joint Group of Troops (Forces) in the North Caucasus to carry out counter-terrorist operations.

On September 23, Russian aviation began bombing the capital of Chechnya and its environs. On September 30, a ground operation began - armored units of the Russian army from the Stavropol Territory and Dagestan entered the territory of the Naursky and Shelkovsky regions of the republic.

In December 1999, the entire flat part of the territory of the Chechen Republic was liberated. The militants concentrated in the mountains (about 3,000 people) and settled in Grozny. On February 6, 2000, Grozny was taken under the control of federal forces. To fight in the mountainous regions of Chechnya, in addition to the eastern and western groups operating in the mountains, a new grouping "Center" was created.

On February 25-27, 2000, the "West" units blocked Kharsenoy, and the "Vostok" group closed the militants in the area of ​​Ulus-Kert, Dachu-Borzoy, Yaryshmardy. On March 2, Ulus-Kert was liberated.

The last large-scale operation was the liquidation of Ruslan Gelaev's group in the area of ​​the village. Komsomolskoye, which ended on March 14, 2000. After that, the militants switched to sabotage and terrorist methods of warfare, and the federal forces countered the terrorists with the actions of special forces and operations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

During the CTO in Chechnya in 2002, a hostage-taking took place in the Theater Center on Dubrovka in Moscow. In 2004, a hostage-taking took place at school number 1 in the city of Beslan in North Ossetia.

By the beginning of 2005, after the destruction of Maskhadov, Khattab, Baraev, Abu al-Walid and many other field commanders, the intensity of the sabotage and terrorist activities of the militants had significantly decreased. The only large-scale operation of the militants (a raid on Kabardino-Balkaria on October 13, 2005) ended in failure.

From midnight on April 16, 2009, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAC) of Russia, on behalf of President Dmitry Medvedev, abolished the CTO regime on the territory of the Chechen Republic.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

1. The First Chechen War (the Chechen conflict of 1994-1996, the First Chechen campaign, the Restoration of the constitutional order in the Chechen Republic) - hostilities between the troops of Russia (AF and the Ministry of Internal Affairs) and the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in Chechnya, and some settlements in neighboring regions of the Russian North Caucasus, in order to take control of the territory of Chechnya, on which the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was proclaimed in 1991.

2. Officially, the conflict was defined as "measures to maintain constitutional order", military operations were called the "first Chechen war", less often the "Russian-Chechen" or "Russian-Caucasian war". The conflict and the events that preceded it were characterized large quantity casualties among the population, military and law enforcement agencies, there were facts of ethnic cleansing of the non-Chechen population in Chechnya.

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, mass destruction and casualties, the de facto independence of Chechnya before the Second Chechen War, and the wave of terror that swept across Russia.

4. With the beginning of perestroika in various republics Soviet Union, including in Checheno-Ingushetia, various nationalist movements became more active. One such organization was the All-National Congress of the Chechen People (OKChN), which was set up in 1990 and aimed at 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 developed in the republic.

6. During the "August coup" in Moscow, the leadership of the CHIASSR supported the State Emergency Committee. In response to this, 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 Council, the television center and the Radio House. More than 40 deputies were beaten, and the chairman of the Grozny City Council, Vitaly Kutsenko, was thrown out of a 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, it was 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, filled this people with blood. The first victim of what is happening was the people of this republic, and the Chechens in the first place. 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 Council. When Besliev, Vice-Rector of the State University, was shot dead in the street. When Kankalik, the rector of the same state university, was killed. When every day in the fall of 1991, up to 30 people were found killed on the streets of Grozny. When, from the autumn of 1991 until 1994, Grozny's morgues were packed to the ceiling, announcements were made on local television asking them to pick them up, find out who was there, and so on.

8. 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 Republic's Armed Forces." 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 separatists. Dzhokhar Dudayev became the President of the Republic. These elections were recognized by the Russian Federation as illegal

