In 2002, the threat of complete defeat loomed before the Chechen fighters. Although the Ichkerian press continued to cheerfully report on the incredible losses of the "occupiers", the Mujahideen were clearly losing the war. Detachments of militants became smaller, soldiers died less and less frequently, Russian special groups caught one partisan cell after another. Abundantly provided amnesties not only allowed the militants to legalize themselves, but actually pulled people out of the ranks of the “forest brothers”: it was more convenient and easier to vote with your feet and hand over your machine gun, or even get a job in the new Chechen police, than to go crazy in a cache, each a minute waiting for Russian hunters with helicopters.

In addition, the population supported the militants by no means as unanimously as it seemed from the outside. Many Chechens met their compatriots who came from the forest without enthusiasm - they brought with them new cleansing operations and new problems. Finally, not all field commanders could act in a coordinated manner or even consciously. Basayev was at best the most authoritative.

By 2002, most of the detachments not only did not obey anyone, but also dealt mainly with issues of their own survival. In fact, even that didn't work out well. The long row of names of exterminated "brigadier generals", "ministers" and "right-handers" said little to the Russian public, but in reality it impressed much more than the corpse of some Khattab: in the conditions of a chaotic guerrilla war, small groups managed to defeat small detachments to the stream. A lover of female suicide bombers Tsagaraev died, a sniper's bullet found one of the leaders of the campaign against Dagestan Bakuev, six of the nine famous slave traders, the Akhmadov brothers, died or went to prison, brother Shirvani died of wounds and sepsis. Maskhadov issued an order on this occasion, in which one can feel the handwriting of a former career military man:

"Due to negligence and personal carelessness, underestimation of the enemy ... some commanders, members of the government fell into ambushes, died heroically in an unequal battle or were captured." Less refined, shortly before his death, he put it simply: “We are wet”

In addition, Chechnya was gradually losing its attractiveness for foreign sponsors. The war dragged on, and various "humanitarian funds" gradually slowed down their activity. But the possibilities of militants inside the country increased. Basayev, in particular, worked with the growing and prosperous Chechen diaspora in Russia, whose representatives were either persuaded or forced to cooperate.

The separatist leaders were not going to give up just like that. In the summer of 2002, at a meeting of field commanders, it was decided to drastically change the direction of the struggle.

The first strategy of the militants - as far as they could still pursue a meaningful strategy - was to withdraw the war beyond the borders of Chechnya. By that time, they had strongly shifted from national slogans towards religious ones, had a clear image of the future (theocratic Islamic state in the Caucasus) and clearly knew what exactly they were going to offer other highlanders. Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Ingushetia - Chechnya now became only a part in the chain of jamaats, underground terrorist groups. Part of the infrastructure of the underground was also taken out of Chechnya - bases, training centers and many militants. These seeds were expected to grow exuberantly.

The second point was closely related to the first. The attacks had already begun, but now they had to be brought to the level of a full-fledged terrorist campaign. Basayev and many commanders close to him were going to make the civilian population the main target of attacks. Yes, in 1999 the bombings of houses in Moscow, Buynaksk and Volgodonsk caused rage and a desire to end Chechnya instead of fear.

However, Basayev well remembered another result of his escapades: in 1995, the mass hostage-taking in Budyonnovsk gave the militants many months of respite, allowed them to recover from past blows - perhaps otherwise the Chechen underground would not have survived. Now the Chechens have conceived not a single high-profile terrorist attack, but a series of attacks that paralyze the will and break any readiness to fight.

Aslan Maskhadov personally became the key element of this plan. Simple intimidation would not have had any effect other than calls to rally and crush the reptile completely. The Chechens could not win the war by inflicting defeat on the Russian troops on the battlefield. Therefore, in pair with the "evil investigator" a "good" one was required - a political leader representing the moderate wing of the movement (albeit completely virtual). Maskhadov could convincingly call for peace, Russian politicians would agree to talk to him, and he also suited the West.

"Nord-Ost" made a mixed impression. The authorities did not know how to speak with the public and journalists. The rescue operation was organized with monstrous mistakes and overlays that cost the lives of one hundred and thirty people, and many survivors - health. The interaction of departments completely failed, which led to a tragedy of enormous proportions.

At the same time, the military part of the special operation was carried out brilliantly. The infamous gas attack at that moment was the only way out. "Alpha" and "Vympel" worked flawlessly and walked through the building of the Palace of Culture like armed surgeons, completely exterminating the militants, but without inflicting a scratch on the hostages. The suicide bombers were literally a second late - but this second in battle separates the living from the dead, and the frostbitten Chechen gopota with old machine guns - from counterterror professionals.

The people in the room were generally well-behaved. Muscovites demonstrated endurance and nobility. The hostages helped those who tried to escape and gave moral support to those who remained in the hall - they even managed to calm Baraev at one of the critical moments. Almost all public and political figures, whom the terrorists allowed to enter the hall, behaved in an exemplary manner. The doctors did their duty, not paying attention to the thugs around. Russian society turned out to be much more stable and courageous than it used to think about itself.

Finally, against the background, even such a clumsy operation looked completely new. Although heavy losses could not be avoided, this time the invaders went after the terrorist attack not for an interview, but for an autopsy. No peace negotiations with moderate murderers, despite the appeals of the progressive public, were not conducted. It is difficult to say whether this change reached Basayev and Maskhadov. Most likely, they decided that Nord-Ost was not carried out tough enough.

“The maidens are waiting for me there, they are all flawless”

In 2002-2004, suicide attacks came in a continuous stream. Arbi Baraev, who sent his cousin to explode, became a pioneer, but for a real terrorist war, the militants needed to establish an “industrial production” of suicide bombers. The North Caucasus in this sense was a fertile place. A patriarchal way of life, deeply traditional mores - all this gave rise to a type of woman, modest, obedient to the orders of men, most often poorly educated, with a limited outlook, easily inspired. The militants used these features of society to the fullest. In addition, tough sweeps and the war itself gave enough young widows or just teenage girls in love with the brutal and athletic forest robing hoods.

Although the women were prepared to die in the flames of the explosion, some of them, for one reason or another, survived and were able to tell in detail about how they become kamikaze. Zarema Inarkayeva (sixteen years old) tried to blow up the police department in the Staropromyslovsky district. The bomb she carried there malfunctioned and did not fully explode. The story of this girl paints a monstrous picture both in terms of the mores of society and in terms of the behavior of the militants themselves:

It all started long before that. Shamil Garibekov looked after me. He smiled and said how beautiful I am. And then - it was in December - I somehow walk down the street, his car stops, the guys jump out of there and push me into the car. I didn't have time to remember. What did I think then? Well, what. I thought: well, that’s it, they abducted me, now I’ll be my wife. I began to tell Shamil that I did not want to get married, that my mother should be warned. Then I was fed and I fell asleep. It seems to me that they added something to the food, because everything was spinning in my head, my arms and legs became heavy and I fell asleep, although I didn’t want to sleep before that.

I wake up - my clothes are already here. They went to my house, they said that I got married, and my mother gave them everything.

I say: when will it be possible to visit my mother? And Shamil answers me: never, forget about your mother, now you will be with us. I sat crying, the girls comforted me.

And then Shamil came to me in the evening. And I slept with him. Well, like a wife. When I cried, his people shouted at me. And then more and more often they began to add something to food, give me some pills, from which it became so calm. Even somehow it doesn't matter. I realized that I couldn't get out of there. Then I began to cook food, wash for all the men who lived in this apartment. At first she washed, then she began to sleep with them all. They say so: he is my brother, and today I give you to him. Do you think someone asked me, persuaded me? He came in, punched him in the face, threw him on the bed - that's all.

I was often sleepy, lethargic, they definitely gave me something. I didn't care what was going on. The guys always had a lot of weapons - and machine guns, and pistols, and grenades. My - Shamil - worked in the police, so at first I did not think that he was a Wahhabi. It was then that he began to give me some books to read - Wahhabi. After that, Shamil came to me, closed the door and said that he had an important task for me: to give a bag to some comrade. I knew right away that something was wrong here. I say: why don't you give it yourself?

“No,” he says, “it’s impossible for someone to see me, how I will give him this bag.”

"What's in it?"

“None of your business. You just go to his office and say what you asked to convey for him. And that's all."

He got terribly angry. He said that on February 5 I would have to do it. I said I didn't want to tell anyone anything. He chuckled and said: "You will do it and you will not get anywhere."

(...) I used to love Shamil, he flirted with me before, courted me, I thought that everything was real.

In the morning we were waiting for the person to whom I was supposed to hand over the bag. He wasn't at work. Shamil freaked out, swore, we circled around the city, and I prayed to Allah that he would not appear longer. Those were the last hours of my life. I understood that something was wrong in the bag, it was so heavy. I understood why they filmed me before that, asked me to say some words. Something about Allah. I was neither alive nor dead. There is nowhere to run. Death is both there and there. Therefore, when I entered the police department, I nevertheless took off my bag from my shoulder and walked slowly so that fewer people died around.

I go and think: now! Here now! I wonder if I will feel pain or not? And what will be left of me? And who will bury me? Or they will not be buried at all - like a murderer. How scary, mommy! While I was thinking, it exploded. Shamil set off explosives in the car.

There was such a noise, screams, my leg hurts, blood is gushing out of me. But I'm alive! The police immediately realized that if they took me to the hospital, they would kill me there. I roar, trying to explain something. They brought the doctors directly to the police station. There I was operated on - in the department.

Then they transferred me under guard to the Internal Affairs Directorate, vacated some office for me, put up a bed, and here I have been living for four months. Then I was informed that Khaled - the one who ordered Shamil to send me - was blown up by a land mine.

In Staropromyslovsky, then no one was hurt, except for the girl herself. The level of moral degradation of the underground is simply amazing. The history of Caucasian terror does not shine at all, but the manner of using suicide bombers stands out as an abomination even against the general background.

Usually they tried to make shahids out of women with problems. So, two female suicide bombers who died in Nord-Ost were registered in a psychiatric hospital due to unreasonable tantrums and severe headaches, and because of this, no one wanted to marry them until suitors from jamaats were found. There were also widows. Sometimes a suicide bomber was driven to an explosion by some completely wild trajectory: for example, a young widow (and also an orphan) Zarema Muzhakhoyeva fell into terror after she tried to escape with her little daughter from relatives who took her child away, and for the sake of this escape she stole family members' jewelry.

