“The Second Chechen War” is the name of the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. In fact, it became a continuation of the First Chechen War of 1994-1996.

Causes of the war

The first Chechen war, which ended with the Khasavyurt agreements, did not bring noticeable improvements to the territory of Chechnya. The period 1996-1999 in unrecognized republic generally characterized by a deep criminalization of all life. The federal government has repeatedly appealed to the President of Chechnya A. Maskhadov with a proposal to provide assistance in the fight against organized crime, but has not found understanding.

Another factor influencing the situation in the region was the popular religious and political movement - Wahhabism. Supporters of Wahhabism began to establish the power of Islam in the villages - with clashes and shooting. In fact, in 1998, a low-intensity civil war was fought, in which hundreds of fighters participated. This trend in the republic was not supported by the administration, but it did not experience any particular opposition from the authorities. Every day the situation became more and more aggravated.

In 1999, the militants of Basayev and Khattab tried to carry out a military operation in Dagestan, which was the main reason for starting new war. At the same time, terrorist attacks were carried out in Buinaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk.

Progress of hostilities

1999

year 2000

year 2009

When planning an invasion of the territory of Dagestan, the militants hoped for the support of the local population, but they showed desperate resistance. Federal authorities proposed to the Chechen leadership to conduct a joint operation against Islamists in Dagestan. It was also proposed to eliminate the bases of illegal groups.

In August 1999, Chechen gangs were driven out of the territory of Dagestan, and their pursuit by federal troops began on the territory of Chechnya. For some time there was relative calm.

Maskhadov's government verbally condemned the bandits, but in reality did not take any measures. Taking this into account, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree “On measures to increase the effectiveness of counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation.” This decree was aimed at the destruction of gangs and terrorist bases in the republic. On September 23, federal aviation began bombing Grozny, and already on September 30, troops entered the territory of Chechnya.

It should be noted that in the years after the First Chechen War, the training of the federal army increased noticeably, and already in November the troops approached Grozny.

The federal government has also made adjustments to its actions. The Mufti of Ichkeria, Akhmad Kadyrov, went over to the side of the federal forces, condemning Wahhabism and speaking out against Maskhadov.

On December 26, 1999, an operation to eliminate gangs in Grozny began. The fighting continued throughout January 2000, and only on February 6 was the complete liberation of the city announced.

Some of the militants managed to escape from Grozny, and a guerrilla war began. Fighting activity gradually decreased, and many believed that the Chechen conflict had died down. But in 2002-2005, militants carried out a number of cruel and daring measures (hostage-taking in the Theater Center on Dubrovka, schools in Beslan, a raid in Kabardino-Balkaria). Subsequently, the situation practically stabilized.

Results of the Second Chechen War

The main result of the Second Chechen War can be considered the relative calm achieved in the Chechen Republic. An end was put to the criminal rampant that had terrorized the population for ten years. The drug trade and slave trade were eliminated. And it is very important that in the Caucasus it was not possible to implement the plans of the Islamists to create world centers of terrorist organizations.

Today, during the reign of Ramzan Kadyrov, the economic structure of the republic has practically been restored. Much has been done to eliminate the consequences of hostilities. The city of Grozny has become a symbol of the rebirth of the republic.

1. First Chechen war (Chechen conflict 1994-1996, First Chechen campaign, Restoration of constitutional order in the Chechen Republic) - fighting between Russian troops (Armed Forces and Ministry of Internal Affairs) and the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in Chechnya, and some settlements in neighboring regions of the Russian North Caucasus, with the aim of taking 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 actions were called the “first Chechen war”, less often the “Russian-Chechen” or “Russian-Caucasian war”. The conflict and the events preceding it were characterized by a large number of casualties among the population, military and law enforcement agencies, and facts of ethnic cleansing of the non-Chechen population in Chechnya were noted.

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

4. With the beginning of perestroika in various republics of the Soviet Union, including Checheno-Ingushetia, various nationalist movements intensified. One of such organizations was the National Congress, created in 1990. Chechen people(OKCHN), whose goal was the secession of Chechnya from the USSR and the creation of an independent Chechen state. It was headed by former Soviet Air Force General Dzhokhar Dudayev.

5. On June 8, 1991, at the II session of the OKCHN, Dudayev proclaimed the independence of the Chechen Republic of Nokhchi-cho; Thus, a dual power arose in the republic.

6. During the “August putsch” in Moscow, the leadership of the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic supported the State Emergency Committee. In response to this, on September 6, 1991, Dudayev announced the dissolution of republican government structures, accusing Russia of “colonial” policies. 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. The head of the Chechen Republic, D. G. Zavgaev, spoke on this issue 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 a multinational people, when the criminal regime, with some support from those who today also show an unhealthy interest in the situation, flooded this people with blood. The first victim of what was happening was the people of this republic, and the Chechens first of all. The war began when Vitaly Kutsenko, chairman of the Grozny City Council, was killed in broad daylight during a meeting of the Supreme Council of the republic. When Besliev, the vice-rector of a state university, was shot on the street. When Kancalik, 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, the morgues of Grozny were filled to the ceiling, announcements were made on local television with a request to take them away, to establish who was there, and so on.

8. The Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, Ruslan Khasbulatov, then sent them a telegram: “I was pleased to learn about the resignation of the Armed Forces of the Republic.” After the collapse of the USSR, Dzhokhar Dudayev announced the final secession 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 declared illegal by the Russian Federation

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 by the Russian leadership, the situation in the republic sharply worsened - separatist supporters surrounded the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB, military camps, and blocked railway and air hubs. In the end, the introduction of a state of emergency was thwarted; the Decree “On the introduction of a state of emergency in the Checheno-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 seizing and looting military warehouses.

10. Dudayev’s forces received a lot of weapons: Two launchers of an operational-tactical missile system in a non-combat-ready state. 111 L-39 and 149 L-29 trainer aircraft, the aircraft converted into light attack aircraft; three MiG-17 fighters and two MiG-15 fighters; six An-2 aircraft and two Mi-8 helicopters, 117 R-23 and R-24 aircraft missiles, 126 R-60 aircraft; about 7 thousand GSh-23 aerial shells. 42 tanks T-62 and T-72; 34 BMP-1 and BMP-2; 30 BTR-70 and BRDM; 44 MT-LB, 942 vehicles. 18 Grad MLRS 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 missiles of various types, 88 MANPADS; 105 pcs. S-75 missile defense system. 590 anti-tank weapons, including two Konkurs ATGMs, 24 Fagot ATGM systems, 51 Metis ATGM systems, 113 RPG-7 systems. About 50 thousand small arms, more than 150 thousand grenades. 27 wagons of ammunition; 1620 tons of fuels and lubricants; about 10 thousand sets of clothing, 72 tons of food; 90 tons of medical equipment.

12. In June 1992, Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev ordered the transfer of half of all weapons and ammunition available in the republic to the Dudayevites. 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 remove the rest due to the lack of soldiers and trains.

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

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

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

17. In reality, the state system of the CRI turned out to be extremely ineffective and rapidly became criminalized in the period 1991-1994. In 1992-1993, over 600 intentional murders were committed on the territory of Chechnya. During the period of 1993, at the Grozny branch of the North Caucasus Railway, 559 trains were subjected to an armed attack with the complete or partial looting of about 4 thousand cars and containers worth 11.5 billion rubles. During 8 months of 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 as a result of armed attacks. The current situation forced the Russian government to decide to stop traffic through the territory of Chechnya from October 1994

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

19. Even after this, when Dudayev stopped paying taxes to the general budget and banned 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. Russian oil continued to flow into Chechnya until 1994, but it was not paid for and was resold abroad.

21. In the spring of 1993, the contradictions between President Dudayev and the parliament sharply worsened in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. On April 17, 1993, Dudayev announced the dissolution of 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, where meetings of the parliament and the constitutional court were held; Thus, a coup d'état took place in the CRI. Amendments were made to the constitution adopted last year; a regime of Dudayev’s personal power was established in the republic, which lasted until August 1994, when legislative powers were returned to parliament

22. After the coup d'etat 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 (VCCR), which declared itself the only legitimate authority on the territory of Chechnya. The VSChR 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, fighting has 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 none of them was able to gain the upper hand in the fight.