9. On November 7, 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Decree "On the introduction of a state of emergency in the Chechen-Ingush Republic (1991)". After these actions of the Russian leadership, the situation in the republic deteriorated sharply - supporters of the separatists surrounded the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB, military camps, blocked railway and air hubs. In the end, the introduction of the state of emergency was frustrated, 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 Council 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. Dudayev's forces got a lot of weapons: Two launchers operational-tactical missile system in a non-combat-ready state. 111 L-39 and 149 L-29 training aircraft, aircraft converted into light attack aircraft; three MiG-17 fighters and two MiG-15 fighters; six An-2 planes and two Mi-8 helicopters, 117 R-23 and R-24 aircraft missiles, 126 R-60s; 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 self-propelled guns 2S1 and 2S3; anti-tank guns MT-12. Five air defense systems, 25 memory various types, 88 MANPADS; 105 pcs. ZUR S-75. 590 units of anti-tank weapons, including two Konkurs ATGMs, 24 Fagot ATGMs, 51 Metis ATGMs, 113 RPG-7 systems. About 50 thousand units small arms, more than 150 thousand grenades. 27 wagons of ammunition; 1620 tons of fuel 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 that half of all weapons and ammunition available in the republic be transferred to the Dudaevites. According to him, this was a forced step, since a significant part of the “transferred” weapons had already been captured, and there was no way to take out the rest due to the lack of soldiers and echelons.

13. The victory of the separatists in Grozny led to the collapse of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. Malgobeksky, Nazranovsky and most of the Sunzhensky district of the former CHIASSR formed the Republic of Ingushetia as part of the Russian Federation. Legally, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR ceased to exist on December 10, 1992.

14. The exact border between Chechnya and Ingushetia has not been demarcated and has not been defined to date (2012). During the Ossetian-Ingush conflict in November 1992, Russian troops entered the Prigorodny district of North Ossetia. Relations between Russia and Chechnya deteriorated sharply. The Russian high command proposed at the same time to solve 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. Republic had state symbols- 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 their own state currency - nahara. In the constitution adopted on March 12, 1992, CRI was characterized as an "independent secular state", its government refused to sign a federal treaty with the Russian Federation.

17. In fact, state system CRI turned out to be extremely ineffective and in the period 1991-1994 it was rapidly criminalized. In 1992-1993, over 600 premeditated murders took place on the territory of Chechnya. For the period of 1993 at the Grozny branch of the North Caucasian railway 559 trains were subjected to an armed attack with complete or partial looting of about 4 thousand wagons and containers in the amount of 11.5 billion rubles. For 8 months in 1994, 120 armed attacks were carried out, as a result of which 1,156 wagons and 527 containers were looted. Losses amounted to more than 11 billion rubles. In 1992-1994, 26 railway workers were killed in armed attacks. The current situation forced the Russian government to take a decision to stop traffic on the territory of Chechnya from October 1994

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

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


21. In the spring of 1993, the contradictions between President Dudayev and the parliament sharply aggravated in the CRI. 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, in which meetings of the parliament and the constitutional court were held; thus, a coup d'état took place in CRI. The constitution, adopted last year, was amended, Dudayev's regime of personal power 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 National Salvation Committee (KNS), which carried out several armed actions, but soon defeated and disintegrated. It was replaced by the Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic (VSChR), which proclaimed itself the only legitimate authority on the territory of Chechnya. The VChR was recognized as such by the Russian authorities, who provided it with all kinds of support (including weapons and volunteers).

23. Since the summer of 1994, hostilities have unfolded in Chechnya between 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 regions controlled by opposition troops. 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 neither of them was able to prevail in the struggle.

25. Only in Urus-Martan in October 1994, the Dudayevites lost 27 people killed, according to the opposition. The operation was planned by the Chief of the General Staff Armed Forces CRI 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 killed. The opposition, in turn, on September 12 and October 15, 1994, carried out offensive actions in Grozny, but every time they retreated without achieving decisive success, although they did not suffer heavy 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 Dudayev’s supporters.

27. Entering troops (December 1994)

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

Even before the announcement of any decision by the Russian authorities, on December 1, Russian aircraft attacked the Kalinovskaya and Khankala airfields and disabled all the aircraft at the disposal of the separatists. On December 11, President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin signed Decree No. 2169 "On Measures to Ensure Law, Law and Order and Public Security on the Territory of the Chechen Republic." Later, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognized most of the decrees and resolutions 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 (OGV), consisting of parts of the Ministry of Defense and the 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 parties- from the west from North Ossetia through Ingushetia), from the north-west from the Mozdok region of North Ossetia, directly bordering on Chechnya and from the east from the territory of Dagestan).

The eastern group was blocked in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan by local residents - Akkin Chechens. The Western group was also blocked by local residents and came under fire near the village of Barsuki, however, using force, they nevertheless broke through into Chechnya. The Mozdok grouping advanced most successfully, already on December 12 approaching the village of Dolinsky, located 10 km from Grozny.