After the deceit was revealed, and the escape did not take place, the woman, disgraced and “put on the counter” by kind-hearted relatives, went into suicide bombers. The recruiters offered her a good package of services from a totalitarian sect: the opportunity to see her daughter (but not in person, but in a dream), debt cancellation (after death) and paradise (also). The messengers were a deeply Wahhabi family, in which, out of nine children, four men died in battle, and two daughters, including a fifteen-year-old, were shot at Dubrovka.

Especially recruiters and recruiters succeeded in working with girls. Then, after explosions, many suicide bombers were described as young, modest, obedient and romantic, almost children (or not almost). There were very few real fanatics, despite all the elevated religious and national rhetoric, among the suicide bombers - convinced avengers like the sister of the famous field commander Luiza Bakueva made up a vanishingly small part of them.

Usually, the girls were simply pumped up with psychotropic substances, and then they proceeded to straight-line, like a club, psychological treatment. Future living bombs were told that after death they would have paradise, that they were the chosen ones. Moreover, the ideas about heaven were the most primitive: the girls were literally offered a garden with flowers, in which they had to serve male martyrs. Not God knows what kind of propaganda, but it worked tolerably well for an intimidated, infantile and poorly educated target audience. In addition, Chechen girls were not spoiled at home, and often a shahidka could be bought with a simple caress. One of the suicide bombers bought herself for the first time ... an elegant robe. Before exploding, the girls were glad that the peignoir fits well on their friend.

At the same time, in Nord-Ost, for example, no one expected death - it was assumed that the Russians would surrender, and the belts could be removed.

As you can see from the story of the shahid-loser, many of the brides of Allah did not burn with the desire to explode - such militants were mercilessly rejected. “Girls who are doing well, who study, work, will never do this in their lives,” remarked Zarema Muzhakhoeva, also a failed suicide. However, it's not that the terrorists needed the consent of the live bomb. Sometimes, for the sale of a daughter or sister to relatives, they paid one and a half thousand dollars - large and cruel families could put together a good capital by the standards of impoverished Chechnya.

Suicide activity peaked at the end of 2002 and 2003. One explosion followed another. Shortly after Nord-Ost in Grozny, terrorists attacked a complex of government buildings. One of the suicide bombers this time was a man who, in his fanaticism, went so far as to kidnap his own little daughter by deceit - from a Russian woman, by the way - from Yaroslavl, and killed her and himself. More than seventy people were killed, more than six hundred were injured.

On May 12, two women in cars smashed the administration building of the Nadterechny district in Znamenskoye - almost 60 more corpses. A day later, a new explosion near Grozny - 16 killed.

And in July, Moscow again became the target of suicide bombers.

Two suicide bombers came to the rock festival in Tushino. The first - Zulikhan Elikhadzhieva - managed to kill only herself. The policeman from the guard drew attention to the nervous girl speaking on the phone in an incomprehensible language and tried to pull her aside. Here, the terrorist lost her nerve, and she blew up her bomb. Fortunately, only the detonator exploded, turning the suicide bomber's stomach.

A kilogram of plastids and two kilograms of metal balls and chopped nails, with which belts were usually stuffed, remained dead weight. The dumbfounded policeman turned to the suicide bomber who was dying next to the beer bottle: “What is your last name? Where are you from?" - “Go away,” she answered, “I couldn’t ... Now I won’t get to Allah.” She died a few seconds later.

The second live bomb reached its target. Ten minutes later, she blew herself up at the cash register.

“First, I rushed to the man who was thrown aside by the blast,” said the doctor, who was one of the first to be on the spot. - He called for help. I ran up to him, still, I remember, was delighted: alive, we will save him. And then he saw that the ball had pierced through his cervical artery and the blood was gushing like from a pipe. He lived for a few seconds, we could not do anything.

16 people died or soon died. The authorities and the organizers made, perhaps, the only right decision. Cellular communications were cut off, people outside were sent home. Those who had already gone inside were told nothing about what had happened: panic and a stampede would have killed many more people than two suicide bombers, and they could have started very easily, given that there were thousands of not particularly sober people at the festival. Everyone was let out, but no one was allowed back in, so the celebration continued. The people inside simply had no idea what had happened. 200 buses were assembled on the Volokolamsk Highway to take people to metro stations.

Five days later, a not exactly unique, but rare incident occurred: a suicide bomber fell into the hands of the authorities alive. The security of the cafe on 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya drew attention to the girl holding her hand in her bag. She then approached the institution, not daring to enter, then departed. The guards called the police. Sergeant Mikhail Galtsev, who arrived at the call, asked what was in the bag ... and Zarema told the truth: "Shahid's belt." Further versions diverge: the suicide bomber herself claimed that she had surrendered herself. However, a female police officer who was present at the time says that the suicide bomber tried several times to press the button on the bomb, but for some reason it did not work. The frightened Muzhakhoeva was immediately stuffed into the car, the bag with the bomb was left in place.

The sapper robot could not open the bag, and then a live sapper, FSB Major Georgy Trofimov, an experienced specialist who had been engaged in demining for six years and participated in the deactivation of landmines and belts taken at Dubrovka, went to the suicide belt. As soon as he bent over the bomb, an explosion occurred, killing the explosives engineer on the spot.

It should be noted that Muzhakhoyeva, although she did not want to die, did not cooperate with the investigation very willingly either. She brought FSB agents to the base in the village of Tolstopaltsevo, where the suicide bombers lived before the explosion, only a few days later. The rest of the group had already managed to evacuate, so the security guards got only six equipped shahid belts.

It turned out that the suicide bombers arrived in Moscow separately. The organizers of the attack had already met them on the spot. For future suicide bombers removed private house in the Moscow region, belts were also stored there. From there, the suicides went to Tushino, and Muzhakhoeva went to a cafe. The group consisted of only a few people who had little contact with the outside world. Judging by the abundance of belts, a misfire with a self-explosion of Muzhakhoyeva interrupted the entire conveyor for the transfer of suicide bombers to Moscow.

True, there are other versions about Muzhakhoeva herself. She herself called herself a simple suicide bomber, but in the spring of 2004, the revelations of her cellmate in the pre-trial detention center got into print. Moreover, this cellmate was an informer of the prison administration, and the material itself was clearly processed. Who and why leaked this information is unknown, but according to this version, Muzhakhoyeva commanded a group of suicide bombers. Some details of the story are really atypical for the behavior of a suicide - for example, she was carrying explosives not attached to herself, but in a bag.

Strange for a suicide bomber, but quite logical if she wanted to give someone a bomb. Moreover, the behavior of Muzhakhoyeva in custody clearly testified that in the hands of the special services was not a deceived village fool, but a completely conscious, cruel and dodgy enemy. The unfortunate suicide bomber rejoiced at the news of new terrorist attacks. Note that Zarema's long silence about the whereabouts of the terrorist base fits perfectly into this version. Her friends had already exploded, whom did she have to take out from under the blow - the men who sent her to her death?

And the detective story itself, which Muzhakhoyeva told about herself, does not really fit with the image of the deceived unfortunate woman. She actively moved around Moscow, and not just drove from the bed to the site of the explosion. In short, there are too many unusual details in Zarema's stories to calmly take them on faith. Given all these points, it is easy to understand the jury, who unanimously found her guilty and not deserving of leniency.

Zarema Muzhakhoeva was sentenced to twenty years in prison. After the verdict was announced, she yelled “I will get out of prison and blow you all up!” In 2009, the court denied her request for clemency.

The terrorist attacks in Moscow presented the country with a grim fact: Russian law enforcement agencies are unable to ensure the safety of citizens. The absence or extreme weakness of agents among the militants, the inability to adequately resist the underground even in their own capital - three years have passed since the terrorist attacks of 1999, but the special services turned out to be just as helpless in the face of a series of terrorist attacks. Attempts to introduce someone to the militants in the early 2000s usually ended badly. Moreover, the terrorists could encourage ostensible recruitment by actually supplying the FSB with disinformation and getting agents protected from searches and searches at checkpoints.

Suicide attacks continued without interruption throughout 2003. Terrorists rammed a hospital in Mozdok, exploded at public transport stops, blew up electric trains... In 2004, they were to have an even more impressive benefit performance.

Game of succession

As the intensity of the shooting decreased, the number of independent loyalist groups grew in Chechnya. They influenced politics varying degrees. One of the most combat-ready and, at the same time, the most apolitical formations was the battalion "West" of Said-Magomed Kakiev. Kakiev's detachment was formed and operated under the patronage of the GRU. This detachment, which basically did not take former militants, showed excellent fighting qualities, and its commander never gave reason to doubt his loyalty.

The phrase “I swear by Allah, I am ready to die for Russia” in the mouth of this man sounded very serious. However, Kakiev was an officer - first, second and third. He had no taste for politics. The machine gun in his hands and the enemy in the line of fire attracted him much more than any chair, so after a bright debut, he quickly left the stage. It is characteristic that in modern Chechnya he received an honorary position, but not associated with any real power.

It is interesting, by the way, that Kakiev fiercely criticized the very idea of ​​mass amnesties for former militants:

Amnesty personally raises a lot of questions for me. How can we unconditionally forgive those who fought against us? They all say that they are innocent, they are not Wahhabis, they did not kill spiritual leaders and so on. And what to do with the souls of 18-year-old conscript boys whom they executed? Therefore, I do not understand such an amnesty. Yes, it is necessary to forgive those who got into the gang by accident, by mistake, who were lured or intimidated under the threat of death. And amnesty for those who fought so much is a time bomb.

Look, people are fighting against the country, so many soldiers have died during this time, and they do not bear any responsibility at all! I will never get over it. We are mortal - and how will we look into the eyes of eighteen-year-old boys there? Blood cannot be forgiven. Whoever killed people must answer. In any war, the attitude towards prisoners must be humane, and what these animals did is beyond description. These bandits have lost their dignity. It turns out that only Basayev commits terrorist attacks, and the rest are not to blame for anything.

The history of the Chechen riot police under the command of Musa Gazimagomadov and Buvadi Dakhiev developed somewhat differently. The commander of this detachment had a blood account for the militants, like many of his subordinates, so the OMON fought not for fear, but for conscience. However, the loyalty of the riot police and the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs in general to the president was in question. Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Tsakayev was appointed from Moscow in early 2003.

