Editing Second Chechen War (section)

==Prelude to the Second Chechen War==

===Instability in Chechnya===
[[File:Cadets of the Ichkeria Chechen national guard 1999.jpg|thumb|Cadets of the Ichkeria Chechen National Guard, 1999]]

[[File:Interwar Crisis in Chechnya 1997-1999.png|thumb|Situation in Chechnya in the period between the end of the First Chechen War and the beginning of the Second Chechen War: In red the territory under the control of the [[Russian Federation]], in green the territory under the control of the [[Chechen Republic of Ichkeria]] and in grey the areas under the control of the [[Islamists]]{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}.]]

The authority of the government in Grozny was opposed by extremist warlords like [[Arbi Barayev]], who according to some sources was in cooperation with the [[Federal Security Service|FSB]].<ref name="Littell">[http://www.psan.org/document551.html The Security Organs of the Russian Federation. A Brief History 1991–2004] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080807054247/http://www.psan.org/document551.html |date=7 August 2008 }} by [[Jonathan Littell]], Psan Publishing House 2006.</ref> Kidnapping in Chechnya reached large proportions, and the total turnover reached tens of millions of dollars.<ref>Tishkov, Valery. ''Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Page 114.</ref> In 1998, [[1998 abduction of foreign engineers in Chechnya|a group of four Western hostages was murdered]]. [[FSB (Russia)|Russian special services]] were accused of being involved in kidnappings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Litvinenko |first=Alexander |title=Blowing up Russia |pages=208}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=November 2023}} In 1998, a [[state of emergency]] was declared by the authorities in Grozny. In July 1998 a confrontation occurred in [[Gudermes]] between Chechen National Guard troops and a fundamentalist faction leading to many casualties.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 July 1998 |title=Internal clashes in Chechnya |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/russian-federation/internal-clashes-chechnya |website=Reliefweb |access-date=4 August 2023 |archive-date=12 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312113226/https://reliefweb.int/report/russian-federation/internal-clashes-chechnya |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some scholars linked Chechen resistance to Russia to the [[Al-Qaeda]] global jihad movement. According to Gordon Hahn, the connections between the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and Al-Qaeda "were common knowledge by the late 1990s among U.S. government officials, intelligence analysts, and terrorism experts" and there were about five hundred foreign jihad fighters in Chechnya at the start of the second war.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hahn |first1=Gordon M. |title=Getting the Caucasus Emirate Right |date=2011 |publisher=Center for Strategic and International Studies |isbn=9780892066650 |pages=2–3}}</ref><ref>{{Google books |id=yGOpAgAAQBAJ |page=239 |title=Routledge Handbook of Russian Politics & Society }} Graeme Gill, Professor Department of Government Graeme Gill, James Young. 2013. {{ISBN|978-1-136-64102-2}}, page 239</ref> Most Western observers prior to 11 September regarded the alleged al-Qaida links claimed by Russian government with skepticism. The Clinton and Bush administrations, as well as other NATO governments, uniformly dismissed Moscow's rhetoric concerning the existence of Chechens in Afghanistan and Afghans in Chechnya as Soviet-style "[[agitprop]]" (agitation-propaganda) until 11 September occurred.<ref>{{cite web| publisher=Jamestown Foundation| title=Shattering the al-Qaeda-Chechen Myth| date=23 April 2013| url=http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=40771#.VpjSncuFOM8| author=Brian Glyn Williams| access-date=15 January 2016| archive-date=4 March 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304042158/http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=40771#.VpjSncuFOM8| url-status=live}}</ref>