Near Dolinskoye, Russian troops came under fire from the Chechen Grad rocket artillery installation and then entered the battle for this settlement.

The new offensive of the units of the OGV began on December 19. The Vladikavkaz (western) group blockaded Grozny from the western direction, bypassing the Sunzha Range. On December 20, the Mozdok (northwestern) group occupied Dolinsky and blocked Grozny from the northwest. The Kizlyar (eastern) group 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 not blocked.

Thus, on initial stage combat operations, in the first weeks of the war, Russian troops were able to occupy almost without resistance northern regions Chechnya

In mid-December, federal troops began shelling the suburbs of Grozny, and on December 19 the first bombing of the city center was carried out. Many civilians (including ethnic Russians) were killed and wounded during artillery shelling and bombing.

Despite the fact that Grozny was still not blocked from the south side, on December 31, 1994, the assault on the city began. About 250 units of armored vehicles, extremely vulnerable in street battles, entered the city. The Russian troops were poorly trained, 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 quantities. The means of communication were not equipped with closed communication equipment, which allowed the enemy to intercept communications. The troops were given the order to occupy only industrial buildings, squares and the inadmissibility of intrusion into the homes of the civilian population.

The western grouping of troops 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 Maikop 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 - according to official data, the losses of the battalions of the Maykop brigade amounted to 85 people killed and 72 missing, 20 tanks were destroyed, the brigade commander Colonel Savin died, 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 Northeast and North groups were united under the command of General Rokhlin, and Ivan Babichev became the commander of the West group.

The Russian troops changed tactics - now, instead of the massive use of armored vehicles, they used maneuverable air assault groups supported by artillery and aircraft. Fierce street fighting ensued 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 captured the Presidential Palace, but detachments of Chechen separatists retreated across the Sunzha River and took up defensive positions on Minutka Square. Despite the successful offensive, Russian troops controlled only about a third of the city at that time.

By the beginning of February, the strength of the OGV had been increased to 70,000 people. General Anatoly Kulikov became the new commander of the OGV.

Only on February 3, 1995, the South grouping was formed and the implementation of the plan to blockade Grozny from the south began. By February 9 Russian divisions 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 United Forces, Anatoly Kulikov, and the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the CRI, 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 from the Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev retreated from Chernorechye, the last district of Grozny controlled by the separatists, and the city finally came under the control of Russian troops.

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

As a result of the assault on Grozny, the city was actually destroyed and turned into ruins.

29. Establishing control over the flat regions of Chechnya (March - April 1995)

After the assault on Grozny main task Russian troops began to establish control over the flat areas of the rebellious republic.

The Russian side began to conduct active negotiations with the population, persuading local residents to expel the militants from their settlements. At the same time, Russian units occupied the dominant heights above the 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 groups were not destroyed and freely left the settlements.

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

According to a number international organizations(in particular, the UN Commission on Human Rights - UNCHR) during the battle for Samashki, many civilians died. This information, disseminated by the separatist agency "Chechen-Press", however, turned out to be quite contradictory - thus, according to representatives of the human rights center "Memorial", these data "do not inspire confidence." According to Memorial, minimal amount civilians who died during the cleansing of the village, amounted to 112-114 people.

One way or another, this operation caused a great resonance in Russian society and increased anti-Russian sentiment 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 dominant heights above the village, using the old missile silos of the Strategic Missile Forces, designed to conduct 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, almost the entire flat territory of Chechnya was occupied by Russian troops, and the separatists focused on sabotage and partisan operations.

30. Establishing 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 resumed only on May 12. The blows of the Russian troops fell on the villages of Chiri-Yurt, which covered the entrance to the Argun Gorge and Serzhen-Yurt, located at the entrance to the Vedeno Gorge. Despite a significant superiority in manpower and equipment, Russian troops were 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. The 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 of Shatoi and Nozhai-Yurt were taken.

Also, as in the plains, the separatist forces were not defeated and they were able to leave 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 shelled by them more than 14 times

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

The building of the GOVD became the first object of attack, then the terrorists occupied the city hospital and drove the captured civilians into it. In total, about 2,000 hostages were in the hands of the terrorists. Basayev put forward demands on the Russian authorities - a 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. Because of the leak of information, the terrorists had time to prepare to repel the assault, which lasted four hours; as a result, the special forces recaptured all the corps (except the main one), releasing 95 hostages. Spetsnaz losses amounted to three people killed. On the same day, an unsuccessful second assault attempt was made.

