Editing Grozny (section)

===Collapse of Russian authority===
After the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]], Grozny became the seat of a [[separatist]] government led by [[Dzhokhar Dudayev]]. According to some,{{whom|date=December 2024}} many of the remaining Russian and other non-Chechen residents fled or were [[Population transfer|expelled]] by groups of [[Insurgent|militants]], adding to a [[harassment]] and [[discrimination]] from the new authorities.<ref>{{cite book |title=Chechnya: from nationalism to jihad |last=Hughes |first=James |author-link=James Hughes (sociologist) |year=2007 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |page=64 |isbn=978-0812202311 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VhtNIDj6evUC&pg=PA64 |access-date=2010-11-01}}</ref> These events are perceived by some as an act of an [[ethnic cleansing]] of non-Chechens, which has been reflected in the materials of [[Prosecutor-General of Russia|General Prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Русская линия / Библиотека периодической печати: Судьба русских из Грозного|url=http://rusk.ru/st.php?idar=102569|access-date=2022-02-25|website=rusk.ru|language=ru}}</ref>

This view is disputed by authors, such as Russian economists Boris Lvin and [[Andrei Illarionov]], who argue that Russian emigration from the area was no more intense than in other regions of Russia at the time.<ref>Boris Lvin and Andrei Illarionov. ''Moscow News''. February 24- March 2, 1995</ref> According to this view of the ethnic situation in Ichkeria, the primary cause of Russian emigration was the extensive bombing of Grozny (where four out of five, or nearly 200,000 Russians in Chechnya lived before the war) by the Russian military during the First Chechen War.<ref>Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal. Pages 197, 227</ref>

The covert Russian attempts of overthrowing Dudayev by means of armed Chechen opposition forces resulted in repeated failed assaults on the city. Originally, Moscow had been backing the political opposition of {{ill|Umar Avturkhanov|ru|Автурханов, Умар Джунитович}} "peacefully" (i.e. without supplying the opposition with weapons and encouraging them to try a coup). However, this changed in 1994, after the coups in neighbouring [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] and [[Azerbaijan]] (both of which Moscow was involved with), when Russia encouraged armed opposition, and occasionally assisted. In August 1994 Avturkhanov attacked Grozny, but was repelled first by Chechen citizens who were then joined by Grozny government troops; Russian helicopters covered his retreat.<ref>Carlotta Gall and Thomas De Waal. ''Small Victorious War''. p151-2</ref> On 28 September, one of these helicopters was shot down and its Russian pilot was held as a [[prisoner-of-war]] by the Chechen government.<ref>Carlotta Gall and Thomas De Waal. ''Small Victorious War''. p151</ref> [[Battle of Grozny (November 1994)|The last assault]], on 26 November 1994, ended with capture of 21 [[Russian Ground Forces|Russian Army]] [[tank]] crew members<ref>Carlotta Gall and Thomas De Waal.''Chechnya:Calamity in the Caucasus''.Pages 155–157</ref> who had secretly been hired as [[mercenary|mercenaries]] by the FSK (former [[KGB]], not long after renamed [[Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti|FSB]]); their capture was sometimes cited as one of the reasons for [[Boris Yeltsin]]'s decision to openly intervene. In the meantime, Grozny airport and other targets were bombed by unmarked Russian aircraft.