25. In Urus-Martan alone 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 ChRI 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, the detachment of the opposition field commander Ruslan Labazanov lost 27 people killed. The opposition, in turn, carried out offensive actions in Grozny on September 12 and October 15, 1994, but retreated each time without achieving decisive success, although it did not suffer large losses.

26. On November 26, oppositionists unsuccessfully stormed Grozny for the third time. At the same time, a number of Russian military personnel who “fought on the side of the opposition” under a contract with the Federal Counterintelligence Service were captured by Dudayev’s supporters.

27. Deployment of 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, in to a greater extent, caused by journalistic terminological confusion, - Chechnya was part of Russia.

Even before any decision was announced by the Russian authorities, on December 1, Russian aviation attacked the Kalinovskaya and Khankala airfields and disabled all 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 legality, law and order and public safety 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 that 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 units of the Ministry of Defense and Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, entered the territory of Chechnya. The troops were divided into three groups and entered with three different sides - from the west from North Ossetia through Ingushetia), from the northwest from the Mozdok region of North Ossetia, directly bordering Chechnya and from the east from the territory of Dagestan).

The eastern group was blocked in the Khasavyurt region of Dagestan local residents- Akkin Chechens. Western group was also blocked by local residents and came under fire near the village of Barsuki, but using force, it nevertheless broke through into Chechnya. The Mozdok group 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 a Chechen Grad rocket artillery system and then entered into battle for this populated area.

A new offensive by OGV units began on December 19. The Vladikavkaz (western) group blocked Grozny from the western direction, bypassing the Sunzhensky ridge. 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 paratroopers of the 104th Airborne Regiment blocked the city from the Argun Gorge. At the same time, the southern part of Grozny was not blocked.

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

In mid-December, federal troops began shelling the suburbs of Grozny, and on December 19 the first bomb attack was carried out on the city center. The artillery shelling and bombing killed and injured many civilians (including ethnic Russians).

Despite the fact that Grozny still remained unblocked on the southern side, on December 31, 1994, the assault on the city began. About 250 armored vehicles entered the city, extremely vulnerable in street battles. Russian troops were poorly prepared, there was no interaction and coordination between various units, and many soldiers had no combat experience. The troops had aerial photographs of the city, outdated plans of the city in limited quantities. The communications facilities were not equipped with closed-circuit communications equipment, which allowed the enemy to intercept communications. The troops were given an order to occupy only industrial buildings and areas and not to invade the homes of the civilian population.

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

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

Two groups moved to the Presidential Palace and by January 9 occupied the building of the Oil Institute and the Grozny airport. By January 19, these groups met in the center of Grozny and 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 was increased to 70,000 people. General Anatoly Kulikov became the new commander of the OGV.

Only on February 3, 1995, the “South” group was formed and the implementation of the plan to blockade Grozny from the south began. By February 9, Russian units reached the line of the Rostov-Baku federal highway.

On February 13, in the village of Sleptsovskaya (Ingushetia), negotiations were held between the commander of the OGV Anatoly Kulikov and the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the ChRI Aslan Maskhadov on concluding a temporary truce - the parties exchanged lists of prisoners of war, and both sides were given the opportunity to remove 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 troops, deprived of support, gradually retreated from the city.

Finally, on March 6, 1995, a detachment of militants of the Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev retreated from Chernorechye, the last area 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 virtually destroyed and turned into ruins.

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

After the assault on Grozny, the main task of the Russian troops was to establish control over the lowland areas of the rebellious republic.

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

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

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

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

On April 15-16, the decisive assault on Bamut began - Russian troops managed to enter the village and gain a foothold on the outskirts. Then, however, Russian troops were forced to leave the village, since the militants had now occupied commanding heights above the village, using 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 battles were suspended after the terrorist attack in Budyonnovsk and resumed in February 1996.

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

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

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

The offensive resumed only on May 12. The attacks of 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 Vedenskoye Gorge. Despite significant superiority in manpower and equipment, Russian troops were bogged down in enemy defenses - 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 attack - instead of Shatoy 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 Shatoy and Nozhai-Yurt were taken.

Just as in the lowland areas, 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

June 14, 1995 group Chechen militants numbering 195 people, led by field commander Shamil Basayev, entered the territory of the Stavropol Territory in trucks and stopped in the city of Budennovsk.

The first target of the attack was the city police department building, then the terrorists occupied city ​​hospital and drove captured civilians into it. In total, there were about 2,000 hostages in the hands of terrorists. Basayev put forward demands to 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 hostages.

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

After failure forceful actions Negotiations began between the then Chairman of the Russian Government Viktor Chernomyrdin and field commander Shamil Basayev to free the hostages. 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 law enforcement officers) and 415 wounded, terrorist losses - 19 killed and 20 wounded

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

After the terrorist attack in Budennovsk, 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 the introduction of a moratorium on military operations in indefinite term.

From June 27 to 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 no longer as members of illegal armed groups, but as “self-defense units.” Local battles took place throughout Chechnya. For some time, the tensions that arose could be resolved through negotiations. Thus, on August 18-19, Russian troops blocked Achkhoy-Martan; the situation was resolved at negotiations in Grozny.

On August 21, a detachment of militants of the field commander Alaudi Khamzatov captured Argun, but after heavy shelling 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 militant detachments were located in these settlements. The Chechen side refused to leave their occupied positions, since, according to them, these were “self-defense units” that had the right to remain in accordance with previously reached agreements.

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 carried out against Chechen villages.

On October 8, an unsuccessful attempt was made to eliminate Dudayev - an air strike was carried out 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 the detachments of Salman Raduev, Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov and Sultan Gelikhanov. On December 14-20, there were battles for this city; it took Russian troops about another week of “cleansing operations” to finally take control of Gudermes.

On December 14-17, elections were held in Chechnya, which were held with a large number of violations, but were nevertheless recognized as valid. Separatist supporters announced in advance their boycott and non-recognition of the elections. Dokku Zavgaev won the elections, receiving over 90% of the votes; At the same time, all UGA military personnel participated in the elections.

On January 9, 1996, a detachment of militants numbering 256 people under the command of field commanders Salman Raduev, Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev and Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov carried out a raid on the city of Kizlyar. The militants' initial target was a Russian helicopter base and weapons depot. The terrorists destroyed two Mi-8 transport helicopters and took several hostages from among the military personnel guarding the base. Russian military and law enforcement agencies began to approach the city, so the terrorists seized the hospital and maternity hospital, driving about 3,000 more civilians there. This time, the Russian authorities did not give the order to storm the hospital, so as not to strengthen anti-Russian sentiments 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 towards the border. When it became clear that the terrorists would go to Chechnya, the bus convoy was stopped with 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 took place 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 passenger ship "Avrasia" with threats to shoot Russian hostages if the assault was not stopped. After two days of negotiations, the terrorists surrendered to the Turkish authorities.

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

On March 6, 1996, several groups of militants attacked Grozny, 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 took with them supplies of food, medicine and ammunition when they retreated. The losses of the Russian side, according to official data, 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 leading and trailing column of the vehicle, so the column was blocked and suffered significant losses - almost all the 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 Chechen Republic, Dzhokhar Dudayev. Attempts to send assassins ended in failure. It was possible to find out that Dudayev often talks on a satellite phone of the Inmarsat system.

On April 21, 1996, a Russian A-50 AWACS aircraft, which was equipped with equipment for bearing 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 planes reached the target, two missiles were fired at the motorcade, one of which hit the target directly.

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

37. Negotiations with the separatists (May - July 1996)

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

On May 27-28, a meeting of the Russian and Ichkerian (headed by Zelimkhan Yandarbiev) delegations was held 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 conscription.

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 Khaikhoroev took responsibility for the explosion of a regular bus in Nalchik.

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

On July 9, after the Russian ultimatum, hostilities resumed - aircraft attacked militant bases in the mountainous Shatoi, Vedeno and Nozhai-Yurt regions.

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

Simultaneously with the assault on Grozny, the separatists also captured the cities of Gudermes (they took it without a fight) and Argun (Russian troops only held the commandant’s office building).

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 a truce agreement 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 again became a de facto independent state, but de jure not recognized 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 former deputy Konstantin Borovoy, kickbacks in the construction business under contracts of the Ministry of Defense, during the First Chechen War, reached 80% of the contract amount. . Due to ethnic cleansing and fighting, almost the entire non-Chechen population left Chechnya (or was killed). The interwar crisis and the rise of Wahhabism began in the republic, which later led to the invasion of Dagestan, and then to the beginning of the Second Chechen War."