After the failure military actions On the release of the hostages, negotiations began between the then Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Chernomyrdin and field commander Shamil Basayev. The terrorists were provided with buses, on which they, along 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 employees of law enforcement agencies) and 415 wounded, the losses of terrorists - 19 killed and 20 wounded

32. The situation in the republic in June - December 1995

After the terrorist attack in Budyonnovsk, from June 19 to 22, the first round of negotiations between the Russian and Chechen sides took place in Grozny, at which it was possible to achieve 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 regime was violated by both sides. Chechen detachments returned to their villages, but not as members of illegal armed groups, but as "self-defense units." There were local battles throughout Chechnya. For some time, the emerging tensions could be resolved through negotiations. So, on August 18-19, Russian troops blocked Achkhoy-Martan; the situation was resolved at the talks in Grozny.

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

In September, Achkhoy-Martan and Sernovodsk were blocked by Russian troops, since militants were in these settlements. The Chechen side refused to leave their positions, because, 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, an assassination attempt was made on the commander of the United Group of Forces (OGV), General Romanov, 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 Dudayev - an air strike was launched on the village of Roshni-Chu.

The Russian leadership decided before the elections 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 Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Dokka Zavgaev.

On December 10-12, the city of Gudermes, occupied by Russian troops without resistance, was captured by detachments of Salman Raduev, Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov and Sultan Geliskhanov. On December 14-20, there were battles for this city, it took Russian troops about a week of “cleansing operations” 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 recognized as valid. Supporters of the separatists announced in advance the boycott and non-recognition of the elections. Dokku Zavgaev won the elections, having received over 90% of the votes; at the same time, all military personnel of the UGV participated in the elections.

On January 9, 1996, a detachment of 256 militants under the command of field commanders Salman Raduev, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev and Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov raided the city of Kizlyar. Initially, the goal of the militants was a Russian helicopter base and an armory. The terrorists destroyed two Mi-8 transport helicopters and took several hostages from among the soldiers guarding the base. The Russian military and law enforcement, so the terrorists took over the hospital and maternity hospital, having driven 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 sentiment in Dagestan. During the negotiations, it was possible to agree on providing the militants with buses 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 captured the village of Pervomaiskoye, disarming the police checkpoint located there. Negotiations were held from January 11 to 14, and an unsuccessful assault on the village took place on January 15-18. In parallel with the assault on Pervomaisky, on January 16, in the Turkish port of Trabzon, a group of terrorists seized the Avrazia passenger ship with threats to shoot the Russian hostages if the assault was not stopped. After two days of negotiations, the terrorists surrendered to the Turkish authorities.

The loss of the Russian side, according to official figures, amounted to 78 people dead 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 captured the Staropromyslovsky district of the city, blocked and fired at Russian checkpoints and checkpoints. Despite the fact that Grozny remained under the control of the Russian armed forces, the separatists, when withdrawing, took with them stocks of food, medicine and ammunition. The losses of the Russian side, according to official figures, 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 field commander Khattab. The militants knocked out the head and trailing column of the vehicle, thus the column 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, Russian special services have repeatedly tried to eliminate the President of the CRI, Dzhokhar Dudayev. Attempts to send assassins ended in failure. It was possible to find out that Dudayev often talks on the satellite phone of the Inmarsat system.

On April 21, 1996, the Russian AWACS A-50 aircraft, on which equipment was installed for the bearing of a satellite phone signal, received an order to take off. At the same time, Dudayev's motorcade 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 aircraft reached the target, two missiles were fired at the cortege, 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 (successful liquidation of Dudayev, the final capture of the settlements of Goiskoye, Stary Achkhoy, Bamut, Shali), the war began to take on a protracted character. In the context of the emerging presidential elections Russian leadership decided once again to 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 a truce from June 1, 1996 and an exchange of prisoners. Immediately after the end of the negotiations in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin flew to Grozny, where he congratulated the Russian military on their 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), the disarmament of separatist detachments, and the holding of 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 Khaykhoroev 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 to the presidency. 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 - aircraft attacked militant bases in the mountainous Shatoisky, Vedensky and Nozhai-Yurtovsky regions.

On August 6, 1996, detachments of Chechen separatists numbering from 850 to 2,000 people again attacked Grozny. The separatists did not set out to capture the city; they blocked administrative buildings in the city center, and also fired at roadblocks and checkpoints. The Russian garrison under the command of General Pulikovsky, despite a 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 building of the commandant's office).

