The first attempts to actually separate some parts of Dagestan from Russia were made back in August 1998, when local Wahhabis announced that the villages of the Buynaksky district of Karamakhi, Chabanmakhi and Kadar were uniting into an independent Islamic community, which would be controlled by an Islamic shura. The Wahhabis set up a checkpoint on the road leading to Chabanmakhi, and hung a green Islamic flag on one of the surrounding heights. In September 1998, negotiations with the leaders of the Wahhabi community were held by the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Stepashin. He promised not to take any forceful actions against the community in exchange for the surrender of the weapons that the Wahhabis have. The weapons, according to S. Stepashin himself, were never handed over, but the Wahhabis felt absolutely calm until August 1999.
Chronology:
On August 1, 1999, the Wahhabis announced the introduction of Sharia rule in the villages of Echeda, Gakko, Gigatli and Agvali in the Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan.
On August 2, a police detachment patrolling the Gigatlinsky pass entered into battle with a group of militants of field commander Khattab, who was heading from Chechnya to the village of Echeda. A policeman died in the battle, and the militants were pushed back to the border, killing seven people. On the night of August 3, the militants attacked a police detachment near the village of Gigatli. Three policemen were killed. According to intelligence, the attackers withdrew to the administrative border with Chechnya.
On August 7, 1999, a large-scale Chechen invasion began: more than a thousand militants under the command of Shamil Basayev and Khattab invaded Dagestan from Chechnya and captured the villages of Ansalta, Rakhata, Shodroda and Godoberi of the Botlikh region. Within a few days, other villages in the Botlikh and Tsumadinsky districts were captured. On August 8, the head of the government of the Russian Federation, Sergei Stepashin, visited Dagestan, but this did not help him stay in the post of prime minister: on August 9, President Boris Yeltsin dismissed him and appointed acting president. Prime Minister FSB Director Vladimir Putin.
On August 10, the “Islamic shura of Dagestan” distributed “Appeal to the Chechen state and people”, “Appeal to the parliaments of Muslims of Ichkeria and Dagestan”, “Declaration on the restoration of the Islamic state of Dagestan” and “Resolution in connection with the occupation of the state of Dagestan”. The documents spoke about the formation of an Islamic state on the territory of the republic. August 11 began military operation to oust militants from Dagestan using artillery and aircraft. On August 12, the first reports were received of an aerial bombardment of militant bases in Chechnya, and a day later, of a short-term advance of columns of Russian armored vehicles into Chechen territory.
From midnight on August 16, CRI President Aslan Maskhadov introduced a state of emergency in Chechnya. On the same day, the State Duma of the Russian Federation approved V. Putin as Prime Minister by 233 votes (with necessary minimum in 226 votes). On August 17, the head of the military operation in the North Caucasus, instead of the commander-in-chief of the internal troops Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov, became the commander of the North Caucasian military district Viktor Kazantsev.
On August 24, the command of the United Group of Forces (OGV) in the North Caucasus announced that federal troops had liberated the last villages captured by militants - Tando, Rakhata, Shodroda, Ansalta, Ziberkhali and Ashino. Sh. Basayev left for Chechnya with the surviving militants. On August 25, the Russian Air Force for the first time bombed Chechen villages near Grozny, where, according to military intelligence, the bases of Sh. Basayev and Khattab were located.
On August 27, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the war zone in the Botlikh region. Two days later, federal forces, with the support of Dagestani militias, began an assault on one of the strongholds of the Wahhabis, the village of Karamakhi. On September 1, the troops took Karamakhi, and on September 2, another stronghold of the Wahhabis, the village of Chabanmakhi.
On September 3, the elements intervened in the course of the Dagestan campaign. Heavy fogs and ever-increasing rains took on the character of a disaster. Water interfered not only with artillery and aviation, but also with elementary foot movement. In the area of ​​Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi on September 3, a monthly rainfall fell. In Makhachkala, the movement of vehicles along some streets was paralyzed, several houses were flooded, several substations went out of service, due to which part of the city was left without electricity. As a result, the battles took on a positional character, that is, the troops sat in cover and occasionally fired into the air, "so that the enemy would not fall asleep."
On September 4, the "active phase" of hostilities resumed. At 10 am, aviation launched two missile and bomb attacks on the positions of the Chabanmakhi militants. Artillery worked in the morning. There were reshuffles in the federal forces, which were the result of a meeting with the participation of Magomedali Magomedov, Vladimir Rushailo, Anatoly Kvashnin and the commander of the North Caucasus Military District Viktor Kazantsev. The leadership of the joint grouping of federal troops was entrusted to Kazantsev's deputy Gennady Troshev - as explained, then, in order to "transfer control over the further course of the special operation to representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation."
On September 4, 1999, the Second Chechen War for the first time was moved deep into Russian territory: in the early morning, a five-story residential building was blown up in the Dagestan city of Buynaksk, where mainly military families lived. 64 people died and 120 were injured. On September 5, an even more powerful bomb planted near the Buynaksk military hospital was defused. But this attack was only a prelude to a new invasion.