43. According to data released by the OGV headquarters, the losses of Russian troops amounted to 4,103 killed, 1,231 missing/deserted/prisoned, 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 deceased servicemen).

45. However, it should be borne in mind that the data from the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers includes only the losses of conscript soldiers, without taking into account the losses of contract soldiers, special forces 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 President of the ChRI) A. Maskhadov, the losses of the Chechen side amounted to about 3,000 people killed. According to the Memorial Human Rights Center, the militants’ losses 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 Russian Security Council 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 public organizations under the leadership of S. A. Kovalev”). “Kovalyov’s 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 assault on Grozny by Russian troops, Sergei Kovalev, as part of a group of State Duma deputies and journalists, negotiated with Chechen militants and parliamentarians in the presidential palace in Grozny. When the assault began and Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers began to burn in the square in front of the palace, civilians took refuge in the basement of the presidential palace, and soon wounded and captured Russian soldiers began to appear there. Correspondent Danila Galperovich recalled that Kovalev, being among the militants at Dzhokhar Dudayev’s headquarters, “almost all the time was in a basement room equipped with army radio stations,” offering Russian tank crews “an exit from the city without shooting if they indicate the route.” According to journalist Galina Kovalskaya, who was also 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 Kovalev’s entire human rights and anti-war position, 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, “due to his “unilateral position” aimed at justifying illegal armed groups.” In March 1995, the State Duma removed Kovalev from the post of Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, according to Kommersant, “for his statements against the war in Chechnya”

49. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) 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 clothing and plastic coverings in the first months. In February 1995, of the 120,000 residents remaining in Grozny, 70,000 were completely dependent on ICRC assistance. In Grozny, the water supply and sewer systems were completely destroyed, and the ICRC hastily began organizing the supply of drinking water to the city. In the summer of 1995, approximately 750,000 liters of chlorinated water were delivered daily by tanker truck to meet the needs of more than 100,000 residents at 50 distribution points throughout Grozny. Over the next year, 1996, more than 230 million liters of drinking water were produced for residents of the North Caucasus.

51. During 1995-1996, the ICRC carried out a number of programs to assist those affected by the armed conflict. Its delegates visited about 700 people detained by federal forces and Chechen militants in 25 places of detention in Chechnya itself and neighboring regions, delivered more than 50,000 letters to the recipients on Red Cross message forms, which became the only opportunity for separated families to establish contacts with each other, so how 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 Shatoy, provided regular assistance to homes for the disabled and orphanages.

Since the end of the 18th century, when Russia began to establish itself in the North Caucasus, this region of the country could not be called calm. The nature of the area, as well as the peculiarities of the local mentality, led to disobedience and war against Russian troops, to banditry. The culmination of the confrontation between the mountaineers, who wanted to live according to Sharia, and the Russians, who sought to push the borders of their empire to the south, was the Caucasian War, which lasted 47 years - from 1817 to 1864. This war was won by the Russian army due to its numerical and technical superiority, as well as due to a number of local internal factors(for example, feuds between clans in the Caucasian Imamate).

However, even after the end of the Caucasian War, this region did not become calm. Uprisings broke out here, but as the Russian borders moved south, their number began to decrease. By the beginning of the 20th century, a relative calm had established in the Caucasus, which was interrupted by the October Revolution and the subsequent Civil War. However, then the North Caucasus region, which became part of the RSFSR, was quickly “put out” without unnecessary losses and clashes. But it is worth noting that rebel morals have always reigned among part of the population here.

During the collapse of the USSR, nationalist and separatist sentiments. Their growth especially intensified after Yeltsin announced a kind of “doctrine” for the subjects of the USSR “Take as much sovereignty as you can!” And as long as there was still power behind the Supreme Council of the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, albeit not so strong, there could be no open speech. Only in October 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union became obvious, the Provisional Supreme Council of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic decided to divide the republic directly into Chechen and Ingush.

Unrecognized state

On October 17, 1991, presidential elections were held in the Chechen Republic, in which Dzhokhar Dudayev, Hero of the Soviet Union, aviation general, won. Immediately after these elections, the independence of the Chechen Republic of Nokhchi-Cho was declared unilaterally. However, the leadership of the RSFSR refused to recognize both the election results and the independence of the rebellious region.

The situation in Chechnya was heating up, and already in the late autumn of 1991 there was a real threat of conflict between the federals and the separatists. The new leadership of the country decided to send troops into the rebellious republic and nip attempts at secession in the bud. However, Russian troops, airlifted to Khankala on November 8 of the same year, were blocked by Chechen armed forces. Moreover, the threat of their encirclement and destruction became real, which the new government had absolutely no need for. As a result, after negotiations between the Kremlin and the leadership of the rebel republic, it was decided to withdraw Russian troops and transfer the remaining equipment to local armed forces. Thus, the Chechen army received tanks and armored personnel carriers...

Over the next three years, the situation in the region continued to deteriorate, and the gap between Moscow and Grozny widened. And although Chechnya has been essentially an independent republic since 1991, in reality it was not recognized by anyone. However, the unrecognized state had its own flag, coat of arms, anthem and even a constitution adopted in 1992. By the way, it was this constitution that approved the new name of the country - the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

The formation of “independent Ichkeria” was closely connected with the criminalization of its economy and power, due to which it became clear that in fact Chechnya would live at the expense of Russia, while absolutely not wanting to be part of it. Robbery, robbery, murder and kidnappings flourished on the territory of the republic and in the Russian regions bordering it. And the more crimes were committed in the region, the clearer it became that this could not continue.

However, this was understood not only in Russia, but also in Chechnya itself. The years 1993-1994 were marked by the active formation of opposition to the Dudayev regime, especially noticeable in the northern, Nadterechny region of the country. It was here that the Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic was formed in December 1993, relying on Russia and setting the goal of overthrowing Dzhokhar Dudayev.

The situation escalated to the limit in the fall of 1994, when supporters of the new, pro-Russian administration of Chechnya captured the north of the republic and began moving towards Grozny. There were also Russian military personnel in their ranks - mainly from the Kantemirov Guards Division. On November 26, troops entered the city. Initially, they did not encounter resistance, but the operation itself was planned simply horribly: the troops did not even have plans for Grozny and moved towards its center, often asking local residents for directions. However, the conflict soon moved into a “hot” stage, as a result of which the Chechen opposition was completely defeated, the Nadterechny region again came under the control of Dudayev’s supporters, and some of the Russian fighters were killed and some were captured.

As a result of this short-term conflict, Russian-Chechen relations deteriorated to the limit. In Moscow, it was decided to send troops into the rebellious republic, disarm illegal armed gangs and establish full control over the region. It was assumed that the majority of the population of Chechnya would support the operation, which was planned solely as a short-term operation.

Beginning of the war

On December 1, 1994, Russian aircraft bombed airfields under the control of Chechen separatists. As a result, the small number of Chechen aviation, represented mainly by An-2 transport aircraft and obsolete Czechoslovakian L-29 and L-39 fighters, was destroyed.

10 days later, on December 11, the President of the Russian Federation B. Yeltsin signed a decree on measures to restore constitutional order in the territory of the Chechen Republic. The start date for the operation was set for Wednesday, December 14th.

To send troops into Chechnya, a Joint Group of Forces (OGV) was created, which included both military units of the Ministry of Defense and troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The OGV was divided into three groups:

• Western group, whose goal was to enter the territory of the Chechen Republic from the west, from the territory of North Ossetia and Ingushetia;
• Northwestern group - its goal was to enter Chechnya from the Mozdok region of North Ossetia;
• The eastern group entered the territory of Chechnya from Dagestan.

The first (and main) goal of the combined group of troops was the city of Grozny, the capital of the rebellious republic. After capturing Grozny, it was planned to clear the southern, mountainous regions of Chechnya and complete the disarmament of the separatist detachments.

Already on the first day of the operation, December 11, the forces of the Western and Eastern groupings of Russian troops were blocked near the borders of Chechnya by local residents, who hoped to prevent the conflict in this way. Against the background of these groups, the North-Western group operated most successfully, whose troops, by the end of December 12, came close to the settlement of Dolinsky, located only ten kilometers from Grozny.

