Editing Second Chechen War (section)

==Other issues==

===Kodori crisis and Pankisi Gorge crisis===
{{Main|2001 Kodori crisis|Pankisi Gorge crisis}}

On 8 October 2001, a [[United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia|UNOMIG]] helicopter was shot down in Georgia in [[Kodori Valley]] gorge near Abkhazia, amid [[2001 Kodori crisis|fighting between Chechens and Abkhazians]], killing nine including five UN observers.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1586098.stm UN helicopter shot down in Georgia] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420204439/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1586098.stm |date=20 April 2010 }} BBC News, 8 October 2001</ref> Georgia denied having troops in the area, and the suspicion fell on the armed group headed by Chechen warlord [[Ruslan Gelayev]], who was speculated to have been hired by the Georgian government to wage [[proxy war]] against separatist [[Abkhazia]].

Russian officials accused neighbouring [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] of allowing Chechen separatists to operate on Georgian territory and permitting the flow of militants and [[materiel]] across the border. In February 2002, the United States began offering assistance to Georgia to combat "criminal elements" and [[jihadist]] activity in the [[Pankisi Gorge]] as [[War on Terrorism: Pankisi Gorge|part of the War on Terrorism]]. 

In August 2002, Georgia accused Russia of a series of secret [[air strike]]s on purported separatists havens in the Pankisi Gorge in which a Georgian civilian was reported killed.

In late August 2002, Georgia deployed more than 1,000 troops to the gorge. The troops  detained an Arab man and six criminals, and on 2 September President Shevardnadze declared the region under control.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2231955.stm Georgia says gorge 'under control'] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319153941/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2231955.stm |date=19 March 2016 }} BBC News, 2 September 2002</ref>

On 2 March 2004, following a number of cross-border raids from Georgia into Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan, Gelayev was killed in a clash with Russian border guards while trying to get back from Dagestan into Georgia.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}

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

Shortly following Maskhadov's death, the Chechen separatist council announced that [[Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev]] had assumed the leadership, a move that was quickly endorsed by Shamil Basayev (Basayev himself died in July 2006). On 2 February 2006, Sadulayev made large-scale changes in his government, ordering all its members to move into Chechen territory. Among other things, he removed First Vice-Premier [[Akhmed Zakayev]] from his post (although later Zakayev was appointed a Foreign Minister<ref>[http://chechenpress.net/events/2006/05/27/06.shtml Указы Президента ЧРИ А-Х. Садулаева], Chechenpress, 27.05.06 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080804182707/http://chechenpress.net/events/2006/05/27/06.shtml |date=4 August 2008 }}</ref>). Sadulayev was killed in June 2006, after which he was succeeded as the separatist leader by the veteran terrorist commander Doku Umarov.

===Amnesties===
As of November 2007, there were at least seven amnesties for separatist militants, as well as federal servicemen who committed crimes, declared in Chechnya by Moscow since the start of the second war. The first one was announced in 1999 when about 400 Chechen switched sides. (However, according to Putin's advisor and aide [[Aslambek Aslakhanov]] most of them were since killed, both by their former comrades and by the Russians, who by then perceived them as a potential "[[fifth column]]".<ref>[https://archive.today/20120529015418/http://www.kommersant.ru/k-vlast/get_page.asp?DocID=695544 "Убивал – не убивал, попал – не попал"], Kommersant, 7 August 2006</ref>) Some of the other amnesties included one during September 2003 in connection with the adoption of the republic's new constitution, and then another between mid-2006 and January 2007.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} In 2007, the [[International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights]] published a report entitled [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927172147/http://www.ihf-hr.org/documents/doc_summary.php?sec_id=&d_id=4402 Amnestied People as Targets for Persecution in Chechnya], which documents the fate of several persons who have been amnestied and subsequently abducted, tortured and killed.

===Government censorship of the media coverage===
{{Main|Russian government censorship of Chechnya coverage}}

The first war, with its extensive and largely unrestricted coverage (despite deaths of many journalists), convinced the Kremlin more than any other event that it needed to control national television channels, which most Russians rely on for news, to undertake any major national policy. By the time the second war began, federal authorities had designed and introduced a comprehensive system to limit the access of journalists to Chechnya and shape their coverage.<ref>[http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/2048.cfm Smokescreen Around Chechnya] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108082552/http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/2048.cfm |date=8 November 2016 }} The Moscow Times, 18 March 2005</ref>

The Russian government's control of all Russian television stations and its use of repressive rules, harassment, censorship, intimidation and attacks on journalists almost completely deprived the Russian public of the independent information on the conflict. Practically all the local Chechen media are under control of the pro-Moscow government, Russian journalists in Chechnya face intense harassment and obstruction leading to widespread [[self-censorship]], while foreign journalists and media outlets too are pressured into censoring their reports on the conflict.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/615937.stm Russian TV accuses military of censorship] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016233612/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/615937.stm |date=16 October 2015 }}, BBC News, 23 January 2000</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/68793/ |title=Kremlin Stifles Critical Coverage of Chechnya |publisher=Ifex.org |access-date=17 October 2011 |archive-date=8 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308072630/http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/68793/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/01/27/005.html Silencing Chechnya] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050207132645/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/01/27/005.html |date=7 February 2005 }}  Moscow Times, 27 January 2005</ref> In some cases Russian journalists reporting on Chechnya were jailed ([[Boris Stomakhin]]) or kidnapped ([[Andrei Babitsky]]), and foreign media outlets ([[American Broadcasting Company]]) banned from Russia. Russia's step came in retaliation for ABC's broadcast of an interview with Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader who ordered and/or carried out some of the worst terrorist acts in the country's history, including the school siege in Beslan that left 330 people dead.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090417172714/http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/international/europe/02cnd-russia.html&OQ=_rQ3D1Q26pagewantedQ3Dall&OP=7868567fQ2FQ24rQ7EQ27Q24Q2F_nPe__MLQ24LRRCQ24RQ3EQ24RLQ24bQ5BMQ7EeQ5B-Mb_Q5B-Q3DQ24Q7EQ20e_kQ7EQ24RLnQ5BQ2FzeQ20PPb-Q22Q5CMdQ3D Russia Bars ABC News for Interview With Separatist], ''The New York Times'', 2 August 2005</ref> The [[Russian-Chechen Friendship Society]] was shut down on "extremism and national hatred" charges. According to a 2007 poll only 11 percent of Russians said they were happy with media coverage of Chechnya.<ref name="poll"/>