On September 5, 1999, about 2 thousand militants under the command of Sh. Basayev and Khattab again crossed the Chechen-Dagestan administrative border and occupied villages and dominant heights in the Novolaksky district of Dagestan. Internal troops and armored vehicles were deployed to the combat zone, and the Russian Air Force made a number of sorties in the Nozhai-Yurt region of Chechnya, where they bombed formations of militants heading for help to Dagestan.
On September 9, during the fighting in the area of ​​the villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi, federal troops captured all strategic heights and destroyed more than 50 militants, two mortars, five ammunition depots, three fuel depots and five observation posts.
In the Novolaksky district, federal forces are clearing the slopes of Mount Eki-tebe from extremists.
Su-25 attack aircraft crashes near Buynaksk. The search group manages to evacuate the pilot within 10 minutes. Among possible causes the loss of an aircraft is called a technical malfunction or a missile hitting an attack aircraft from a MANPADS.
Near the village of Novochurtakh, Novolaksky district, a shootout takes place between a group of Akkin Chechens and employees of the local police department.
About 150 OMON fighters from the Khabarovsk Territory, Primorye and Yakutia fly to Dagestan.
On September 10, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, after artillery preparation, occupy the village of Gamiyakh. In the areas of the settlements of Duchi, Novolakskoye, Chapaevo, the battles acquire a positional character.
AT Kadar zone aviation strikes targets in the villages of Karamakhi, Chabanmakhi. Nine nodes of resistance are suppressed, two ammunition depots, a fuel depot, a satellite communications system, two heavy machine guns, 12 vehicles are hit, up to 50 militants are destroyed.
Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo and Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin are arriving in Dagestan.
According to the Chechen authorities, for the first time since 1996 federal aviation bombed the Bamut area.
September 11 Federal forces, supported by artillery and aviation, storm the height of 713.5 m above Novolakskoye. Militants shoot down a Mi-8 spotter helicopter, the crew is shot in the air while trying to escape by parachute.
In the Buynaksk region, the federals take six militants prisoner and destroy three cars.
According to intelligence sources, up to 3,000 extremists are concentrated in the region of the Dagestan-Chechen border.
Federal aviation strikes militant bases in the Shelkovsky and Serzhen-Yurtovsky districts of Chechnya.
The President of Chechnya announces a general mobilization in the republic.
On September 12, the militants blocked in Chabanmakhi go on air and ask for a corridor to leave the village, referring to a large number of the wounded and the dead. The command of the united grouping of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs demand surrender and disarmament.
The federal forces completely take control of the villages of Chabanmakhi and Karamakhi.
In the Kadar zone, nine warehouses with weapons and ammunition, a warehouse with clothing and medical equipment were seized.
Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs report that since the beginning of hostilities in Dagestan, 157 servicemen of the federal troops have died, 645 have been injured, and 20 have gone missing.
The Chechen authorities announce the bombing of the settlements of Ishkhoi-Yurt, Zandak, Gelani, Serzhen-Yurt, Avtury, Grebenskaya.
Near Kizlyar, terrorists undermine the canvas railway linking Dagestan with other regions of Russia. A few hours later the path was restored.
On September 13, in the Novolaksky district, positional battles continue in the area of ​​​​the villages of Novolakskoye, Chapaevo, Ahar, Shushiya. According to local residents, the militants publicly cut off the heads of some prisoners, impale others on a stake.
A brigade stationed in Kuzbass is sent to Dagestan rapid response Siberian military district numbering about 2 thousand people.
The transfer to the republic of the battalion is being completed marines Northern Fleet.
On September 14, in the Novolaksky district near the settlements of Novolakskoye, Akhar, Shushiya, two vehicles with militants and one mortar crew were destroyed by artillery and aviation fire.
At 2:00 pm, units of the federal forces captured a strategically important height with a mark of 715.3 m in the Novolaksky district of Dagestan.
By 17.00 Novolakskoye passes into the hands of the federals. Bandit formations, moving away from the Novolaksky district to the territory of Chechnya, take out the property stolen from the local population.
A battalion of paratroopers of the 31st was sent to Dagestan from Ulyanovsk airborne brigades, reinforced with howitzer artillery and reconnaissance.
During the fighting in the Kadar zone, federal troops destroy 12 fortified firing points, three ammunition depots, four mortars, eight sniper groups and three militant command posts.
On September 15, Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev reported to V. Putin that the territory of Dagestan had been completely liberated from terrorists.
The federals are recapturing the village of Tukhchar in the Novolaksky district, destroying two infantry fighting vehicles and up to 40 militants. After the cleansing, the village is transferred under the act to the local authorities.
Cleansing of the regional center Novolakskoe, villages Shushiya and Ahar is underway. Troops reflect an attempt by militants to break into the village of Tukhchar.
In the Kadar zone, the internal troops and the police replace the army units.
The militants forced out to Chechnya are preparing special groups to carry out terrorist attacks in Dagestan. There is a cluster of extremists near the village of Borozdinskaya.
According to the CRI, aviation is delivering missile and bomb strikes against bandit formations or militant bases in the city of Shali and the village of Serzhen-Yurt.