Only on December 12-13, having come under fire and using force, the Western group, as well as the Eastern, finally broke through into Chechnya. At this time, the troops of the North-Western (or Modzdok) group were fired upon by Grad multiple launch rocket launchers in the Dolinskoye area and were drawn into fierce battles for this populated area. It was possible to capture Dolinskoye only by December 20.

The movement of all three groups of Russian troops towards Grozny took place gradually, although in the absence of constant fire contact with the separatists. As a result of this advance, by the end of the 20th of December, the Russian army almost came close to the city of Grozny from three sides: north, west and east. However, here the Russian command made a serious mistake - although it was initially assumed that before the decisive assault the city should be completely blocked, in reality this was not done. In this regard, the Chechens could easily send reinforcements to the city from the southern regions of the country they controlled, as well as evacuate the wounded there.

Storm of Grozny

It is still unclear what actually prompted the Russian leadership to launch an assault on Grozny on December 31, when there were almost no conditions for it. Some researchers cite the reason as the desire of the military-political elite of the country to take Grozny “on the fly” for their own benefit, without taking into account and even ignoring the rebel gangs as a military force. Other researchers indicate that in this way the commanders of the troops in the Caucasus wanted to make a “gift” for the birthday of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Pavel Grachev. The latter’s words are widely circulated that “Grozny can be taken in two hours by one airborne regiment.” However, it must be remembered that in this statement the minister said that the capture of the city is possible only with full support and support for the army’s actions (artillery support and complete encirclement of the city). In reality, unfortunately, there were no favorable conditions.

On December 31, Russian troops advanced to storm Grozny. It was here that the commanders made the second glaring mistake - tanks were introduced into the narrow streets of the city without proper reconnaissance and infantry support. The result of such an “offensive” was very predictable and sad: a large number of armored vehicles were burned or captured, some units (for example, the 131st separate Maykop motorized rifle brigade) were surrounded and suffered significant losses. At the same time, a similar situation unfolded in all directions.

The only exception can be called the actions of the 8th Guards Army Corps under the command of General L. Ya. Rokhlin. When the corps troops were drawn into the capital of Chechnya, posts were set up at key points, located in close proximity to each other. Thus, the danger of cutting off the corps group was somewhat reduced. However, soon the corps troops were also surrounded in Grozny.

Already on January 1, 1995, it became clear: the attempt by Russian troops to take Grozny by storm had failed. The troops of the Western and Northwestern groups were forced to retreat from the city, preparing for new battles. The time has come for protracted battles for every building, for every block. At the same time, the Russian command made quite the right conclusions, and the troops changed tactics: now the actions were carried out by small (no more than a platoon), but very mobile air assault groups.

To carry out the blockade of Grozny from the south, the Southern Group was formed in early February, which soon managed to cut the Rostov-Baku highway and interrupt the supply of supplies and reinforcements to the militants in Grozny from the southern mountainous regions of Chechnya. In the capital itself, Chechen gangs gradually retreated under the attacks of Russian troops, suffering noticeable losses. Grozny finally came under the control of Russian troops on March 6, 1995, when the remnants of the separatist troops retreated from its last area, Chernorechye.

Fighting in 1995

After the capture of Grozny, the United Group of Forces was faced with the task of occupying the lowland regions of Chechnya and depriving the militants of the bases located here. At the same time, Russian troops sought to have good relations with the civilian population, persuading them not to provide assistance to the militants. This tactic very soon brought results: by March 23, the city of Argun was taken, and by the end of the month, Shali and Gudermes. The most fierce and bloody battles were for the village of Bamut, which was never captured until the end of the year. However, the results of the March battles were very successful: almost the entire flat territory of Chechnya was cleared of the enemy, and the morale of the troops was high.

After taking control of the lowland territories of Chechnya, the OGV command announced a temporary moratorium on combat operations. This was due to the need to regroup troops, put them in order, as well as the possible start of peace negotiations. However, it was not possible to reach any agreement, so new battles began on May 11, 1995. Now Russian troops rushed to the Argun and Vedeno gorges. However, here they encountered stubborn enemy defense, which is why they were forced to begin maneuvering. Initially, the direction of the main attack was the settlement of Shatoy; soon the direction was changed to Vedeno. As a result, Russian troops managed to defeat the separatist forces and take control of the main part of the territory of the Chechen Republic.

However, it became clear that the war would not end with the transfer of the main settlements of Chechnya to Russian control. This became especially clear on June 14, 1995, when a group of Chechen militants under the command of Shamil Basayev managed to seize a city hospital in the city of Budennovsk, Stavropol Territory (which is located about 150 kilometers from Chechnya), taking about one and a half thousand people hostage. It is noteworthy that this terrorist act was carried out precisely when the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin declared that the war in Chechnya was practically over. Initially, the terrorists put forward conditions such as the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, but then, over time, they demanded money and a bus to Chechnya.

The effect of the seizure of the hospital in Budyonnovsk was like a bomb exploding: the public was shocked by such a daring and, most importantly, successful terrorist attack. This was a serious blow to the prestige of Russia and Russian army. In the following days, the hospital complex was stormed, leading to heavy losses among both hostages and security forces. Ultimately, the Russian leadership decided to comply with the terrorists' demands and allowed them to travel by bus to Chechnya.

After the hostage taking in Budennovsk, negotiations began between the Russian leadership and the Chechen separatists, at which on June 22 they managed to achieve the introduction of a moratorium on hostilities for an indefinite period. However, this moratorium was systematically violated by both sides.

Thus, it was assumed that local self-defense units would take control of the situation in Chechen settlements. However, under the guise of such detachments, militants with weapons often returned to the villages. As a result of such violations, local battles took place throughout the republic.

The peace process continued, but it came to an end on October 6, 1995. On this day, an attempt was made on the life of the commander of the Joint Group of Forces, Lieutenant General Anatoly Romanov. Immediately after this, “retaliation strikes” were carried out on some Chechen settlements, and there was also some intensification of hostilities on the territory of the republic.

A new round of escalation of the Chechen conflict occurred in December 1995. On the 10th, Chechen troops under the command of Salman Raduev suddenly occupied the city of Gudermes, which was held by Russian troops. However, the Russian command promptly assessed the situation, and already during the battles of December 17-20, they again returned the city to their hands.

In mid-December 1995, presidential elections were held in Chechnya, in which the main pro-Russian candidate Doku Zavgaev won with a huge advantage (about 90 percent). The separatists did not recognize the election results.

Fighting in 1996

On January 9, 1996, a group of Chechen militants raided the city of Kizlyar and a helicopter base. They managed to destroy two Mi-8 helicopters, and also seize a hospital and 3,000 civilians as hostages. The requirements were similar to those in Budyonnovsk: provision of transport and a corridor for the unhindered escape of terrorists to Chechnya. The Russian leadership, taught by the bitter experience of Budyonnovsk, decided to fulfill the conditions of the militants. However, already on the way, it was decided to stop the terrorists, as a result of which they changed the plan and carried out a raid on the village of Pervomaiskoye, which they captured. This time it was decided to take the village by storm and destroy the separatist forces, but the assault ended in complete failure and losses among the Russian troops. The stalemate around Pervomaisky continued for several more days, but on the night of January 18, 1996, the militants broke through the encirclement and fled to Chechnya.

The next high-profile episode of the war was the March militant raid on Grozny, which came as a complete surprise to the Russian command. As a result, the Chechen separatists managed to temporarily take control of the Staropromyslovsky district of the city, as well as seize considerable supplies of food, medicine and weapons. After this, fighting on the territory of Chechnya flared up with renewed vigor.

On April 16, 1996, near the village of Yaryshmardy, a Russian military convoy was ambushed by militants. As a result of the battle, the Russian side suffered huge losses, and the convoy lost almost all its armored vehicles.

As a result of the battles of early 1996, it became clear that the Russian army, which managed to inflict significant defeats on the Chechens in open battles, turned out to be fatally unprepared for a guerrilla war, similar to the one that took place some 8-10 years ago in Afghanistan. Alas, but experience Afghan war, priceless and gained in blood, was quickly forgotten.

On April 21, near the village of Gekhi-Chu, Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev was killed by an air-to-surface missile fired by a Su-25 attack aircraft. As a result, it was expected that the decapitated Chechen side would become more accommodating and the war would soon be ended. The reality, as usual, turned out to be more complicated.