===Russian–Chechen relations (1996–1999)===
Political tensions were fueled in part by allegedly Chechen or pro-Chechen terrorist and criminal activity in Russia, as well as by border clashes. On 16 November 1996, in [[Kaspiysk]] (Dagestan), a bomb destroyed an apartment building housing Russian border guards, killing 68 people. The cause of the blast was never determined, but many in Russia blamed Chechen separatists.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1976776.stm|work=BBC News|title=Deadly blast hits Russian parade|date=9 May 2002|access-date=23 May 2010|archive-date=2 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200402001719/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1976776.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Three people died on 23 April 1997, when a bomb exploded in the Russian railway station of [[Armavir, Russia|Armavir]] ([[Krasnodar Krai]]), and two on 28 May 1997, when another bomb exploded in the Russian railway station of [[Pyatigorsk]] ([[Stavropol Krai]]). On 22 December 1997, forces of [[Dagestan]]i militants and Chechnya-based [[Arab]] warlord [[Ibn al-Khattab]] raided the base of the 136th Motor Rifle Brigade of the [[Russian Ground Forces|Russian Army]] in [[Buynaksk]], Dagestan, inflicting heavy casualties.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id%3D2%26issue_id%3D328%26article_id%3D3598 |title=Chechen Gunmen Attack Russian Army Unit in Dagestan |work=The Jamestown Foundation |access-date=22 March 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060322132744/http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=2&issue_id=328&article_id=3598 |archive-date=22 March 2006 }}</ref>

The 1997 election brought to power the separatist president [[Aslan Maskhadov]]. In 1998 and 1999, President Maskhadov survived several assassination attempts,<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1485209/Aslan-Maskhadov.html Aslan Maskhadov - Telegraph] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314193702/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1485209/Aslan-Maskhadov.html |date=14 March 2017 }}, "Aslan Maskhadov." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 9 March 2005. Web. Retrieved 7 May 2017.</ref> blamed on the Russian intelligence services. In March 1999, General [[Gennady Shpigun]], the [[Kremlin]]'s envoy to Chechnya, was kidnapped at the airport in Grozny and ultimately found dead in 2000 during the war. On 7 March 1999, in response to the abduction of General Shpigun, Interior Minister [[Sergei Stepashin]] called for an invasion of Chechnya. However, Stepashin's plan was overridden by the prime minister, [[Yevgeny Primakov]].<ref name="russell">{{Cite book|last=Russell|first=John|title=Chechnya: From Past to Future|editor=Richard Sakwa|publisher=Anthem Press|location=London|year=2005|edition=1st|pages=239–265|chapter=Chechnya, 11 September and the War Against Terrorism|isbn=978-1-84331-164-5}}</ref> Stepashin later said:<ref>from the Russian original of interview given by Stepashin: В отношении Чечни могу сказать следующее. План активных действий в этой республике разрабатывался начиная с марта. И мы планировали выйти к Тереку в августе-сентябре. Так что это произошло бы, даже если бы не было взрывов в Москве. Я активно вел работу по укреплению границ с Чечней, готовясь к активному наступлению. Так что Владимир Путин здесь ничего нового не открыл. Об этом вы можете спросить его самого. Он был в то время директором ФСБ и владел всей информацией.</ref>

{{blockquote|The decision to invade Chechnya was made in March 1999... I was prepared for an active intervention. We were planning to be on the north side of the [[Terek River]] by August–September [of 1999] This [the war] would happen regardless to the [[Russian apartment bombings|bombings in Moscow]]... [[Vladimir Putin|Putin]] did not discover anything new. You can ask him about this. He was the director of FSB at this time and had all the information.<ref name="Assassins 1">[[Yuri Felshtinsky]] and [[Vladimir Pribylovsky]] ''The Age of Assassins. The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin'', Gibson Square Books, London, 2008, {{ISBN|1-906142-07-6}}, page 105. The interview was given on 14 January 2000.</ref><ref>[http://www.ng.ru/politics/2000-01-14/1_ovr.html Sergey Pravosudov. Interview with Sergei Stepashin.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325191700/https://www.ng.ru/politics/2000-01-14/1_ovr.html |date=25 March 2022 }} [[Nezavisimaya Gazeta]], 14 January 2000 (in Russian)</ref>}} According to [[Robert Bruce Ware]], these plans should be regarded as contingency plans. However, Stepashin did actively call for a military campaign against Chechen separatists in August 1999 when he was the prime minister of Russia. But shortly after his televised interview where he talked about plans to restore constitutional order in Chechnya, he was replaced in the PM's position by Vladimir Putin.<ref name="ware">{{Cite book|title=Chechnya: From Past to Future|editor=Richard Sakwa|publisher=Anthem Press|year=2005|pages=79–115|chapter=Robert Bruce Ware: Mythology and Political Failure in Chechnya|isbn=978-1-84331-164-5}}</ref>