Kadyrov resisted this appointment, and later his relationship with Tsakaev did not work out. Tsakaev started a reform of the Chechen police, squeezing out former militants from there. Kadyrov, on the contrary, insisted on the most active involvement of those who left the forest to serve in the police. Regular amnesties led to the fact that many hundreds of former ordinary and minor commanders of the Mujahideen found themselves in a legal position. Most of them no longer wanted and could not completely let go of the machine gun, and many were simply spying for the underground.

Be that as it may, Kadyrov wanted to use them to build new power structures of the republic, and this idea did not cause the slightest enthusiasm among the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In April 2003, Tsakaev "of his own free will" resigned. Shortly before that, Musa Gazimagomadov got into a strange car accident: his car was rammed by a Kamaz at full speed, which drove into the oncoming lane. Gazimagomadov was urgently taken to the Burdenko hospital, but it was not possible to save the commander of the riot police, he died from severe injuries. Tsakaev wrote a letter of resignation shortly after this accident and literally a few hours before Gazimagomadov's death.

Although the new OMON commander was Kadyrov's man, the fighters and officers could not establish relations with him for a long time. The troublemaker was Buvadi Dakhiev, the second well-known leader of the Chechen riot police and also a perfect loyalist who had never fought against the Russians. OMON and the Kadyrov clan looked at each other like a wolf until 2006, and then Dakhiev was killed in a ridiculous shootout on the Ingush border under the most foggy circumstances.

Finally, the most famous independent formation of loyal Chechens, not associated with the Kadyrov clan, was the Vostok detachment of the Yamadayev brothers. The Yamadayevs had political ambitions and business interests in Chechnya. Ruslan, one of the brothers, joined the local United Russia party and since 2003 has been a member of the Duma. Sulim became the deputy military commandant of Chechnya and entered the military academy. Frunze. The Vostokovites also acted effectively and harshly, and worked as a counterbalance to the influence of the Kadyrovs in the republic. However, until the two clans clashed openly.

Kadyrov himself initially relied on his own security service, which soon grew to the size of a private army. His units within the Ministry of Internal Affairs gradually increased and multiplied - the PPS regiments, the "oil" regiment, the Anti-Terrorist Center (later, the North and South battalions were formed from its fighters). Kadyrov at first recruited fellow villagers and relatives into his units, and soon switched to former militants.

In 2002-2003, the first signs of the future unlimited power of the Kadyrov clan became visible. Relying on the amnestied militants loyal to him personally (for some time they were even going to involve Gelaev!) Senior Kadyrov systematically fought with other leaders of Chechnya and eliminated potential competitors.

The easiest way was to remove Bislan Gantamirov (the commander of the "Gantamirov" detachment who fought on the side of the Russians). He was listed as the Minister of Press and Information of the republic, and in the summer of 2003, during the presidential election campaign in Chechnya, he announced a break with Kadyrov. Gantamirov immediately lost all his posts. It is difficult to understand what the essence of this demarche was, but Kadyrov coped with the first serious opponent very easily.

Ahmad Haji continued to strengthen his power. In the spring of 2003, a referendum was held in Chechnya on a constitution and on parliamentary and presidential elections. The elections themselves took place in the fall. Notable figures included the well-known politician Aslambek Aslakhanov and businessman Malik Saidullayev. Gantamirov and Khasbulatov, characteristically, decided not to participate in the elections. Already during the campaign, Saidullayev was removed from the race by the election commission, and Aslakhanov himself refused to participate, saying that he could not conduct a normal election campaign. Kadyrov had no competitors left, and he won with a crushing result of 80% of the vote.

It was not necessary to falsify the results - all possible and impossible pressure was exerted on the candidates even before the vote. In addition, the Chechens were hardly going to go out into the squares with ironic posters about the stolen elections. By this time, the Republic was inhabited by exhausted and demoralized people.

The militants are only a few thousand people, a statistically insignificant force, even together with accomplices. If at the end of the 90s quite a few Chechens believed that the Mujahideen were protecting them from the authorities, now the forest brother descending from the mountains was rather frightening. The separatists could live only at the expense of the population, which they, in fact, considered as a resource, and harboring meant a quick cleansing with the dead or missing. Moreover, the federal authorities and the Kadyrovites gave a illusory hope for a normal life, which no one had seen for ten years, and among the militants, administrators and infrastructure builders were clear which ones.

The population plunged into deep apathy. The average Chechen automatically turned into an empty place next to any soldier, policeman or militant. They were ready to vote for anyone, as long as they promised a minimum of security and some kind of income in exchange.

In this sense, Kadyrov did not indulge his voters. The money allocated for the restoration of the republic was traditionally plundered, the terms for the restoration of destroyed objects were constantly frustrated. But gradually Chechnya was restored, however, in a peculiar order - starting with administrative buildings and oil pipelines. Unemployment remained huge. Nevertheless, the refugees were gradually returned to the republic, and even the slow movement towards normality looked better than the complete absence of work, infrastructure and prospects under the radicals.

Kadyrov Sr. won a landslide victory. However, he was no longer able to enjoy its fruits.

On May 9, 2004, a loud and rather mysterious event took place in Grozny. attended the celebrations on the occasion of Victory Day at the Grozny stadium. The renovation has just been completed. Neither Kadyrov himself, nor those present could know that a powerful landmine from the already traditional 152-mm howitzer projectile was mounted in the concrete structures of the tribune. The bomb exploded right under Kadyrov, killing several people and the Chechen president himself.

The main intrigue of the terrorist attack: Kadyrov was not necessarily blown up by militants. Although Basayev soon assumed responsibility, few people believed him. What's more, even the Russian authorities, who usually took great pleasure in dumping everything possible and impossible on dead terrorists, showed unexpected restraint. Both the press and officials cautiously reported that the version of the involvement of the underground was not the main one, and they mentioned a certain “mole” in their own ranks. Finally, Ramzan Kadyrov said in an interview that Basayev and Maskhadov had nothing to do with it: “There are other forces. We know them."

It should be noted that Kadyrov was not originally going to sit on this podium, and they might not have been aiming at him at all. Another high-ranking Chechen died with him, and the commander of the grouping of troops in Chechnya, Valery Baranov, was seriously wounded. However, it is more likely that the killers really got their target.

Who could wish Kadyrov death, except for militants? We talked about the struggle for Chechen oil between the president and other centers of power. At the beginning of the war, oil in the republic was extracted in an artisanal way, but then more serious players inevitably got the local deposits. Kadyrov Sr. intended to take an active part in the division of the pie.

Back in 2000, he began to raise the issue of Chechen authorities' control over the local oil industry. After the intensity of hostilities began to decline, the military, various groups of loyalist Chechens, and, of course, Russian oil corporations joined the struggle for control over black gold. In particular, the well-known giant Rosneft came to Chechnya.

The price of the issue was very high: by 2007, the republic produced one and a half billion dollars of oil annually, and in 2004 everyone already understood that the future of the local oil industry was decent. Among the candidates for profitable "feeding" were called the most different people who are ready, if necessary, to ensure their interests by force - for example, the former field commander Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev, the influential clan of the Magomadov brothers and many others. Oil affairs, however, remain only one of the hypothetical reasons for the murder. The elder Kadyrov could also be killed by political differences.

For example, in 2009 he said that the Yamadayev brothers, who had long disputed the Kadyrov clan's monopoly on leadership, were involved in the terrorist attack. It is clear that Kadyrov could blame his main competitors for anything, even the sinking of the Titanic, but they really had a motive. Opportunities were worse.

Be that as it may, the investigation of this case dragged on until 2007 and ended in nothing: not a single suspect remained, no one was detained. In 2009, at the initiative of Ramzan (!) the investigation was resumed, but stopped on the same day by decision of the leadership of the Investigative Committee. Apparently, the death of Akhmat Kadyrov is destined to forever remain one of the many dirty and bloody mysteries of the war in Chechnya.

Then the second son of Akhmat Kadyrov first appeared on the stage. His conversation with Vladimir Putin, shown on TV, was remembered by many as a sympathetic, almost intimate intonation of communication, and Ramzan's tracksuit. Thus, a new star appeared on the horizon of Chechen politics.

It could be expected that the death of Kadyrov would shake the positions of the loyalists. This, however, did not happen. The transfer of power took place quite calmly. Ramzan had not yet entered the age when he could legally claim his father's chair: he was only 28 years old, and it was allowed to become president of Chechnya from 30.

In addition, he needed to tinker a bit at the heights of local politics. Until now, the younger Kadyrov served as an assistant to the minister of internal affairs of the republic and a member of the state council, after the death of his father he became an adviser to the plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation, and later - and. about. chairman of the government. While the dauphin in sweatpants was coming of age, the regent in Chechnya was Alu Alkhanov, an experienced apparatchik.

Interestingly, a few months after the death of Akhmat Kadyrov, his eldest son Zelimkhan died. It is difficult to call Zelimkhan Kadyrov an independent politician. This is more of a hedonist and a playboy than a statesman and a military leader. In Kadyrov's militia, Zelimkhan, we note, had a very modest title of company foreman for his origin. He had a reputation, but a very bad one. In 1997, during a quarrel, he shot a man, and in the 2000s he took part in a shooting incident in Kislovodsk. Then two groups of Russians dissatisfied with each other began to shoot at the hotel with Stechkin pistols.

Moreover, among the people whom Zelimkhan unsuccessfully shot at, FAPSI ensign Vladimir Shevelev was discovered. The arriving Kislovodsk police managed to disarm the cowboys, and, according to some unconfirmed reports, drugs were found in the shooters' hotel room. As the press reported, the incident itself occurred due to Zelimkhan's attempt to commit violence against a woman and the intentions of the ensign and his comrade to stop the dissolute young man. The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya announced on this occasion that a "political provocation" had been organized against Zelimkhan Kadyrov.

Such was the man who died shortly after the death of his powerful father. There is hardly anything wrong with his death. Heartbroken sons die of heart attacks. Seniority in Chechen society in our times does not mean as much as before, and Zelimkhan had no taste for politics, and even more so did not fit the role of the puppet heir of Akhmat-Khadzhi. In addition, his antics did not compromise the entire Kadyrov clan at all. None of the worthy relatives of the deceased could wish for his death.