By the beginning of May, a situation had matured in Chechnya when it was possible to begin negotiations on a peaceful settlement. There were several reasons for this. The first and main reason was general fatigue from the war. The Russian army, although it had a fairly high morale and enough experience to conduct combat operations, still could not ensure complete control over the entire territory of the Chechen Republic. The militants also suffered losses, and after the liquidation of Dudayev they were determined to begin peace negotiations. The local population suffered the most from the war and naturally did not want the bloodshed to continue on their land. Another important reason was the upcoming presidential elections in Russia, in order to win which Boris Yeltsin simply needed to stop the conflict.

As a result of peaceful negotiations between the Russian and Chechen sides, an agreement was reached on a ceasefire from June 1, 1996. After 10 days, an agreement was also reached on the withdrawal of Russian units from Chechnya except for two brigades, whose task was to maintain order in the region. However, after Yeltsin won the elections in July 1996, fighting resumed.

The situation in Chechnya continued to deteriorate. On August 6, militants launched Operation Jihad, the purpose of which was to show not only Russia, but the whole world that the war in the region is far from over. This operation began with a massive separatist attack on the city of Grozny, which again turned out to be a complete surprise for the Russian command. Within a few days, most of the city fell under the control of the militants, and Russian troops, having a serious numerical advantage, were unable to hold a number of points in Grozny. Part of the Russian garrison was blocked, part was driven out of the city.

Simultaneously with the events in Grozny, the militants managed to capture the city of Gudermes almost without a fight. In Argun, Chechen separatists entered the city, occupied it almost completely, but ran into stubborn and desperate resistance from Russian military personnel in the area of ​​the commandant's office. Nevertheless, the situation was truly threatening - Chechnya could easily go up in flames.

Results of the First Chechen War

On August 31, 1996, an agreement was signed between representatives of the Russian and Chechen sides on a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya and the actual end of the war. However, the final decision on the legal status of Chechnya was postponed until December 31, 2001.

The opinions of different historians regarding the correctness of such a step as the signing of a peace treaty in August 1996 are sometimes diametrically opposed. There is an opinion that the war was over precisely at the moment when the militants could be completely defeated. The situation in Grozny, where separatist troops were surrounded and methodically destroyed by the Russian army, indirectly proves this. However, on the other hand, the Russian army is morally tired of the war, which is precisely confirmed by the rapid capture by militants of such large cities as Gudermes and Argun. As a result, the peace treaty signed in Khasavyurt on August 31 (better known as the Khasavyurt Agreements) was the lesser of evils for Russia, because the army needed a break and reorganization, the state of affairs in the republic was close to critical and threatened with major losses for the army. However, this is the subjective opinion of the author.

The result of the First Chechen War can be called a classic draw, when none of the warring parties can firmly be called a winner or a loser. Russia continued to assert its rights to the Chechen Republic, and Chechnya, as a result, managed to defend its “independence,” albeit with numerous nuances. In general, the situation has not changed dramatically, except that in the next few years the region has undergone even more significant criminalization.

As a result of this war, Russian troops lost approximately 4,100 people killed, 1,200 missing, and about 20 thousand wounded. It is not possible to establish the exact number of militants killed, as well as the number of civilians killed. It is only known that the command of the Russian troops cites the figure of 17,400 killed separatists; The militants' chief of staff, A. Maskhadov, announced losses of 2,700 people.

After the First Chechen War, presidential elections were held in the rebellious republic, in which Aslan Maskhadov quite naturally won. However, the elections and the end of the war did not bring peace to the Chechen land.

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The Second Chechen War also had an official name - the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, or CTO for short. But the common name is more known and widespread. The war affected almost the entire territory of Chechnya and the adjacent regions of the North Caucasus. It began on September 30, 1999 with the deployment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The most active phase can be called the years of the second Chechen war from 1999 to 2000. This was the peak of attacks. In subsequent years, the second Chechen war took on the character of local skirmishes between separatists and Russian soldiers. The year 2009 was marked by the official abolition of the CTO regime.
The second Chechen war brought a lot of destruction. Photographs taken by journalists demonstrate this perfectly.

Background

The first and second Chechen wars have a small time gap. After the Khasavyurt Agreement was signed in 1996 and Russian troops were withdrawn from the republic, the authorities expected calm to return. However, peace was never established in Chechnya.
Criminal structures have significantly intensified their activities. They made an impressive business from such a criminal act as kidnapping for ransom. Their victims included both Russian journalists and official representatives, and members of foreign public, political and religious organizations. The bandits did not hesitate to kidnap people who came to Chechnya for the funerals of loved ones. Thus, in 1997, two citizens of Ukraine were captured who arrived in the republic in connection with the death of their mother. Businessmen and workers from Turkey were regularly captured. Terrorists profited from oil theft, drug trafficking, and the production and distribution of counterfeit money. They committed outrages and kept the civilian population in fear.

In March 1999, the authorized representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Chechen affairs, G. Shpigun, was captured at the Grozny airport. This blatant case showed the complete inconsistency of the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Maskhadov. The federal center decided to strengthen control over the republic. Elite operational units were sent to the North Caucasus, the purpose of which was to fight gangs. From the side of the Stavropol Territory, a number of missile launchers were deployed, intended for delivering targeted ground strikes. An economic blockade was also introduced. The flow of cash injections from Russia has sharply decreased. In addition, it has become increasingly difficult for bandits to smuggle drugs abroad and take hostages. There was nowhere to sell the gasoline produced in underground factories. In mid-1999, the border between Chechnya and Dagestan turned into a militarized zone.

The gangs did not abandon their attempts to unofficially seize power. Groups led by Khattab and Basayev made forays into the territory of Stavropol and Dagestan. As a result, dozens of military personnel and police officers were killed.

On September 23, 1999, Russian President Boris Yeltsin officially signed a decree on the creation of the United Group of Forces. Its goal was to conduct a counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. Thus began the second Chechen war.

Nature of the conflict

The Russian Federation acted very skillfully. by using tactics(luring the enemy into a minefield, surprise raids on small settlements) managed to achieve significant results. After the active phase of the war had passed, the main goal of the command was to establish a truce and attract the former leaders of the gangs to their side. The militants, on the contrary, relied on giving the conflict an international character, calling on representatives of radical Islam from all over the world to participate in it.

By 2005, terrorist activity had decreased significantly. Between 2005 and 2008, there were no major attacks on civilians or clashes with official troops. However, in 2010, a number of tragic terrorist acts occurred (explosions in the Moscow metro, at Domodedovo airport).

Second Chechen War: Beginning

On June 18, the ChRI carried out two attacks at once on the border in the direction of Dagestan, as well as on a company of Cossacks in the Stavropol region. After this, most of the checkpoints into Chechnya from Russia were closed.

On June 22, 1999, an attempt was made to blow up the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of our country. This fact was noted for the first time in the entire history of the existence of this ministry. The bomb was discovered and promptly defused.

On June 30, the Russian leadership gave permission to use military weapons against gangs on the border with CRI.

Attack on the Republic of Dagestan

On August 1, 1999, the armed detachments of the Khasavyurt region, as well as the citizens of Chechnya supporting them, announced that they were introducing Sharia rule in their region.

On August 2, militants from the ChRI provoked a fierce clash between Wahhabis and riot police. As a result, several people died on both sides.

On August 3, a shootout occurred between police officers and Wahhabis in the Tsumadinsky district of the river. Dagestan. There were some losses. Shamil Basayev, one of the leaders of the Chechen opposition, announces the creation of an Islamic shura, which had its own troops. They established control over several regions in Dagestan. Local authorities of the republic are asking the center to issue military weapons to protect civilians from terrorists.

The next day, the separatists were driven back from the regional center of Agvali. More than 500 people dug in in positions that had been prepared in advance. They made no demands and did not enter into negotiations. It became known that they were holding three policemen.

At noon on August 4, on the road in the Botlikh district, a group of armed militants opened fire on a squad of Ministry of Internal Affairs officers who were trying to stop a car for an inspection. As a result, two terrorists were killed, and there were no casualties among the security forces. The village of Kekhni was hit by two powerful missile and bomb attacks by Russian attack aircraft. It was there, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, that a detachment of militants stopped.

On August 5, it becomes known that a major terrorist attack is being prepared on the territory of Dagestan. 600 militants were going to penetrate into the center of the republic through the village of Kekhni. They wanted to seize Makhachkala and sabotage the government. However, representatives of the center of Dagestan denied this information.