According to Oleg Lukin, it was the defeat of 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) signed ceasefire agreements in the city of Khasavyurt (Dagestan). 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).

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42. 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 construction business under the contracts of the Ministry of Defense, during the First Chechen War, they reached 80% of the contract amount. . Due to ethnic cleansing and hostilities, almost the entire non-Chechen population left Chechnya (or was killed). An interwar crisis began in the republic and the growth of Wahhabism, which later led to the invasion of Dagestan, and then to the beginning of the Second Chechen War.

43. According to data released by the headquarters of the United Forces, the losses of Russian troops amounted to 4,103 people killed, 1,231 missing / deserted / captured, 19,794 wounded

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

45. However, it should be taken into account that the data of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers include only the losses of conscript soldiers, without taking into account the losses of contract servicemen, special unit soldiers, etc. The losses of militants, according to the Russian side, amounted to 17,391 people. According to the chief of staff of the Chechen units (later the President of the CRI) A. Maskhadov, losses Chechen side amounted to about 3,000 people killed. According to the HRC "Memorial", the losses of militants did not exceed 2,700 people killed. The number of civilian casualties is not known for certain - according to the human rights organization Memorial, they amount to up to 50 thousand people killed. Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation A. Lebed estimated the losses of the civilian population of Chechnya at 80,000 dead.

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, the work of the Mission was coordinated by the Memorial Human Rights Center.

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 fighters 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, soon the wounded and prisoners began to appear there Russian soldiers. Correspondent Danila Galperovich recalled that Kovalev, being at the headquarters of Dzhokhar Dudayev among the militants, “almost all the time was in the basement room equipped with army radio stations,” offering Russian tankers “a way out of the city without firing if they indicate the route.” According to journalist Galina Kovalskaya, who was there, after they were shown burning Russian tanks in the city center,

48. According to the Institute of Human Rights headed by Kovalev, this episode, as well as the entire human rights and anti-war position of Kovalev, became the reason for a negative reaction from the military leadership, representatives state power, 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 "one-sided position" aimed at justifying illegal armed groups." March 1995 The State Duma dismissed 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 relief program since the beginning of the conflict, providing more than 250,000 internally displaced people with food parcels, blankets, soap, warm clothes and plastic covers in the first months. In February 1995, out of the 120,000 inhabitants remaining in Grozny, 70,000 thousand were completely dependent on ICRC assistance. In Grozny, the water and sewerage systems were completely destroyed, and the ICRC hastily set about organizing the supply of the city drinking water. In the summer of 1995, about 750,000 liters of chlorinated water per day, to meet the needs of more than 100,000 residents, was delivered by tank trucks to 50 distribution points throughout Grozny. Over the next year, 1996, more than 230 million liters were produced drinking water for residents of the North Caucasus.

51. During 1995-1996, the ICRC carried out a number of assistance programs for the victims of the armed conflict. Its delegates visited about 700 people detained by federal forces and Chechen fighters in 25 places of detention in Chechnya itself and neighboring regions, delivered more than 50,000 letters on Red Cross letterhead, which became the only opportunity for separated families to establish contact with each other, so as all forms of communication 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 restoration and provision of medicines to hospitals in Grozny, Argun, Gudermes, Shali, Urus-Martan and Shatoi, provided regular assistance to nursing homes and orphanages.

Ilya Kramnik, military observer for RIA Novosti.

The second Chechen war of modern Russian history is officially over. The National Anti-Terrorist Committee of Russia, on behalf of President Dmitry Medvedev, lifted the regime of the counter-terrorist operation (CTO) that had been in effect for almost 10 years. This regime was introduced in Chechnya by decree of Boris Yeltsin on September 23, 1999.

The operation, which began in August 1999 with the repulse of an attack by militants Basayev and Khattab on Dagestan, naturally continued on the territory of Chechnya - where the bandit formations thrown back from Dagestan territory retreated.

The second Chechen war could not but begin. The events that took place in the region after the signing of the Khasavyurt Accords in 1996, which ended the previous war, left no doubt that hostilities would flare up again.

Yeltsin era

The nature of the first and second Chechen wars differed greatly. In 1994, the bet on the "Chechenization" of the conflict was lost - the opposition units could not (and hardly were able) to resist Dudayev's formations. The entry of Russian troops into the territory of the republic, which were seriously constrained in their actions and were not too well prepared for the operation, aggravated the situation - the troops faced fierce resistance, which led to significant losses during the fighting.