Before they are hung. The death of Yandarbiev

Explosions and political assassinations are a spectacular way of fighting, but two people can play this game. In February 2004, the Russians carried out a daring successful operation far beyond the borders of their own country.

After Friday prayers, Zelimkhan Yandarbiev was returning to his home in Doha, the capital of Qatar. A bomb had already been attached to his car. As soon as the car drove away from the mosque, an explosion occurred under the bottom. The minor son of Yandarbiev received burns, but survived, two guards died on the spot, and Yandarbiev himself, without regaining consciousness, died in the hospital an hour later.

Yandarbiev remained in the shadow of brutal fans of brandishing weapons at the camera during the war, but his real role was much more significant than that of most field commanders. He built bridges between militants in Chechnya and their patrons abroad. As an ideologist, this man did a lot to include Chechnya in the world jihadist movement.

In Qatar, he, as he himself claimed, lived as an honorary guest of the emir. Whether this is true, or Yandarbiev was simply inflating his own worth is unknown, but he definitely represented Ichkeria in foreign relations with the countries of the Muslim East, including on monetary issues, until his death. Apparently, he also did not give up planning terrorist attacks: for some reason, it was Movsar Barayev who spoke to him from the captured recreation center on Dubrovka.

Russia's attempts to extradite Yandarbiev through diplomacy failed, and Moscow decided to play big. The game went well. Ichkeria has lost an experienced diplomat. The militants in the east did not have more figures of this magnitude.

The bright success of the operation was somewhat spoiled by further events - three days later, Qatari special services arrested three Russians in a villa rented by diplomats. One enjoyed diplomatic immunity and nothing could be done about him, but the other two were put on trial. The agents did not deny involvement in the special services, but they had already done the job.

The bomb was sent to Qatar from Moscow in a bag of diplomatic mail, and for the liquidation, the military used a rented van, renting which they lit up on video cameras. On June 30, a Qatar court found them guilty of the murder of Yandarbiev and sentenced them to life imprisonment, but the crisis was soon settled through diplomatic channels. Already on December 23, both officers were descending to the runway of the Moscow airport along the carpet.

In 1999, the second Chechen war began, the experience and mistakes of the first war were taken into account and most of them were avoided. Russian troops quickly defeated a 10,000-strong group of militants armed to the teeth, then a guerrilla war awaited ...

Attack on Dagestan

August 1 - armed groups from the villages of Echeda, Gakko, Gigatl and Agvali of the Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan, as well as the Chechens supporting them, announced that Sharia rule was being introduced in the area, it was with the invasion of militants in Dagestan that the second Chechen.
August 2 - in the area of ​​​​the village of Echeda in the high-mountainous Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan, a clash occurred between policemen and Wahhabis. Deputy Interior Minister of Dagestan Magomed Omarov flew to the scene. As a result of the incident, 1 riot policeman and several Wahhabis were killed. According to the local police department, the incident was provoked by Chechnya.
August 3 - as a result of skirmishes in the Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan with Islamic extremists who broke through from Chechnya, two more employees of the Dagestan police and one serviceman of the Russian internal troops were killed. Thus, the losses of the Dagestan police reached four people killed, in addition, two policemen were injured and three more were missing. Meanwhile, one of the leaders of the Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan, Shamil Basayev, announced the creation of an Islamic Shura, which has its own armed units in Dagestan, which established control over several settlements in the Tsumadinsky district. The Dagestan leadership is asking the federal authorities for weapons for self-defense units that are planned to be created on the border of Chechnya and Dagestan. This decision was taken by the State Council People's Assembly and the Government of the Republic. The attacks of militants were qualified by the official authorities of Dagestan as: “an open armed aggression of extremist forces against the Republic of Dagestan, an open encroachment on the territorial integrity and foundations of its constitutional order, the life and safety of residents.”
August 4 - up to 500 militants thrown back from the regional center of Agvali dug in at previously prepared positions in one of the mountain villages, but they do not put forward any demands and do not enter into negotiations. Presumably, they have three employees of the Tsumadinsky regional department of internal affairs, who disappeared on August 3. The power ministers and ministries of Chechnya have been transferred to a round-the-clock mode of operation. This was done in accordance with the decree of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. True, the Chechen authorities deny the connection of these measures with the hostilities in Dagestan. At 12.10 Moscow time, on one of the roads in the Botlikh district of Dagestan, five armed men opened fire on police officers who tried to stop a Niva car for inspection. In the shootout, two bandits were killed and a car was damaged. There were no casualties among the security forces. Two Russian attack aircraft delivered a powerful missile and bomb attack on the village of Kenkhi, where a large detachment of militants was prepared to be sent to Dagestan. The regrouping of the forces of the internal troops of the Operational Group in the North Caucasus began to block the border with Chechnya. In Tsumadinsky and Botlikhsky districts of Dagestan, it is planned to deploy additional units of internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Federal forces in Grozny

August 5 - in the morning, the redeployment of units of the 102nd brigade of internal troops began in the Tsumadinsky district in accordance with the plan for blocking the administrative Dagestan-Chechen border. This decision was made by Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov, commander of the internal troops, during a trip to the places of recent hostilities. Meanwhile, sources in the Russian special services said that a rebellion was being prepared in Dagestan. According to the plan, a group of 600 militants was transferred to Dagestan through the village of Kenkhi. According to the same plan, the city of Makhachkala was divided into areas of responsibility of field commanders, and hostage-taking was to be carried out in the most crowded places, after which the official authorities of Dagestan were to be asked to resign. However, the official authorities of Makhachkala refute this information.
August 7-September 14 - from the territory of the CRI, 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 CRI, 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 actions against him.
August 9-25 - Battle for the height of the Donkey Ear - battles between the Wahhabis and the Novorossiysk and Stavropol paratroopers of the federal forces for control of the strategic height of the Donkey Ear (coordinates: 42 ° 39'59 "N 46 ° 8'0" E).
August 12 - Deputy Interior Minister I. Zubov said that a letter was sent to CRI President Maskhadov with a proposal to conduct a joint operation with federal troops against Islamists in Dagestan.
August 13 - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that "strike will be delivered against bases and concentrations of militants, regardless of their location, including on the territory of Chechnya."
August 16 - CRI President Aslan Maskhadov introduced martial law in Chechnya for a period of 30 days, announced a partial mobilization of reservists and participants in the First Chechen War.

Air bombardments of Chechnya

August 25 - Russian aviation strikes militant bases in the Vedeno Gorge of Chechnya and destroys about a hundred militants. In response to an official protest from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the command of the federal forces declares that it "reserves the right to strike at militant bases on the territory of any North Caucasian region, including Chechnya."
September 6-18 - Russian aviation inflicts numerous missile and bomb strikes on military camps and fortifications of militants in Chechnya.
September 11 - Maskhadov announced in Chechnya general mobilization, second Chechen war flared up with renewed vigor.
September 14 - Putin announced that "the Khasavyurt agreements should be subjected to an impartial analysis," as well as "temporarily impose a strict quarantine" 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 aviation began bombing the capital of Chechnya and its environs. As a result, several electrical substations, a number of oil and gas plants, the Grozny mobile communications center, a television and radio broadcasting center, and an An-2 aircraft were destroyed. Press service Russian Air Force stated that "aircraft will continue to strike targets that gangs can use to their advantage."
September 27 — Chairman of the Government of Russia V. Putin categorically rejected the possibility of a meeting between the Presidents of Russia and CRI. "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 entered the territory of Chechnya several times, already two weeks ago they occupied the dominant heights, liberated them, and so on." As Putin said, “We need to be patient and do this job - to 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, tank units Russian army from the Stavropol Territory and Dagestan entered the territory of the Naursky and Shelkovsky regions of Chechnya.
October 1 - The fall of the Mi-8MT of the 85th separate helicopter squadron in the Terekli-Mekteb region (Dagestan) as a result of combat damage after fire from the ground. The helicopter was destroyed, the crew survived.

Shamil Basaev

October 3 - Su-25 of the 368th assault aviation regiment was shot down by MANPADS in the Tolstoy-Yurt area during a reconnaissance sortie. The pilot is dead.
October 4 - at a meeting of the military council of the CRI, it was decided to form three directions to repel the blows of federal forces. The western direction was headed by Ruslan Gelaev, the eastern direction by Shamil Basaev, and the central direction by Magomed Khambiev.
October 7 - during the bombardment of the village of Elistanzhi, more than 30 civilians, including women and children, were killed, dozens were injured.
October 8 - mass murder in the village of Mekenskaya: 43-year-old militant Akhmed Ibragimov, who was a local resident, shot 34 Russian residents of the village, including 3 children, as well as 1 Meskhetian Turk. The reason for the murder was the refusal of one of the residents to dig trenches. 2 days after the massacre, local elders handed over Ibragimov to the relatives of the victims. At the stanitsa gathering, Ibragimov was beaten to death with sticks and crowbars. The local mullah forbade the murderer to be buried.
October 15 - the troops of the Western group of General Vladimir Shamanov entered Chechnya from Ingushetia.
October 16 - Federal forces occupied a third of the territory of Chechnya north of the Terek River and began the implementation of the second stage of the anti-terrorist operation, the main goal of which is the destruction of gangs in the remaining territory of Chechnya.
October 18 - Russian troops crossed the Terek.
October 29-November 10 - Battles for Gudermes: the field commanders, the Yamadayev brothers and the Mufti of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, surrendered Gudermes to the federal forces.
November 5 - The fall of the Mi-24 of the 85th separate helicopter squadron as a result of combat damage after fire from the ground. The helicopter was destroyed, the crew survived.
November 12 - a bus was blown up, following the route "Ulyanovsk - Dimitrovgrad - Samara". Four passengers were injured.
November 16 - Federal forces took control of the village of Novy Shatoy.
November 17 - near Vedeno, militants destroyed the reconnaissance group of the 91st battalion of the 31st separate air assault brigade (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 shot."
November 25 - CRI President Maskhadov turned to Russian soldiers fighting in the North Caucasus with a proposal to surrender and go over to the side of the militants.
December 1 - The fall of the Mi-24 of the 440th separate helicopter regiment in the Mozdok region as a result of combat damage after fire from the ground. The helicopter was destroyed, the crew survived.
December 4-7 - 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 occupied Urus-Martan.
December 13 - Mi-8 and Mi-24P (the last - the 440th separate helicopter regiment) were lost during the operation to rescue the pilot of the crashed Su-25, the Mi-24 was lost as a result of fire from the ground. 6 people from the crews of both helicopters were killed. On the same day, a Su-25 of the 368th assault aviation regiment crashed in the Bachi-Yurt area for technical reasons (according to other sources, MANPADS were shot down). The pilot ejected and was rescued.
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 23 - an explosion in the building of the district court in St. Petersburg. 3 people were injured.
December 26, 1999 - February 6, 2000 - the siege of Grozny.