The period from August 9 to 25 was remembered for the battle for the Donkey Ear height. The militants fought with paratroopers from Stavropol and Novorossiysk.

Between September 7 and September 14, large groups led by Basayev and Khattab invaded from Chechnya. The devastating battles continued for about a month.

Air bombing of Chechnya

On August 25, Russian armed forces attacked terrorist bases in the Vedeno Gorge. More than a hundred militants were killed from the air.

In the period from September 6 to 18, Russian aviation continues its massive bombing of separatist concentration areas. Despite the protest of the Chechen authorities, the security forces say that they will act as necessary in the fight against terrorists.

On September 23, the forces of central aviation bombed Grozny and its environs. As a result, power plants, oil plants, a mobile communications center, and radio and television buildings were destroyed.

On September 27, V.V. Putin rejected the possibility of a meeting between the presidents of Russia and Chechnya.

Ground operation

Since September 6, Chechnya has been under martial law. Maskhadov calls on his citizens to declare gazavat to Russia.

On October 8, in the village of Mekenskaya, militant Akhmed Ibragimov shot 34 people of Russian nationality. Three of them were children. At the village meeting, Ibragimov was beaten to death with sticks. The mullah forbade his body to be buried.

The next day they occupied a third of the CRI territory and moved on to the second phase of hostilities. The main goal is the destruction of gangs.

On November 25, the President of Chechnya addressed Russian soldiers with a call to surrender and go into captivity.

In December 1999, Russian military forces liberated almost all of Chechnya from militants. About 3,000 terrorists dispersed across the mountains and also hid in Grozny.

Until February 6, 2000, the siege of the capital of Chechnya continued. After the capture of Grozny, massive fighting came to an end.

Situation in 2009

Despite the fact that the counter-terrorism operation was officially stopped, the situation in Chechnya did not become calmer, but on the contrary, it worsened. Incidents of explosions have become more frequent, and militants have become more active again. In the fall of 2009, a number of operations were carried out aimed at destroying gangs. The militants respond with major terrorist attacks, including in Moscow. By mid-2010, there was an escalation of the conflict.

Second Chechen War: results

Any military action causes damage to both property and people. Despite the compelling reasons for the second Chechen war, the pain from the death of loved ones cannot be relieved or forgotten. According to statistics, 3,684 people were lost on the Russian side. 2178 representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation were killed. The FSB lost 202 of its employees. More than 15,000 terrorists were killed. The number of civilians killed during the war is not precisely established. According to official data, it is about 1000 people.

Cinema and books about war

The fighting did not leave artists, writers, and directors indifferent. The photographs are dedicated to such an event as the second Chechen war. There are regular exhibitions where you can see works reflecting the destruction left behind by the fighting.

The second Chechen war still causes a lot of controversy. The film "Purgatory", based on real events, perfectly reflects the horror of that period. The most famous books written by A. Karasev. These are "Chechen Stories" and "Traitor".

Second Chechen war

(officially called the counter-terrorism operation (CTO)— combat operations on the territory of Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus. It began on September 30, 1999 (the date of the entry of 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 developed into a smoldering conflict, which actually continues to this day. From 0 o'clock on April 16, 2009, the CTO regime was cancelled.

1. Background

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

Chechen criminal structures made a business out of mass kidnappings with impunity,

hostage taking (including official Russian representatives working in Chechnya), theft of oil from oil pipelines and oil wells, drug production and smuggling, issuance and distribution of counterfeit banknotes, terrorist attacks and attacks on neighboring Russian regions. On the territory of Chechnya, camps were created to train militants - young people from Muslim regions of Russia. Mine demolition instructors and Islamic preachers were sent here from abroad. Significant role Numerous Arab mercenaries began to play a 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).

At the beginning of March 1999, Gennady Shpigun, plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chechnya, was kidnapped by terrorists at the Grozny airport. For the Russian leadership, this was evidence that the President of the Chechen Republic, Maskhadov, was unable to independently fight terrorism. The federal center took measures to strengthen the fight against Chechen gangs: self-defense units were armed and police units were strengthened throughout the entire perimeter of Chechnya, the best operatives of units fighting ethnic organized crime were sent to the North Caucasus, several Tochka-U missile launchers were deployed from the Stavropol region ", intended for delivering targeted strikes.

“Tochka-U”

An economic blockade of Chechnya was introduced, which led to the fact that the 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 in clandestine factories has become impossible to export outside Chechnya. The fight against Chechen criminal groups that actively financed militants in Chechnya was also intensified. In May-July 1999, the Chechen-Dagestan border turned into a militarized zone. As a result, the income of Chechen warlords fell sharply and they had problems purchasing weapons and paying mercenaries. In April 1999, Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov, who successfully led a number of operations during the First Chechen War, was appointed commander-in-chief of the internal troops.

In May 1999, Russian helicopters launched a missile attack on the positions of Khattab militants on the Terek River in response to an attempt by gangs to seize an outpost of internal troops on the Chechen-Dagestan border. After this, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Rushailo, announced the preparation of large-scale preventive strikes.

Meanwhile, Chechen gangs under the command of Shamil Basayev and Khattab were preparing for an armed invasion of Dagestan. From April to August 1999, conducting reconnaissance in force, they made more than 30 forays 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 groups 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 bandits proceeded from the fact that there were no troops there, and it would not be possible to transfer forces to this inaccessible area in the shortest possible time. In addition, the militants were counting on a possible attack in the rear of federal forces from the Kadar zone of Dagestan, controlled by local Wahhabis since August 1998.

As 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 the Persian Gulf countries, who are not interested in starting to exploit the oil and gas fields of the Caspian Sea.

On August 7, 1999, a massive invasion of Dagestan by militants 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 consisted of foreign mercenaries and fighters of the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, associated with Al-Qaeda. The militants' plan to have the population of Dagestan come over to their side failed; the Dagestanis offered desperate resistance to the invading bandits. The Russian authorities proposed that the Ichkerian leadership conduct a joint operation with federal forces against Islamists in Dagestan. It was also proposed to “resolve the issue of liquidating bases, storage and rest areas of illegal armed groups, which the Chechen leadership in every possible way denies.” Aslan Maskhadov verbally condemned the attacks on Dagestan and their organizers and instigators, but did not take real measures to counter them.
Fighting between federal forces and invading militants continued for more than a month, ending with the militants being 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 Buinaksk) - explosions of residential buildings.

Explosion of No. 6 on Kashirskoye Highway in Moscow 09/13/1999

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

On September 23, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree “On measures to increase the effectiveness of counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation.” The decree provided for the creation of a Joint Group of Forces in the North Caucasus to conduct a counter-terrorism operation.

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

2. Character

Having broken the resistance of the militants by the force of the army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the command of the Russian troops successfully uses military tricks, such as, for example, luring militants to minefields, raids on the rear of gangs and many others), the Kremlin relied on the “Chechenization” of the conflict and luring side with some of the elite and former militants. Thus, in 2000, the 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 groups of non-Chechen origin in their struggle. By the beginning of 2005, after the destruction of Maskhadov, Khattab, Barayev, Abu al-Walid and many other field commanders, the intensity of sabotage and terrorist activities of the militants decreased significantly. During 2005–2008, not a single crime was committed in Russia major terrorist attack, and the only large-scale operation of the militants (Raid on Kabardino-Balkaria on October 13, 2005) ended in complete failure.

3. Chronology

3.1. 1999

Aggravation of the situation on the border with Chechnya

• June 18 - Chechnya attacked two outposts on the Dagestan-Chechen border, as well as an attack on a Cossack company in the Stavropol Territory. The Russian leadership is closing most of the checkpoints on the border with Chechnya.
• June 22 - for the first time in the history of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, an attempt was made to commit a terrorist attack in its main building. The bomb was defused in time. According to one version, the terrorist attack was a response of Chechen militants to threats from the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Rushailo, to carry out acts of retaliation in Chechnya
• June 23 - shelling from the side of Chechnya at the outpost near the village of Pervomaiskoye, Khasavyurt district of Dagestan.
• June 30 - Rushailo said: “We must respond to the blow with a more crushing blow; “on the border with Chechnya, the order was given to use preventive strikes against armed gangs.”
• July 3 — Rushailo said that the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs “is beginning 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.” Deputy Prime Minister of the ChRI government Kazbek Makhashev stated in response: “We cannot be intimidated by threats, and Rushailo knows this well.”
• July 5 - Rushailo stated that “early in the morning of July 5, a preemptive strike was launched against 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 Babayurt region 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 emphasized that “the Chechen authorities do not fully control the situation in the republic.”
• July 16 - Commander of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation V. Ovchinnikov stated that “the issue of creating a buffer zone around Chechnya is being considered.”
• July 23 - Chechen militants attacked an outpost on the territory of Dagestan protecting the Kopayevsky hydroelectric complex. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan stated that “this time the Chechens carried out reconnaissance in force, and large-scale actions by gangs will soon begin along the entire perimeter of the Dagestan-Chechen border.”