The assault on Grozny, which began on December 31, 1994, was especially costly for the Russian army. Disputes about the responsibility of certain individuals for losses during the assault are still ongoing. Experts lay the main blame on the then Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, who wanted to take the city as quickly as possible.

Eventually Russian army got involved in weeks of fighting in a city with dense buildings. The losses of the armed forces and troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the battles for Grozny in January-February 1995 amounted to more than 1,500 people killed and missing, and about 150 units of irretrievably lost armored vehicles.

As a result of two months of fighting, the Russian army cleared Grozny of gangs that lost about 7,000 people and a large number of technology and weapons. It should be noted that the Chechen separatists received the equipment in the early 90s, seizing the warehouses of military units located on the territory of Chechnya with the connivance of the USSR authorities first, and then the Russian Federation.

With the capture of Grozny, however, the war did not end. The fighting continued, capturing more and more of the territory of Chechnya, but it was not possible to suppress the bandit formations. On June 14, 1995, the Basayev gang raided the city of Budennovsk in the Stavropol Territory, where they seized the city hospital, taking patients and staff hostage. The militants managed to get to Budyonnovsk by road. The fault of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was obvious, but, for the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that chaos and decay in those days were almost ubiquitous.

The bandits demanded to stop the fighting in Chechnya and start negotiations with Dudayev's regime. Russian special forces launched an operation to free the hostages. However, it was interrupted by the order of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who entered into negotiations with Basayev by telephone. After an unsuccessful assault and negotiations, the Russian authorities agreed to allow the terrorists to leave unhindered if they released the captured hostages. Basayev's terrorist group returned to Chechnya. As a result of the attack, 129 people were killed and 415 were injured.

Responsibility for what happened was assigned to the director of the Federal Grid Company Sergey Stepashin and Interior Minister Viktor Yerin, who lost their posts.

Meanwhile, the war continued. Federal troops managed to take control of most of the territory of Chechnya, but the sorties of militants who were hiding in a mountainous wooded area and enjoyed the support of the population did not stop.

On January 9, 1996, a detachment of militants under the command of Raduev and Israpilov attacked Kizlyar, and took a group of hostages in the local maternity hospital and hospital. The militants demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Chechnya and the North Caucasus. On January 10, 1996, the bandits left Kizlyar, taking with them a hundred hostages, the number of which increased after they disarmed the checkpoint of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Soon, Raduev's group was blocked in the village of Pervomaiskoye, which was taken by storm by Russian troops on January 15-18. As a result of the attack by Raduev's gang on Kizlyar and Pervomaiskoye, 78 servicemen, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and civilians of Dagestan were killed, several hundred people were injured of varying severity. Part of the militants, including the leaders, broke into the territory of Chechnya through gaps in a poorly organized cordon.

On April 21, 1996, the federal center managed to achieve a major success by eliminating Dzhokhar Dudayev, but his death did not lead to an end to the war. On August 6, 1996, gangs again captured Grozny, blocking the positions of our troops. The prepared operation to destroy the militants was cancelled.

Finally, on August 14, an armistice agreement is signed, after which negotiations between the representatives of Russia and Chechnya begin on the development of "Principles for determining the foundations of relations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic." Negotiations end on August 31, 1996 with the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements. On the Russian side, the document was signed by Alexander Lebed, then Secretary of the Security Council, and on the Chechen side, Aslan Maskhadov.

De facto, the Khasavyurt Accords and the "treaty on peace and principles of relations between the Russian Federation and the CRI" that followed them, signed in May 1997 by Yeltsin and Maskhadov, opened the way to Chechnya's independence. The second article of the agreement directly provided for the construction of relations between the parties on the basis of the principles of international law and agreements of the parties.

Results of the first campaign

It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of the actions of Russian troops during the first Chechen war. On the one hand, the actions of the troops were seriously limited by numerous non-military considerations - the leadership of the country and the Ministry of Defense regularly limited the use of heavy weapons and aviation for political reasons. There was an acute shortage of modern weapons, and the lessons learned from the Afghan conflict, which took place under similar conditions, were forgotten.