January 5 - Federal forces took control of the regional center of Nozhai-Yurt.
January 9 - a breakthrough of militants in Shali and Argun. The control of the 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 24 - The fall of the Mi-8MT of the 487th separate helicopter regiment in the Vedeno area as a result of combat damage after fire from the ground. The helicopter was destroyed, the crew survived.
January 27 - Field commander Isa Astamirov, deputy commander of the southwestern militant front, was killed during the battles for Grozny.
January 30 - Forced landing of the Mi-24 of the 487th separate helicopter regiment 7 km east of Botlikh, (Dagestan) without fire impact, with the destruction of the helicopter. The crew survived.
January 31 - Mi-24P of the 85th separate helicopter squadron was shot down in the Khanchanoy area. Both crew members were killed.
February 1 - during the battles for Grozny, field commanders Khunkar Pasha Israpilov and Aslanbe Ismailov were killed. February 4-7 - Russian aircraft bombed the village of Katyr-Yurt. As a result, according to the human rights center "Memorial", about 200 people died in the village.
February 5 - Massacre in Novye Aldy.
February 7 - The fall of the Mi-24 of the 55th separate helicopter regiment near the Gizel airfield as a result of combat damage after fire from the ground. The helicopter was destroyed, the crew was injured, hospitalized.

Soldiers of the second Chechen

February 9 - Federal troops blocked an important militant resistance center - the village of Serzhen-Yurt, and in the Argun Gorge, so famous since the time of the Caucasian War, 380 military personnel landed and occupied one of the dominant heights. Federal troops blockaded more than three thousand militants in the Argun Gorge, and then methodically treated them with volumetric detonating ammunition.
February 10 - Federal forces took control of the regional center of Itum-Kale and the village of Serzhen-Yurt.
February 21 - 33 Russian servicemen were killed in the battle near Kharsenoy, including 25 intelligence officers from the Pskov brigade of the GRU special forces.
February 22-29 - Battle of Shatoi: federal troops took Shatoi. Maskhadov, Khattab and Basayev left the encirclement again. Colonel-General Gennady Troshev, First Deputy Commander of the United Group of Federal Forces, announced the end of a full-scale military operation in Chechnya.
February 28-March 2 - Fight at height 776 - a breakthrough of militants (Khattab) through Ulus-Kert. The death of paratroopers of the 6th parachute company of the 104th regiment.
March 2 - the death of the Sergiev Posad riot police as a result of "friendly fire".
Mi-8 crash of the 325th Separate Transport and Combat Helicopter Regiment in the area of ​​the Shatoy settlement as a result of a loss of main rotor speed on takeoff followed by a hard landing. The cockpit was repulsed by the blade.
March 5-20 - Battle for the village of Komsomolskoye.
March 12 - in the village of Novogroznensky, the terrorist Salman Raduev was captured by the FSB and brought to Moscow, later sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison.
March 19 - in the area of ​​​​the village of Duba-Yurt, FSB officers detained a Chechen field commander Salaudin Temirbulatov, nicknamed Tractor Driver, who was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
March 20 - On the eve of the presidential elections, Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Chechnya. He arrived in Grozny on a Su-27UB fighter piloted by the chief Lipetsk Aviation Center Alexander Kharchevsky.
March 29 - the death of the Perm OMON near the village of Dzhani-Vedeno. More than 40 people died.
April 20 - Colonel-General Valery Manilov, First Deputy Chief of the General Staff, announced the end of the military unit of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya and the transition to special operations.
April 23 - attack on the column of the 51st parachute regiment of the Tula division of the Airborne Forces and the VP of the 66th regiment operational purpose VV near the village of Serzhen-Yurt. Losses of Russian servicemen: 16 killed, 7 wounded (1 on VOP VV); 7 vehicles.
May 7 - Su-24MR was shot down by MANPADS in the Benoy-Vedeno area. Both pilots were killed.
May 11 - As a result of an attack on a convoy of internal troops in the territory of Ingushetia, 19 Russian servicemen were killed.
May 21 - in the city of Shali, special services detained (in their own house) one of Aslan Maskhadov's close associates - field commander Ruslan Alikhadzhiev.
May 23 - in the area of ​​​​the village of Serzhen-Yurt in the Argun Gorge, Abusupyan Movsaev was killed by the GRU special forces.
May 31 - an explosion in Volgograd on Zhukov Avenue. A detachment of military personnel went to breakfast. The explosive was fixed on a tree at a height of 1.3 m. Two kilograms of TNT and pieces of thick wire were used as a filling. The bomb went off on a signal from the remote remote control at five minutes past seven. 1 person died, 15 injured.
June 7 - in the village of Alkhan-Yurt (Chechnya), two suicide bombers blew up a truck loaded with explosives near the police building. One of the suicide bombers was a relative of Movsar Baraev, who later seized the building of the theater center on Dubrovka (Moscow) in 2002. 2 militiamen were killed, 5 were wounded.
June 11 - By decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Akhmat Kadyrov is appointed head of the administration of Chechnya.
June 12 - Mi-8MT crashed after takeoff near Khankala. 4 people died.
July 2 - More than 30 policemen and military personnel of the federal forces were killed as a result of a series of terrorist attacks using truck bombs. The greatest losses were suffered by the employees of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Chelyabinsk region in Argun.
July 9 - an explosion in the city market of Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia). The power of the explosive device was 150-200 grams of TNT. As a result of the attack, 6 people were killed and 18 injured.
July 25 - Akhmad Kadyrov's decree on the prohibition of Wahhabism.
August 4 - in the Sharoi region of Chechnya, a detachment of Arab Mujahideen was destroyed, 21 militants were killed, and the commander of the detachment, Abdusalyam Zurka, was seriously wounded and captured. Judging by the documents of those killed, there were Yemenis, Moroccans, and representatives of other Arab countries in the Mujahideen detachment.
August 6 - Mi-8 was damaged by fire from the ground in the Arshty region and made an emergency landing, presumably burned down. 1 person died.
August 8 - an explosion in an underground passage under Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow: 13 people were killed, 132 were injured.
October 1 - The united group of Russian troops in Chechnya reported for propaganda purposes that field commander Isa Munaev was killed during a military clash in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny.
October 6 - at 16:03-16:05 four explosions simultaneously thundered in Pyatigorsk and Nevinnomyssk. The first explosion occurred at a bus stop on Gagarin Street near the administration of Nevinnomyssk, the second - the Cossack market of Nevinnomyssk, the third and fourth explosions occurred on the platform of the railway station in Pyatigorsk. As a result of the attacks, 4 people were killed and 20 injured.
October 10 - Field commander Baudi Bakuev was killed during a special operation in the vicinity of the village of Sharo-Argun in the Shatoi region.
October 29 - A fixed-route taxi was blown up at the final stop in Budyonnovsk. The driver got hurt.
November 11 - the capture of a Russian Tu-154 aircraft by a Chechen terrorist during a flight along the route Makhachkala - Moscow. Threatening to set off an explosive device, he demanded to fly to Israel. After landing at the Israeli military base of Ovda, the terrorist surrendered to the authorities.
December 8 - in the city of Pyatigorsk (Stavropol Territory) in the area of ​​​​the Upper Market, two cars were simultaneously blown up. As a result of the attacks, 4 people were killed and 45 injured. On July 12, 2002, the Stavropol Regional Court found Arasul Khubiev guilty of committing a terrorist attack and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
December 19 - an attempt was made to blow up the building of the commandant's office of the Leninsky district (Grozny, Chechnya). The truck "Ural" with explosives tried to break through to the building, but was stopped by the guards. Two criminals escaped, 17-year-old Mareta Dudueva, who was in the truck, was wounded.

January 15 - on the stretch "Usorskoe - Mozdok" (North Ossetia) there was an explosion under the locomotive of a freight train. The back of the locomotive and the first carriage caught fire. The driver, without slowing down, brought the train to Mozdok, where the fire was extinguished. There were no casualties, the locomotive and the first two cars were damaged. The terrorists attached a bomb to an electric locomotive at one of the stations along the route, where the train stopped for several minutes.
January 23 - Vladimir Putin decided to reduce and partially withdraw troops from Chechnya, naively thinking that the second Chechen war was coming to an end
January 29 - five wagons of a freight train derailed as a result of an explosion under the train at the 2170th kilometer of the Gudermes - Kadi-Yurt section. No harm done. A funnel with a diameter of two meters and a depth of 60 centimeters was formed at the site of the emergency, nine sleepers and about two meters of rails were destroyed.
February 5 - in Moscow at 18:50 an explosion occurred at the Belorusskaya-Koltsevaya metro station. An explosive device was planted on the platform next to the first car of the train under a heavy marble bench. The explosion knocked out powerful plafonds at the station, lining crumbled from the ceiling. The explosion injured 20 people, including two children, there were no deaths. There are currently no suspects or defendants in the case.
March 11 - at the 2186th kilometer of the North Caucasian railway A cargo train was blown up on the Gudermes-Khasavyurt route. A third of the wagons went off the rails, and the railway tracks were destroyed.