Attack on Dagestan

Militant invasion of Dagestan, also known as Dagestan War(actually considered the beginning Second Chechen campaign), - armed clashes that accompanied the entry of forces based in the territory Chechnya detachments "Islamic Peacekeeping Brigade" under the command Shamilya Basayeva And Khattaba to the territory Dagestan August 7 - September 14, 1999 Initially, militant groups entered Botlikhsky(operation "ImamGhazi-Muhammad » - August 7-23), and then on Novolaksky district Dagestan(operation "ImamGamzat-bek » - September 5-14).

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

The leader of the gang was the famous Chechen terrorist, Emir Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan, Divisional General of the Armed Forces of ChRI Shamil Basayev, and his closest assistant was the head of the terrorist center “Caucasus”, Colonel of the Armed Forces of the ChRI Khattab. Russian sources reported that bandit groups also participated in the invasion of Dagestan Vahi Arsanova , Ruslana Gelayeva , Arbi Barayeva And Hunkara Israpilova, however, independent sources confirm the participation of only Barayev’s bandit group “ IPON ».

The religious leader of the invasion was Bagautdin Kebedov, which since autumn 1998 lived on the territory of Ichkeria. Political leadership was taken over by the so-called. "Islamic Shura of Dagestan", which included Sirazhudin Ramazanov, Magomed Tagaev, Nadirshakh Khachilayev , Adallo Aliyev, Akhmad Sardali, Magomed Kuramagomedov and others

Bagautdin Kebedov

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

Aerial bombing of Chechnya

• August 25 - Russian aircraft strike militant bases in the Vedeno Gorge in Chechnya. In response to the official protest from the ChRI, the command of the federal forces declares that they “reserve the right to strike militant bases in the territory of any North Caucasus region, including Chechnya.”
• September 4 - 16 - explosions of residential buildings in Buinaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk
• September 6 - 18 - Russian aviation carries out numerous missile and bomb attacks on military camps and militant fortifications in Chechnya.

• September 11 - Maskhadov announced general mobilization in Chechnya.
• September 14 - V. Putin said that “the Khasavyurt agreements should be subjected to an impartial analysis”, as well as “a strict quarantine should be temporarily introduced” along the entire perimeter of Chechnya.
• September 18 - Russian troops block the border of Chechnya from Dagestan, Stavropol Territory, North Ossetia and Ingushetia.
• September 23 - Russian aircraft began bombing the capital of Chechnya and its environs. As a result, several electrical substations, a number of oil and gas complex factories, the Grozny mobile communications center, a television and radio broadcasting center, and an An-2 aircraft were destroyed. The press service of the Russian Air Force stated that “aircraft will continue to strike targets that gangs can use in their interests.”
• September 27 — Chairman of the Russian Government V. Putin categorically rejected the possibility of a meeting between the President of Russia and the head of the ChRI. “There will be no meetings to let the militants lick their wounds,” he said.

Start of ground operation

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

M. Khambiev

• October 6 - in accordance with Maskhadov’s decree, martial law began to apply in Chechnya. Maskhadov proposed that all religious figures in Chechnya declare a holy war on Russia—Gazavat.
• October 15 - troops of the Western group of General Vladimir Shamanov entered Chechnya from Ingushetia.

V. Shamanov

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

3.2. 2000

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

• February 10 - federal forces took control of the regional center Itum-Kale and the village of Serzhen-Yurt
• February 21 - 33 Russian servicemen, mainly from the GRU special forces unit, were killed in a battle in the Kharsenoy area.
• February 29 - capture of Shatoy. Maskhadov, Khattab and Basayev again escaped the encirclement. First Deputy Commander of the joint group of federal forces, Colonel General Gennady Troshev, announced the end of a full-scale military operation in Chechnya.
• February 28 - March 2 - Battle at Height 776 - breakthrough of militants (Khattab) through Ulus-Kert. Death of paratroopers of the 6th parachute company of the 104th regiment.

The battle in the Argun Gorge during the second Chechen War, when an entire company of Pskov paratroopers died

Argun Gorge

Before the fight

Today in Russia there is another tragic date…

Today in Russia there is another tragic date - February 29 In 2000, in Chechnya, at height 776 (in the Argun Gorge), the 6th company of the 104th regiment of the 76th Pskov Airborne Division died in a fierce battle with Chechen militants. Of the ninety paratroopers who took the battle against superior terrorist forces, 84 were killed, including 13 officers. They did not flinch, did not retreat, and fulfilled their military duty to the end, stopping the advance of the gang.

Then, in February 2000, the military phase - an important stage - of the second Chechen war was ending. After the fall of Grozny and Shatoi (the last major settlements Chechnya, which remained in the hands of the militants), according to the federal command, the defeated militants should have been divided into small detachments and dispersed to mountain bases. However, the militants concentrated. Most of their commanders, including Sh.Basayev and Khattab, proposed to break through in a north-eastern direction, towards the Dagestan border. One of the most obvious routes of retreat was the Argun Gorge. In total, in the area of ​​the village of Ulus-Kert, then, according to various sources, from 1.5 to 2.5 thousand well-trained militants were concentrated.

On the part of the federal troops, to cover this direction, among other units, the 6th company was sent - a combined detachment of paratroopers under the command of Guard Lieutenant Colonel M. Evtyukhin, who was given the task of occupying a line four kilometers southeast of Ulus-Kert, with the goal to prevent a possible breakthrough of militants in the direction of Vedeno.

The 6th company gained a foothold on the dominant height 776. But the militants went ahead. The battle near Ulus-Kert began on February 29, 2000 and continued throughout the next day. Although the paratroopers received no help other than the breakthrough of 10 scouts of the 4th company and fire support from artillery units, they fought to the death. The artillerymen “worked” on the heights all night. On the morning of March 1, hand-to-hand fighting ensued, and at a critical moment, Lieutenant Colonel Evtyukhin called in artillery fire: “On yourself!” On March 2, the remaining militants were scattered by an air and artillery raid.

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

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

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

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

The films “I Have the Honor”, ​​“Breakthrough”, “Russian Sacrifice”, the musical “Warriors of the Spirit”, the books “Company”, “Breakthrough”, “Step into Immortality”, songs are dedicated to the memory of the Pskov paratroopers. The streets of their native cities were named in their honor, and memorial plaques were installed in educational institutions where the hero-paratroopers studied. Monuments were erected to them in Moscow and Pskov.

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

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

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

• March 2 - tragic death of the Sergiev Posad riot police as a result of “friendly fire” *
• March 5 - 20 - Battle for the village of Komsomolskoye

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

According to the commander of the federal troops during the hostilities, Gennady Troshev, “the operation in Komsomolskoye practically ended the active phase of hostilities in Chechnya.”