In late May 1999, Russia announced that it was closing the Russian-Chechnya border in an attempt to combat attacks and criminal activity;<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wines |first=Michael |date=19 June 1999 |title=Russia Closes Posts on Border After Clashes With Chechens |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/19/world/russia-closes-posts-on-border-after-clashes-with-chechens.html |access-date=21 September 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=11 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231011194710/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/19/world/russia-closes-posts-on-border-after-clashes-with-chechens.html |url-status=live }}</ref> border guards were ordered to shoot suspects on sight.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 April 1999 |title=Stepashin declares border with Chechnya closed - Russian Federation {{!}} ReliefWeb |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/russian-federation/stepashin-declares-border-chechnya-closed |access-date=21 September 2023 |website=reliefweb.int |language=en |archive-date=12 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312113226/https://reliefweb.int/report/russian-federation/stepashin-declares-border-chechnya-closed |url-status=live }}</ref> On 18 June 1999, seven servicemen were killed when Russian border guard posts were attacked in Dagestan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 June 1999 |title=Seven Russians die in Chechen border clashes - Russian Federation {{!}} ReliefWeb |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/russian-federation/seven-russians-die-chechen-border-clashes |access-date=21 September 2023 |website=reliefweb.int |language=en |archive-date=12 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312113230/https://reliefweb.int/report/russian-federation/seven-russians-die-chechen-border-clashes |url-status=live }}</ref> On 29 July 1999, the Russian Interior Ministry troops destroyed a Chechen border post near the city of Kizlyar and marched several kilometers into Chechnya.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nhc.no/en/25-years-since-the-second-chechen-war-began/ | title=25 years since the Second Chechen War began | date=22 August 2024 }}</ref> On 22 August 1999, 10 Russian policemen were killed by an [[anti-tank mine]] blast in [[North Ossetia]], and, on 9 August 1999, six servicemen were kidnapped in the Ossetian capital [[Vladikavkaz]].{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

===Dagestan===
{{Main|War of Dagestan}}

On 7 August 1999, [[Shamil Basayev]] together with [[Ibn al-Khattab]], led two groups of up to 2,000 Chechen, Dagestani, Arab [[mujahideen]] from Chechnya into the neighboring Republic of Dagestan. This war saw the first (unconfirmed) use by Russia of aerial-delivered [[fuel air explosive]]s (FAE) in mountainous areas, notably in the village of [[Tando]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2000/02/17/dont-use-fuel-air-weapons-chechnya |title=Don't Use Fuel-air Weapons in Chechnya &#124; Human Rights Watch |publisher=Hrw.org |date=18 February 2000 |access-date=1 October 2013 |archive-date=2 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200402001721/https://www.hrw.org/news/2000/02/17/dont-use-fuel-air-weapons-chechnya |url-status=live }}</ref> By mid-September 1999, the militants were routed from the villages they had captured and retreated back into Chechnya. According to Russia several hundred militants were killed in the fighting and the Russian side reported 275 servicemen killed and approximately 900 wounded.<ref name="mdb_chechnya">{{Cite journal|last=Pashin |first=Alexander |title=Russian Army Operations and Weaponry During Second Military Campaign in Chechnya |journal=[[Moscow Defense Brief]] |publisher=[[Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies]] |issue=3/2002 |url=http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/3-2002/ac/raowdsmcc/ |access-date=29 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140501050127/http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/3-2002/ac/raowdsmcc/ |archive-date=1 May 2014 }}</ref>