An infantryman on a tank, the second Chechen war

March 15-16 - Three Chechen terrorists seized 174 hostages in Istanbul (Turkey) aboard a Vnukovo Airlines Tu-154 aircraft flying to Moscow. The liner landed in Saudi Arabia, where the hostages were released as a result of the assault. The stewardess and one terrorist were killed during the assault, two were detained and sentenced to 6 and 4 years in prison.
March 24 - terrorist attack in Mineralnye Vody.
April 19 - a bomb explosion in the market in Astrakhan. 8 people died, 41 injured. On suspicion of involvement, law enforcement authorities detained four people - Magomed Isakov, Khadir Khaniev, Maxim Ibragimov and Alexander Shturbe. However, the evidence collected by the prosecutor's office seemed unconvincing to the jury and all four were acquitted. The prosecutor's office protested the acquittal, and the decision of the Supreme Court overturned it.
May 10 - Terrorist Abu Jafar, one of the organizers of the ambush on the rear column of the 51st Tula parachute regiment in 2000, died in a minefield near Grozny.
June 14 - Two Su-25s of the 461st Attack Aviation Regiment collided with a mountain during a takeoff in bad weather near Shatoi. Both pilots were killed.
June 23-24 - in the village of Alkhan-Kala, a special combined detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB conducted a special operation to eliminate a detachment of militants of field commander Arbi Baraev. 16 militants were killed, including Barayev himself.
June 25-26 - militants attack Khankala.
July 11 - in the village of Mayrtup, Shali district of Chechnya, Khattab's assistant Abu Umar was killed during a special operation by the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
July 19 - Mi-8 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs crashed in the Engenoy region. 9 people died, 5 more were injured.
July 31 - in the Nevinnomyssk region (Stavropol Territory), a Chechen Sultan-Said Idiev seized a bus with 40 people in it. The terrorist was armed with a grenade and a machine gun, he demanded the release of prisoners who hijacked a plane in Makhachkala in 1994. During the assault, the terrorist was destroyed. One hostage was wounded in the explosion of a stun grenade used by the special forces.
August 14 - Mi-8 of the Federal Border Service crashed while landing in the Tuskhara area. 3 people died.
August 15 - Mi-24V of the 487th separate helicopter regiment was shot down by fire from the ground in the Tsa-Vedeno area. Both crew members were killed.
August 19 - in Astrakhan, at the largest Astrakhan market, "Kirovsky" thundered at about 16.20 powerful explosion, as a result of which 8 people were killed and about 60 were injured of varying severity.
August 25 - in the city of Argun, during a special operation by the FSB, field commander Movsan Suleimenov, the nephew of Arbi Barayev, was killed.
September 2 - on the border of Chechnya and Dagestan, near the village of Khindoy, an Mi-8 helicopter (Ministry of Defense) crashed as a result of a malfunction while performing a transport flight. 4 people died, 2 were injured.
September 4 - at about 6 o'clock in the morning, a powerful explosion completely disabled one of the branches of the North Caucasian railway within the boundaries of Makhachkala. Two anti-tank artillery shells were detonated using a timer, forming funnels 1 m deep and 1.5 m in diameter.
September 17 - a Mi-8 helicopter with a commission of the General Staff on board was shot down in Grozny (2 generals and 8 officers were killed).
September 17-18 - an attack by militants 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.
November 2 - in the Naursky district of Chechnya, a terrorist attack was committed on the Terek-Naurskaya railway line. When following the road of a freight train, an explosive device went off under it. The explosion was of low power, and the train did not derail.
November 3 - during a special operation, the influential field commander Shamil Iriskhanov, who was part of Basayev's inner circle, was killed.
November 10 - Terrorist act in Vladikavkaz. An explosion at the Falloy market in Vladikavkaz killed 5 people and injured 66. The investigation recognized the Chechen field commander Abu-Malik as the customer of the attack, and Ruslan Chakhkiev, Akhmet Tsurov and Movsar Temirbaev were the perpetrators. A.Tsurov died soon after his arrest in the fall of 2002 in a pre-trial detention center. On July 11, 2003, R. Chakhkiev was sentenced to 24 years in prison, M. Temirbaev - to 18 years.
November 29 - a female suicide bomber (the widow of a deceased militant) blew herself up in the central square of Urus-Martan (Chechnya), when the commandant of the area, Major General Geidar Gadzhiev, was there. Hajiyev died, three guards were wounded.
December 1 - Mi-26T of the 325th separate transport and combat helicopter regiment of the North Caucasus Military District. During the flight "Khankala - Mozdok - Yegorlykskaya" engines failed; The helicopter made an emergency landing in the village of Stoderevskaya. 2 people died and 16 were injured.
December 15 - in Argun, during a special operation, federal forces killed 20 militants.

January 13 - A car and an armored car with OMON officers were blown up in Dagestan. In the Sovetsky district of Makhachkala, while passing a UAZ vehicle and an armored personnel carrier with OMON officers, an unidentified explosive device went off, stuffed with nails and scraps of metal plates. The power of the explosion was equivalent to 200 grams of TNT. As a result of the incident, no one was injured.
January 18 - An explosion on Ozernaya Street in Makhachkala. A truck with military personnel was blown up. The explosive device was planted in the snow at the curb. 8 soldiers of the 102nd brigade of the Internal Troops were killed, 10 people were injured, second Chechen was very cruel.
January 27 - Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in the Shelkovsky district of Chechnya. Among the dead were Lieutenant-General Mikhail Rudchenko, Deputy Interior Minister of the Russian Federation, and Major-General Nikolai Goridov, Commander of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chechnya.
January 28 - Mi-8 is hit by automatic weapons fire in the Dyshne-Vedeno area. He crash-landed and burned out. Three wounded.
February 3 - Mi-24P of the Federal Border Service disappeared in bad weather in the mountainous regions of Chechnya. All 3 crew members are considered dead, although the militants announced their capture.
February 7 - Mi-8 of the 4th Air Force and Air Defense Army of the Air Force crashed after takeoff in Khankala. 7 people were killed, 3 more were injured.
March 20 - as a result of a special operation by the FSB, the terrorist Khattab was killed by poisoning.
April 14 - MTL-B was blown up in Vedeno, in which there were sappers, cover submachine gunners, and an FSB officer. Undermining occurred as a result of false information passed among the population about the poisoning of a water source by militants. 6 soldiers were killed, 4 were injured. Among the dead is an FSB officer.
April 18 - In his Address to the Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin announced the end of the military stage of the conflict in Chechnya.
April 28 - An explosion occurred at the entrance to the Central Market of Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia). The power of the explosive device was 500 grams of TNT. As a result of the attack, 9 people were killed and 46 injured.
April 29 - Su-25 crashed in the Vedeno region. The pilot is dead.
May 9 - A terrorist attack occurred in Kaspiysk during the celebration of Victory Day. 43 people died, more than 100 were injured.
July - a Negro, British citizen Amir Assadullah was killed in Chechnya.
July 20 - during a flight from North Ossetia to Ingushetia, an MI-8 helicopter crashed into a mountain. All 12 people on board - four crew members and eight servicemen of the Nazran border detachment - were killed. The crashed helicopter was found near the administrative border of Ingushetia with North Ossetia. According to preliminary data, bad weather conditions became the cause of the tragedy.
August 6 - in Shatoi, in front of the commandant's office, he was blown up by a GAZ-66 land mine with military personnel. Fire was opened on those who tried to come to their aid. 10 soldiers were killed and 7 wounded.
August 19 - Chechen separatists from Igla MANPADS shot down a Russian Mi-26 military transport helicopter in the area military base Khankala. Of the 147 people on board, 127 were killed.
August 26 - Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev, a well-known field commander of the second Chechen war, was killed in Shali.
August 31 - Mi-24P of the 487th separate helicopter regiment of combat control was shot down by MANPADS near the village of Beshil-Irzu. Exploded in the air, both crew members were killed. According to official figures, it became the 36th helicopter lost by federal forces in the second Chechen campaign.
September 3 - in the vicinity of Shali, a KamAZ with policemen was blown up on a radio-controlled landmine. 8 people died, 11 were injured.
September 6 - 3 police UAZs were ambushed near Itum-Kale. In the skirmish, 6 policemen from the Novosibirsk region were killed and 4 wounded.
September 23-25 ​​- Raid on Ingushetia.
September 26 - Mi-24V of the 55th separate helicopter regiment was shot down by MANPADS in the Galashki region (Ingushetia). Three crew members were killed.
September 27 - In the center of Makhachkala, unknown persons fired from machine guns at the official car of the head of the Department for Combating Extremism and Criminal Terrorism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, police colonel Akhverdilav Akilov. The head of the department and his driver were killed.
October 10 - An explosion occurred in the building of the Zavodskoy district police department in Grozny. An explosive device was planted in the office of the head of the department. 25 policemen were killed, about 20 were injured.
October 17 - Mi-8MTV-2 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs caught on a power line in the Komsomolsky area, evading shelling from the ground. 3 people died.
October 19 - Terrorist act in Moscow. A car bomb "Tavria" exploded near a McDonald's restaurant in the south-west of Moscow. 1 person died, 8 were injured. Subsequently, the perpetrators of the terrorist attack were exposed and in April 2004 sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison: Aslan and Alikhan Mezhiyev, Khampash Sobraliev and Aslan Murdalov, all residents of Chechnya.
October 23-26 - hostage-taking in the theater center on Dubrovka in Moscow, 129 hostages were killed. All 44 terrorists were killed, including Movsar Baraev.
October 28 - a landmine exploded between the Chechen settlements of Naurskoye and Terek, 70 meters in front of a moving train with oil products. However, the driver managed to stop the train - the crash of 51 oil tanks was avoided. The roadbed was promptly restored.
October 29 - Mi-8MT of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was shot down in the Khankala area. 4 people died.
November 3 - Mi-8MT of the 487th separate helicopter regiment of the combat control of the Ground Forces) was shot down by MANPADS near Khankala. 9 people died.
November 11 - Mi-24 crashed near Khankala and burned down. There were no casualties.
December 27 - the explosion of the Government House in Grozny. More than 70 people were killed in the attack. Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the attack.

The second Chechen war also had an official name - the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, or KTO for short. But it is the common name that 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 entry 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 the attacks. In subsequent years, the second Chechen war took on the character of local skirmishes between separatists and Russian soldiers. 2009 was marked by the official abolition of the CTO regime.
The second Chechen war brought a lot of destruction. The photographs taken by journalists testify to this in the best possible way.

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 come. However, peace has not been established in Chechnya.
Criminal structures have significantly stepped up their activities. They did an impressive business on such a criminal act as kidnapping for ransom. Their victims were both Russian journalists and official representatives, as well as members of foreign public, political and religious organizations. The bandits did not disdain the kidnapping of people who came to Chechnya for the funeral of loved ones. So, 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 the theft of oil, drug trafficking, production and distribution of counterfeit money. They committed acts of violence and kept the civilian population in fear.