In addition, an information war was unleashed against the army - a number of media and politicians conducted a targeted campaign to support the separatists. The causes and prehistory of the war were hushed up, in particular, the genocide of the Russian-speaking population of Chechnya in the early 1990s. Many were killed, others were expelled from their homes and forced to leave Chechnya. Meanwhile, human rights activists and the press paid close attention to any real and fictitious sins of the federal forces, but hushed up the topic of the disasters of the Russian inhabitants of Chechnya.

The information war against Russia was also waged abroad. In many Western countries, as well as in states of Eastern Europe and some ex-Soviet republics, organizations arose with the goal of supporting Chechen separatists. Assistance to gangs was also provided by the special services of Western countries. A number of countries provided shelter, medical and financial assistance to militants, helped them with weapons and documents.

At the same time, it is obvious that one of the reasons for the failures was the gross mistakes made by both the top leadership and the operational command, as well as the wave of army corruption, as a result of the purposeful and general decomposition of the army, when operational information could simply be sold. In addition, a number of successful operations by militants against Russian convoys would have been impossible if the Russian troops complied with the elementary statutory requirements for organizing combat guards, reconnaissance, coordination of actions, etc.

The Khasavyurt agreements did not become a guarantee of a peaceful life for Chechnya. Chechen criminal structures, with impunity, did business on mass kidnappings, hostage-taking (including official Russian representatives working in Chechnya), theft of oil from oil pipelines and oil wells, the production and smuggling of drugs, the production and distribution of counterfeit banknotes, terrorist attacks and attacks on neighboring Russian regions. Even the money that Moscow continued to send to Chechen pensioners was stolen by the authorities of Ichkeria. A zone of instability arose around Chechnya, which gradually spread across the territory of Russia.

Second Chechen campaign

In Chechnya itself, in the summer of 1999, the gangs of Shamil Basayev and Khattab, the most prominent Arab mercenary on the territory of the republic, were preparing for an invasion of Dagestan. The bandits counted on the weakness of the Russian government, and the surrender of Dagestan. The blow was delivered on the mountainous part of this province, where there were almost no troops.

Fights with the terrorists who invaded Dagestan on August 7 lasted for more than a month. At this time, major terrorist acts were carried out in several Russian cities - residential buildings were blown up in Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buynaksk. Many civilians died.

The second Chechen war was significantly different from the first. The bet on the weakness of the Russian government and the army did not materialize. The new Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took over the overall leadership of the new Chechen war.

The troops, taught by the bitter experience of 1994-96, behaved much more carefully, actively using various new tactics that made it possible to destroy large forces militants with few losses. Separate "successes" of the militants cost them too much and could not change anything.

Like, for example, the battle at Hill 776, when the bandits managed to break out of the encirclement through the positions of the 6th company of the 104th parachute regiment of the Pskov Airborne Division. During this battle, 90 paratroopers, not having aviation and artillery support due to bad weather, held back the onslaught of more than 2,000 militants for a day. The bandits broke through the positions of the company only when it was almost completely destroyed (only six out of 90 people survived). The losses of the militants amounted to about 500 people. After that, terrorist attacks become the main type of actions of the militants - hostage-taking, explosions on roads and in public places.

Moscow actively used the split in Chechnya itself - many field commanders went over to the side of the federal forces. Within Russia itself, the new war also enjoyed much more support than before. In the highest echelons of power, this time there was no indecision that was one of the reasons for the success of gangs in the 90s. One by one, the most prominent militant leaders are being destroyed. A few leaders who escaped death fled abroad.

Mufti of Chechnya Akhmat Kadyrov, who died on May 9, 2004 as a result of a terrorist attack, becomes the head of the republic, who went over to the side of Russia. His successor was his son - Ramzan Kadyrov.

Gradually, with the cessation of foreign funding and the death of the leaders of the underground, the activity of the militants decreased. The federal center has sent and is sending large sums of money to help and restore peaceful life in Chechnya. In Chechnya, units of the Ministry of Defense and internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are stationed on a permanent basis, maintaining order in the republic. Whether the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will remain in Chechnya after the abolition of the KTO is not yet clear.

Assessing the current situation, we can say that the fight against separatism in Chechnya has been successfully completed. However, the victory cannot be called final. The North Caucasus is a rather turbulent region, in which various forces, both local and supported from abroad, are operating, seeking to fan the fire of a new conflict, so the final stabilization of the situation in the region is still far away.

In this regard, the abolition of the anti-terrorist regime in Chechnya will only mean the successful completion for Russia of another very important stage in the struggle for its territorial integrity.