• March 12 - in the village of Novogroznensky, terrorist Salman Raduev was captured by FSB officers and brought to Moscow; he was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison.
• March 19 - in the area of ​​the village of Duba-Yurt, FSB officers detained the Chechen field commander Salautdin Temirbulatov, nicknamed Tractor Driver, who was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
• March 20 - on the eve of the presidential elections, Vladimir Putin visited Chechnya. He arrived in Grozny on a Su-27UB fighter piloted by the head of the Lipetsk aviation center, Alexander Kharchevsky.
• March 29 - death of the Perm riot police near the village of Dzhanei-Vedeno. More than 40 people died.
• April 20 - First Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Colonel General Valery Manilov, announced the end of the military part of the counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya and the transition to special operations.
• May 19 - Deputy Minister of Sharia Security of the ChRI Abu Movsaev was killed.
• May 21 - in the city of Shali, security officers detained (in his own house) one of Aslan Maskhadov's closest accomplices - field commander Ruslan Alikhadzhiev.
• June 11 - by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Akhmat Kadyrov was appointed head of the administration of Chechnya
• July 2 - as a result of a series of terrorist attacks using bombed trucks, more than 30 police officers and federal servicemen were killed. The greatest losses were suffered by employees of the Chelyabinsk Regional Department of Internal Affairs in Argun.
• October 1 - during a military clash in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny, field commander Isa Munayev was killed.
• 3.3. 2001
• June 23-24 - in the village of Alkhan-Kala, a special joint detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB conducted a special operation to eliminate a detachment of militants of field commander Arbi Barayev. 16 militants were killed, including Barayev himself.
• July 11 - in the village of Mayrtup, Shalinsky district of Chechnya, during a special operation of the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Khattab's assistant Abu Umar was killed.
• August 25 - in the city of Argun, during a special operation by FSB officers, field commander Movsan Suleimenov, nephew of Arbi Barayev, was killed.
• September 17 - attack by militants (300 people) on Gudermes, the attack was repulsed. As a result of the use of the Tochka-U missile system, a group of more than 100 people was destroyed. In Grozny, an Mi-8 helicopter with a General Staff commission on board was shot down (2 generals and 8 officers were killed).
• November 3 - during a special operation, the influential field commander Shamil Iriskhanov, who was part of Basayev’s inner circle, was killed.
• December 15 - In Argun, federal forces killed 20 militants during a special operation.

3.4. 2002

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

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

October 23, 2002 At 21:15, armed people in camouflage burst into the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka. At that time, the musical “Nord-Ost” was playing at the cultural center; there were more than 700 people in the hall. The terrorists declared all people - spectators and theater workers - hostages and began to mine the building.

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

Movsar Baraev

At 19:00 the next day, the Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera showed an appeal from the militants of Movsar Barayev, recorded several days before the capture of the Palace of Culture: the terrorists declare themselves suicide bombers and demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. From seven in the evening until midnight, unsuccessful attempts continued to persuade the militants to accept food and water for the hostages.

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

In the morning, a spontaneous rally arose at the cordon near the recreation center. Relatives and friends of the hostages demanded that all the terrorists' demands be fulfilled. At 15:00 in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. Following the meeting, FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev said that the authorities were ready to save the lives of the terrorists if they freed all the hostages.

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

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

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

3.5. 2003

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

3.6. 2004

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

On September 1, 2004, a group of armed masked people drove up to the building of School No. 1 in Beslan in several cars and took 1,128 people hostage—children and their parents—right from the school line, driving them into the school gym.

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

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

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

On the night of September 2, negotiations between the terrorists and Dr. Roshal took place. Representatives of the special services told the terrorists that they were ready to provide them with the opportunity to safely travel to Ingushetia and Chechnya. In addition, it was proposed to replace child hostages with adults. There was no response to these offers; the terrorists also refused to accept food and medicine for those taken hostage.

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

At 12:40, the operational headquarters managed to negotiate with the terrorists to evacuate the bodies of the killed hostages from the school. At 12:55, emergency workers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations arrive at the school to pick up the bodies of those killed. At 13:03-13:05 two explosions were heard in the school building, hostages began to run out of the school. After which special forces of the Russian army and the FSB launched an assault. As a result of the assault, both the terrorists and the attackers suffered losses (10 special forces soldiers were killed). Casualties among hostages: 331 dead, about 500 wounded.

3.7. 2005

• February 18 - as a result of a special operation in the Oktyabrsky district of Grozny, the forces of the PPS-2 detachment killed the “Emir of Grozny” Yunadi Turchaev, the “right hand” of one of the terrorist leaders Doku Umarov.
• March 8 - during a special operation by the FSB in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt, the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichryssia, Aslan Maskhadov, was eliminated
• May 15 - Former vice-president of the Chechen Republic of Ichryssia Vakha Arsanov was killed in Grozny. Arsanov and his accomplices, while in a private house, fired at a police patrol and were destroyed by arriving reinforcements.
• May 15 - in the Dubovsky forest of the Shelkovsky district, as a result of a special operation of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the “emir” of the Shelkovsky district of the Chechen Republic, Rasul Tambulatov (Volchek), was killed.
• October 13 - Militants attack the city of Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria), as a result of which, according to Russian authorities, 12 civilians and 35 law enforcement officers were killed. According to various sources, from 40 to 124 militants were destroyed.

3.8. 2006

• January 3-5 - in the Untsukulsky district of Dagestan, federal and local security forces are trying to eliminate a gang of 8 militants under the command of field commander O. Sheikhulayev. By official information, 5 militants were killed, the terrorists themselves admit the death of only 1. The losses of the federal forces amounted to 1 killed, 10 wounded.
• January 31 - Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference that it is now possible to talk about the end of the counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya.
• February 9-11 - in the village of Tukuy-Mekteb in the Stavropol Territory, 12 so-called militants were killed during a special operation. “Nogai battalion of the Armed Forces of the ChRI”, federal forces lost 7 people killed. During the operation, the federal side actively uses helicopters and tanks.
• March 28 - a former department head voluntarily surrendered to the authorities in Chechnya state security ChRI Sultan Gelikhanov.
• June 16 - “ChRI President” Abdul-Halim Sadulaev was killed in Argun

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

3.9. 2007

• April 4 - in the vicinity of the village of Agish-batoy, Vedeno district of Chechnya, one of the most influential militant leaders, commander of the Eastern Front of the Chechen Republic of Ingushetia, Suleiman Ilmurzaev (call sign “Khairulla”), involved in the murder of Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov, was killed.
• June 13 - in the Vedeno district on the Verkhnie Kurchali - Belgata highway, militants shot at a convoy of police cars.
• July 23 - battle near the village of Tazen-Kale, Vedeno district, between the Vostok battalion of Sulim Yamadayev and a detachment of Chechen militants led by Doku Umarov. The death of 6 militants was reported.

• September 18 - as a result of a counter-terrorist operation in the village of New Sulak, “Amir Rabbani” - Rappani Khalilov - was killed.

3.10. 2008

• January - during special operations in Makhachkala and the Tabasaran region of Dagestan, at least 9 militants were killed, 6 of them were part of the group of field commander I. Mallochiev. There were no casualties on the part of the security forces in these clashes. At the same time, during the clashes in Grozny, the Chechen police killed 5 militants, among them was the field commander U. Techiev, the “emir” of the capital of Chechnya.
• May 5 - a military vehicle was blown up by a landmine in the village of Tashkola, a suburb of Grozny. 5 policemen were killed, 2 were injured.
• June 13 - night attack by militants in the village of Benoy-Vedeno
• September 2008 - major leaders of the illegal armed formations of Dagestan Ilgar Mallochiev and A. Gudayev were killed, a total of up to 10 militants.
• December 18 - battle in the city of Argun, 2 policemen were killed and 6 were wounded. One person was killed by the militants in Argun.
• December 23-25 ​​- special operation of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the village of Verkhny Alkun in Ingushetia. Field commander Vakha Dzhenaraliev, who fought against federal troops in Chechnya and Ingushetia since 1999, and his deputy Khamkhoev were killed, a total of 12 militants were killed. 4 illegal armed formation bases have been liquidated.
• June 19 - Said Buryatsky announced his joining the underground.

3.11. 2009

• March 21-22 - a major special operation by security forces in Dagestan. As a result of heavy fighting using helicopters and armored vehicles, the forces of the local Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB Directorate, with the support of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, eliminated 12 militants in the Untsukulsky district of the republic. The losses of the federal troops amount to 5 people killed (two servicemen of the special forces of the VV were later posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia for their participation in these hostilities). At the same time, in Makhachkala, the police destroy 4 more armed extremists in battle.
• April 15 is the last day of the counter-terrorist operation regime
• 4. Aggravation of the situation in the North Caucasus in 2009

Despite the official cancellation of the counter-terrorism operation on April 16, 2009, the situation in the region has not become calmer, quite the opposite. Militants leading guerrilla warfare, incidents of terrorist acts have intensified and become more frequent. Beginning in the fall of 2009, a number of major special operations were carried out to eliminate gangs and militant leaders. In response, a series of terrorist attacks were carried out, including, for the first time in a long time, in Moscow.

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

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