In March 1999, G. Shpigun, an authorized representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Chechnya, was captured at the Grozny airport. This egregious case showed the complete inconsistency of the President of the CRI, 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 against bandit formations. From the side of the Stavropol Territory, a number of rocket launchers were put up, designed to deliver pinpoint 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. Gasoline produced in clandestine factories had nowhere to sell. In mid-1999, the border between Chechnya and Dagestan turned into a militarized zone.

Bandit formations did not abandon attempts to unofficially seize power. Groups under the leadership of Khattab and Basayev made forays into the territory of Stavropol and Dagestan. As a result, dozens of servicemen 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.

The nature of the conflict

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

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

Second Chechen War: Beginning

On June 18, CRI carried out two attacks at once on the border in the direction of Dagestan, as well as on a company of Cossacks in Stavropol. After that, most of the checkpoints to 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 located and promptly defused.

On June 30, the Russian leadership gave permission to use military weapons against gangs on the border with the 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 CRI provoked a violent clash between Wahhabis and riot police. As a result, several people died on both sides.

On August 3, a shootout took place between policemen and Wahhabis in the Tsumadinsky district of the river. Dagestan. There were no losses. Shamil Basayev, one of the leaders of the Chechen opposition, announced the creation of an Islamic shura that had its own troops. They established control over several districts in Dagestan. The local authorities of the republic are asking the center for the issuance of military weapons to protect the civilian population from terrorists.

The next day, the separatists were driven back from the regional center of Aghvali. More than 500 people dug in in positions that had been prepared in advance. They did not put forward any demands and did not enter into negotiations. it became known that they were holding three policemen.

At noon on August 4, on the road of the Botlikh region, a group of armed militants opened fire on a line of police 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 settlement 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 act is being prepared on the territory of Dagestan. 600 militants were going to penetrate 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 by the battle for the Donkey Ear height. The militants fought with paratroopers from Stavropol and Novorossiysk.

Between September 7 and 14, large groups invaded from Chechnya under the leadership of Basayev and Khattab. The devastating battles continued for about a month.

Bombing of Chechnya from the air

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

In the period from 6 to 18 September, Russian aviation continues a massive bombardment of separatist gathering places. Despite the protest of the Chechen authorities, the security forces say they will act as necessary in the fight against terrorists.

On September 23, Grozny and its environs are bombarded by central aviation forces. As a result, power plants, oil refineries, a mobile communication center, radio and television buildings were destroyed.

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

Ground operation

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

On October 8, in the village of Mekenskaya, a militant Ibragimov Akhmed shot 34 people of Russian nationality. Of these, three were children. At the gathering of the village of Ibragimov, they beat him to death with sticks. Mulla forbade his body to be buried in the earth.

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 appealed to Russian soldiers to surrender and go into captivity.

In December 1999, Russian combat forces liberated almost all of Chechnya from militants. About 3,000 terrorists dispersed over 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 battles came to naught.

Situation in 2009

Despite the fact that the counter-terrorist operation was officially terminated, the situation in Chechnya did not become calmer, but, on the contrary, became aggravated. Cases of explosions became more frequent, militants became more active again. In the autumn of 2009, a number of operations were carried out aimed at the destruction of gangs. The militants respond with major terrorist acts, including in Moscow. By mid-2010, the conflict was escalating.

Second Chechen War: results

Any hostilities cause damage to both property and people. Despite the compelling reasons for the second Chechen war, the pain of the death of loved ones cannot be eased or forgotten. According to statistics, 3684 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 people were killed among the terrorists. The number of civilians who died during the war is not exactly established. According to official figures, it is about 1000 people.

Movies and books about the war

The fighting did not leave indifferent and artists, writers, directors. Dedicated to such an event as the second Chechen war, photographs. Exhibitions are held regularly, where you can see works that reflect the destruction left after the battles.

A lot of controversy is still caused by the second Chechen War. The film "Purgatory", based on real events, perfectly reflects the horror of that period. The most famous books were written by A. Karasev. This " Chechen stories and "Traitor".

On September 30, 2015, Russia launched a military campaign in Syria. After the end of World War II, the USSR and then Russia participated in dozens of military operations in which they suffered losses. From China and Cuba to Angola and Czechoslovakia - where and what the Russian armed forces have achieved - in the special project "Kommersant"

In early August 1999, armed clashes broke out on the border between Dagestan and Chechnya. On August 7, more than 400 gangs under the leadership of field commanders Shamil Basayev and Khattab invaded the territory of the Botlikh region of Dagestan from Chechnya. The fighting continued until the end of August, after which the federal forces began an assault on the Wahhabi villages of Karamakhi, Chabanmakhi and Kadar in Dagestan.
On the night of September 5, about 2,000 extremists crossed the Chechen-Dagestan border again. Fighting in Dagestan continued until 15 September. By the end of September, up to 90 thousand soldiers, about 400 tanks, were concentrated on the border with Chechnya. The commander of the joint grouping of federal forces was Colonel-General Viktor Kazantsev. The forces of the separatists were estimated at 15-20 thousand militants, up to 30 tanks and 100 armored vehicles.

On October 2, 1999, Russian troops entered Chechnya. They managed to occupy the northern part of Chechnya with minimal losses, to take control of the cities of Urus-Martan and Gudermes without a fight.

On December 22, Russian border guards and airborne units landed in the south of the Argun Gorge, blocking the way to Georgia. The assault on Grozny took place in December 1999-January 2000.

On February 1–3, as part of the “Wolf Hunt” operation, militant groups were lured out of the Chechen capital and sent to minefields with the help of disinformation (the loss of militants amounted to approximately 1,500 people).

The last major combined-arms operation was the destruction of a detachment of militants in the village of Komsomolskoye on March 2-15, 2000 (about 1,200 people were destroyed and taken prisoner). On April 20, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Valery Manilov announced that Military Unit the operation in Chechnya has been completed and now its “special part is being carried out - conducting special operations to complete the defeat of the remaining unfinished bandit formations”. It was announced that about 28,000 servicemen would be stationed in the republic on a permanent basis, including advanced units of the 42nd motorized rifle division, 2,700 border guards, and nine battalions of internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

In Moscow, they staked on the settlement of the conflict with the involvement of part of the local elites to their side. On June 12, 2000, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Akhmat Kadyrov, a former close associate of Maskhadov and the mufti of Ichkeria, was appointed head of the administration of the Chechen Republic.

Since the spring-summer of 2000, the militants switched to partisan actions: shelling, mining roads, terrorist attacks. Terrorist activity quickly spread beyond the borders of the republic. The militants took hostages at the musical Nord-Ost in Moscow, organized the blowing up of the government building in Grozny (2002), the explosion at the Wings rock festival in Tushino (2003), the explosions of suicide bombers in the Moscow metro and on board passenger planes (2004) .

On May 9, 2004, Akhmat Kadyrov was killed in an explosion at the Dynamo stadium in Grozny.
Interview of Vladimir Putin with Sergey Dorenko (1999)
On September 1, 2004, the most notorious terrorist attack in Russian history- the capture of more than 1 thousand hostages at a school in Beslan. The attack killed 334 people.

On October 13, 2005, the militants made their last major sortie - up to 200 people attacked 13 objects in Nalchik, including the airport, FSB and police buildings. 95 militants were killed, 71 were detained over the next year.

On July 10, 2006, Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the attack on Nalchik and a number of high-profile terrorist attacks, was killed during a special operation by the FSB in Ingushetia. By that time, many separatist leaders had already been destroyed, including the President of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov.

In 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of Akhmat Kadyrov, came to power in Chechnya.

From 00:00 hours on April 16, 2009, the regime of the counter-terrorist operation on the territory of the Chechen Republic was canceled. The report of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that from now on, measures to combat terrorism in Chechnya will be carried out by local law enforcement agencies, as in other regions of the country. This moment is considered the official end of the second Chechen war.

The total losses of power structures during the active phase of hostilities (from October 1999 to December 23, 2002) amounted to 4,572 dead and 15,549 wounded. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Defense, from 1999 to September 2008, 3,684 servicemen died in the line of duty in Chechnya. According to the main personnel department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the losses of internal troops in August 1999-August 2003 amounted to 1,055 people. Losses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, according to data for 2006, were estimated at 835 people killed. It was also reported that 202 FSB officers were killed in Chechnya in 1999-2002. The total losses of the Russian law enforcement agencies can be estimated at least 6 thousand people.

According to the headquarters of the United Forces, in 1999-2002, 15.5 thousand militants were destroyed. From 2002 to 2009, the security forces reported on the liquidation of about 2,100 more members of illegal armed groups: the main part in 2002 (600) and 2003 (700). Separatist leader Shamil Basayev in 2005 estimated militant losses at 3,600. In 2004, the human rights organization "Memorial" estimated civilian casualties at 10-20 thousand people, Amnesty International in 2007 - up to 25 thousand dead.

As a result of the second Chechen campaign, Russia managed to completely take control of the territory of the republic and ensure a government loyal to the center. At the same time, the terrorist organization “Imarat Kavkaz” was formed in the region, aiming to create an Islamist state on the territory of all the Caucasian republics of the Russian Federation. After 2009, the gang organized a number of major terrorist attacks in the country (explosions in the Moscow metro in 2010, at Domodedovo airport in 2011, at a railway station and in a trolleybus in Volgograd in 2013). The regime of the counter-terrorist operation is periodically introduced in the territories of the republics of the region.

Territory: Chechen Republic
Period: August 1999-April 2009
Duration: 9.5 years
Participants: Russia / Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Emarat Kavkaz
Involved forces of the USSR / Russia: a combined group of troops of up to 100 thousand people
Losses: more than 6 thousand people, of which 3.68 thousand military personnel of the Ministry of Defense (as of September 2008)
Supreme Commander: Boris Yeltsin
Conclusion: two Chechen wars helped to "pacify" Chechnya, but turned the entire North Caucasus into a powder keg

Aggravation of the situation on the border with Chechnya

* June 18 - from Chechnya, attacks were made on 2 outposts on the Dagestan-Chechen border, as well as an attack on a Cossack company in the Stavropol Territory. Russian leadership closes most of the checkpoints on the border with Chechnya.

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

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

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

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

* July 5 - Rushailo said that "in the early morning of July 5, a preemptive strike was carried out on concentrations of 150-200 armed militants in Chechnya."