===Russian apartment bombings===
{{Main|1999 Russian apartment bombings}}

Before the wake of the Dagestani campaign had settled, a series of bombings took place in Russia (in [[Moscow]], [[Volgodonsk]] and [[Buynaksk]]). On 4 September 1999, 62 people died in an apartment building housing members of families of Russian soldiers. Over the next two weeks, the bombs targeted three other apartment buildings and a mall; in total over 350 people were killed. The then [[Vladimir Putin|Prime Minister Putin]] quickly blamed the attacks on Chechen militants and despite no evidence linking the bombings to Chechens; ordered the bombing campaign of Chechnya.<ref name="Cardin">{{cite web |last1=Cardin |first1=Ben |title=PUTIN'S ASYMMETRIC ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA AND EUROPE: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY |url=https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FinalRR.pdf |website=Senate Committee on Foreign Relations |publisher=U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE |access-date=15 February 2023 |page=10 |date=10 January 2018 |archive-date=9 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209193625/https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FinalRR.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In February 2000, the [[United States Secretary of State|US Secretary of State]] [[Madeleine Albright]] stated they had not seen any evidence that tied the bombings to Chechnya.<ref name="Cardin" /> 

On 22 September 1999, Russian [[Federal Security Service]] (FSB) agents were caught by local [[police]] planting a bomb at an apartment complex in [[Ryazan]]. They were later released on orders from Moscow. FSB chief [[Nikolai Patrushev]] announced on television that the apparent bomb had been part of a “training exercise”.<ref name="AmyKnight">{{cite magazine |last1=Knight |first1=Amy |date=22 November 2012 |title=Finally we Know About the Moscow Bombings |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/ |magazine=The New York Review |access-date=14 August 2024 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207194054/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

A Russian criminal investigation of the bombings was completed in 2002. The results of the investigation, and the court ruling that followed, concluded that they were organized by [[Achemez Gochiyaev]], who remains at large, and ordered by Khattab and [[Abu Omar al-Saif]] (both of whom were later killed), in retaliation for the Russian counteroffensive against their incursion into Dagestan. Six other suspects have been convicted by Russian courts.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Knight |first1=Amy |date=22 November 2012 |title=Finally we Know About the Moscow Bombings |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/ |magazine=The New York Review |access-date=28 October 2018 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207194054/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

Many observers, including [[State Duma]] deputies [[Yuri Shchekochikhin]], [[Sergei Kovalev]] and [[Sergei Yushenkov]], cast doubts on the official version and sought an independent investigation. Some others, including [[David Satter]], [[Yury Felshtinsky]], [[Vladimir Pribylovsky]] and [[Alexander Litvinenko]], as well as the secessionist Chechen authorities, claimed that the 1999 bombings were a [[false flag]] attack coordinated by the FSB in order to win public support for a new full-scale war in Chechnya, which boosted the popularity of Prime Minister and former FSB Director [[Vladimir Putin]], brought the pro-war [[Unity (political party, Russia)|Unity Party]] to the [[State Duma]] in the [[1999 Russian legislative election|1999 parliamentary election]], and secured Putin [[President of Russia|as president]] within a [[2000 Russian presidential election|few months]].  A description of the bombings as FSB false-flag operations appears in the book ''Blowing Up Russia'', which is banned in the Russian Federation.<ref name="Assassins 2">''The Age of Assassins. The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin'', [[Vladimir Pribylovsky]] and [[Yuri Felshtinsky]], Gibson Square Books, London, 2008, {{ISBN|1-906142-07-6}}; pages 105–111.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/SatterHouseTestimony2007.pdf |title=David Satter – House committee on Foreign Affairs |access-date=17 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927065706/http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/SatterHouseTestimony2007.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}</ref><ref name="Satter">David Satter. ''Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State''. Yale University Press. 2003. {{ISBN|0-300-09892-8}}, pages 24–33 and 63–71.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur46/012/2006/en/ |title=Russian Federation: Amnesty International's concerns and recommendations in the case of Mikhail Trepashkin |work=Amnesty International |date=23 March 2006 |access-date=10 September 2009 |archive-date=22 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122054145/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur46/012/2006/en/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-sep-10-mn-8677-story.html Bomb Blamed in Fatal Moscow Apartment Blast], Richard C. Paddock, [[Los Angeles Times]], 10 September 1999</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9909/10/russia.explosion.03/ |title=At least 90 dead in Moscow apartment blast |work=CNN |date=10 September 1999 |access-date=13 July 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000823013738/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9909/10/russia.explosion.03/ |archive-date=23 August 2000 }}</ref><ref>''The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way of the Soviet Union?'', page 81, Matthew Evangelista, pub. Brookings Institution Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-8157-2499-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8157-2499-5}}</ref>