* July 7 - a group of militants from Chechnya attacked an outpost near the Grebensky bridge in the Babayurtovsky district of Dagestan. Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and Director of the FSB of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin said that "Russia will continue to take not preventive, but only adequate actions in response to attacks in the areas bordering Chechnya." He stressed that "the Chechen authorities do not fully control the situation in the republic."

* July 16 - V. Ovchinnikov, commander of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, said that "the issue of creating a buffer zone around Chechnya is being worked out."

Two servicemen of the federal forces, senior sergeant A.V. Potemkin, a native of the city of Yaroslavl and senior sergeant V.V. Komashko, a native of the village of Burkovtsy, was captured, another sergeant S.G. Reshetkin, a native of the city of Yaroslavl, died as a result of an infantry fighting vehicle being blown up on a radio-controlled landmine on the western outskirts of the regional center Achkhoy-Martan. escorted a convoy with medical equipment and drugs from Bamut to Achkhoi-Martan as military personnel on armor. An explosive device believed to be a 122mm artillery shell was planted on the side of the road. The whereabouts of the captured soldiers are currently unknown. Media: Gazeta.ru Tuesday, July 28, 1999

* July 23 - Chechen fighters attacked an outpost on the territory of Dagestan, protecting the Kopaevsky hydroelectric complex. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan stated that "this time the Chechens carried out reconnaissance in force, and soon large-scale actions of bandit formations will begin along the entire perimeter of the Dagestan-Chechen border."

* August 7 - September 14 - from the territory of the CRI, 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 CRI, 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 actions against him (see the article Invasion of militants into Dagestan).

* August 12 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation I. Zubov said that the President of the CRI Maskhadov "was sent a letter with a proposal to conduct a joint operation with the federal troops against the Islamists in Dagestan."

* August 13 - Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin said that "strike will be inflicted on the bases and concentrations of militants, regardless of their location, including on the territory of Chechnya."

* August 16 - CRI President Aslan Maskhadov introduced martial law in Chechnya for a period of 30 days, announced a partial mobilization of reservists and participants in the First Chechen War.

Air bombardments of Chechnya

* August 25 - Russian aviation strikes militant bases in the Vedeno Gorge of Chechnya. In response to an official protest from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the command of the federal forces declares that it "reserves the right to strike at militant bases on the territory of any North Caucasian region, including Chechnya."

* September 6 - 18 - Russian aviation inflicts numerous missile and bomb strikes on military camps and fortifications of militants in Chechnya.

* September 14 - V. Putin said that "the Khasavyurt agreements should be subjected to an impartial analysis", as well as "temporarily introduce a strict quarantine" 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 aviation began bombing the capital of Chechnya and its environs. As a result, several electrical substations, a number of oil and gas plants, 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 the gangs can use to their advantage."

* September 27 - Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin categorically rejected the possibility of a meeting between the President of Russia and the head of the CRI. "There will be no meetings to let the militants lick their wounds," he said.

Start of ground operation

* September 30 - armored units of the Russian army from the Stavropol Territory and Dagestan entered the territory of the Naur and Shelkovsky regions of Chechnya.

* October 4 - at a meeting of the military council of the CRI, it was decided to form three directions to repel the blows of federal forces. The western direction was headed by Ruslan Gelaev, the eastern direction by Shamil Basaev, and the central direction by Magomed Khambiev.

* October 6 - Maskhadov invited all the religious figures of Chechnya to declare a holy war on Russia - gazavat.

* October 15 - the troops of the Western grouping of General Vladimir Shamanov entered Chechnya from Ingushetia.

* October 16 - federal forces occupied a third of the territory of Chechnya north of the Terek River and began the implementation of the second stage of the anti-terrorist operation, the main goal of which is the destruction of gangs in the remaining territory of Chechnya.

* October 21 - Federal forces launched a missile attack on the central market of the city of Grozny, as a result of which 140 people were killed

* November 11 - the field commanders, the Yamadayev brothers, and the Mufti of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, surrendered Gudermes to the federal forces

* November 17 - the first major losses of the federal forces since the beginning of the campaign. Under Vedeno, the reconnaissance group of the 31st separate airborne brigade was lost (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 shot."

* November 25 - CRI President Maskhadov turned to Russian soldiers fighting in the North Caucasus with a proposal to surrender and go over to the side of the militants.

* By December 1999, federal forces controlled the entire flat part of Chechnya. The militants concentrated in the mountains and in Grozny.

* December 8 - Federal forces launched an assault on Urus-Martan
* December 14 - federal forces occupied Khankala
* December 26, 1999 - February 6, 2000 - the siege of Grozny

* December 17 - a large landing of federal forces blocked the road connecting Chechnya with the village of Shatili (Georgia).

* January 9 - a breakthrough of militants in Shali and Argun. The control of the federal forces over Shali was restored on January 11, over Argun on January 13.

* January 27 - during the battles for Grozny, field commander Isa Astamirov, deputy commander of the southwestern front of militants, was killed.

* February 9 - Federal troops blocked an important militant resistance center - 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 blockaded more than three thousand militants in the Argun Gorge.

* February 29 - the capture of Shatoi. Maskhadov, Khattab and Basayev left the encirclement again. Colonel-General Gennady Troshev, First Deputy Commander of the United Group of Federal Forces, announced the end of a full-scale military operation in Chechnya.

* February 28 - March 2 - Fight at height 776 - a breakthrough of militants (Khattab) through Ulus-Kert. The heroic death of the paratroopers of the 6th paratrooper company of the 104th regiment

* March 12 - in the village of Novogroznensky, the terrorist Salman Raduev was captured by the FSB and brought to Moscow, later sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison.

* October 1 - field commander Isa Munaev was killed during a military clash in the Stapropromyslovsky district of Grozny.

* June 23-24 - in the village of Alkhan-kala, a special combined detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB conducted a special operation to eliminate a detachment of militants of field commander Arbi Baraev. 16 militants were killed, including Barayev himself.
* July 11 - in the village of Mayrup, Shali district of Chechnya, Khattab's assistant Abu Umar was killed during a special operation by the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
* August 25 - in the city of Argun, during a special operation by the FSB, field commander Movsan Suleimenov, Arbi Barayev's nephew, was killed.
* September 17 - an 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, a Mi-8 helicopter with a commission of the General Staff 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.

* March 20 - as a result of a special operation by the FSB, the terrorist Khattab was killed by poisoning.
* April 18 - in his Address to the 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 died, more than 100 were injured.
* August 19 - Chechen fighters from the Igla MANPADS shot down a Russian Mi-26 military transport helicopter near the Khankala military base. Of the 152 people on board, 124 were killed.
* September 23 - Raid on Ingushetia (2002)
* October 23 - 26 - hostage-taking in the theater center on Dubrovka in Moscow, 129 hostages were killed. All 44 terrorists were killed, including Movsar Baraev.
* December 5 - a suicide attack on an electric train in Essentuki.
* December 9 - suicide attack near the National Hotel (Moscow).
* December 27 - the explosion of the Government House in Grozny as a result of a terrorist attack. Over 70 people died. Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the attack.

* July 5 - terrorist attack in Moscow at the rock festival "Wings". 16 people died, 57 were injured.
* August 1 - Undermining a military hospital in Mozdok. An army truck "KamAZ" 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.
* 2003-2004 - Raid on Dagestan by a detachment of bandits under the command of Ruslan Gelaev.

* February 6 - terrorist attack in the Moscow metro, on the stretch between the stations "Avtozavodskaya" and "Paveletskaya". 39 people died, 122 were injured.
* February 28 - famous field commander Ruslan Gelaev was mortally wounded during a skirmish with policemen
* April 16 - during the shelling of the mountain ranges of Chechnya, the leader of foreign mercenaries in Chechnya, Abu al-Walid al-Ghamidi, was killed
* May 9 - as a result of a terrorist attack at a parade in honor of Victory Day in Grozny, the head of the Chechen administration, Akhmat Kadyrov, died
* June 22 - Raid on Ingushetia
* August 21 - 400 militants attacked Grozny. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, 44 people died and 36 were seriously injured.
* August 24 - explosions of two Russian passenger airliners, killing 89 people.
* August 31 - a terrorist attack near the metro station "Rizhskaya" in Moscow. 10 people were killed, more than 50 people were injured.
* September 1 - A terrorist act in Beslan, as a result of which more than 350 people from among the hostages, civilians and military personnel died. Half of the dead are children. As of November 23, 2008, this is the last major terrorist attack in the history of Russia.

* March 8 - during the special operation of the FSB in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt, the president of the CRI, Aslan Maskhadov, was liquidated
* May 15 - Vakha Arsanov, former vice-president of the CRI, was killed in Grozny. Arsanov and his accomplices, being in a private house, fired at a police patrol and were destroyed by the arriving reinforcements.
* October 13 - An attack by militants on the city of Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria), as a result of which, according to the Russian authorities, 12 civilians and 35 law enforcement officers were killed. Destroyed, according to various sources, from 40 to 124 militants.

* January 31 - Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference that now we can talk about the end of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya.
* June 17 - the "President of the CRI" Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev was destroyed in Argun
* July 4 - attacked in Chechnya military column near the village of Avtury, Shali district. Representatives of the federal forces report 6 killed servicemen, 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 CRI Armed Forces.
* July 10 - in Ingushetia, terrorist Shamil Basayev was killed as a result of a special operation (according to other sources - he died due to careless handling of explosives)
* August 23 - Chechen fighters attacked a military convoy on the Grozny-Shatoy highway, not far from the entrance to Argun Gorge. The column consisted of a Ural vehicle and two escort armored personnel carriers. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Chechen Republic As a result, four soldiers of the federal forces were wounded.
* November 7 - Seven riot police from Mordovia were killed in Chechnya.
* November 26 - the leader of foreign mercenaries in Chechnya, Abu Hafs al-Urdani, was killed in Khasavyurt.

* 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 CRI, Suleiman Ilmurzaev (call sign "Khairulla"), who was involved in the assassination of Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov, was killed.
* June 13 - in the Vedeno district on the Upper Kurchali - Belgata highway, militants shot down a convoy of police cars.
* July 23 - battle near the village of Tazen-Kale, Vedensky district, between Sulim Yamadayev's Vostok battalion and a detachment of Chechen separatists led by Doku Umarov. It is reported about the death of 6 militants.
* September 18 - as a result of a counter-terrorist operation in the village of Novy Sulak, the "Amir Rabbani" - Rappani Khalilov, was destroyed.