Dagestan as a hot spot was discussed for the first time in 1999. Now it's probably hard to remember what happened in August 1999, but then everything was different. Despite the fact that 13 years have passed, people still do not know everything that happened then. This material is the second in the "Fiery Caucasus" trilogy, and is dedicated to the invasion of militants Basayev and Khattab into Dagestan.

Reference:

, also known as the Dagestan War (in fact, it is considered the beginning of the Second Chechen campaign), - armed clashes that accompanied the entry of the Islamic Peacekeeping Brigade based in Chechnya under the command of Shamil Basayev and Khattab into the territory of Dagestan on August 7 - September 14, 1999. Initially, the detachments militants entered the Botlikhsky (August 7-23), and then into the Novolaksky district of Dagestan (September 5-14).

background

Wahhabism (pure Islam) - a radical offshoot of the Islamic religion, appeared on the territory of Dagestan in the late 1980s. At that time, these were still forbidden circles, however, after some 5-6 years, the Salafists, as the followers of Wahhabism call themselves, declared themselves seriously, and Bagautdin Kebedov played a key role in this - spiritual leader Dagestan Wahhabis.

Dossier:

Bagautdin Kebedov born 1945 - AT Soviet time organized a number of illegal circles for the study of Islam. In 1989, Kebedov organized a Muslim community - a jamaat in the city of Kizilyurt. In 1990, he participated in the creation of the All-Union Islamic Renaissance Party. In 1997 he founded the Islamic Community of Dagestan, but in the same year he was forced to flee to Chechnya, where he lived first in Gudermes and then in Urus-Martan. He was one of the organizers of the Islamic Shura of Dagestan. He took an active part in organizing the invasion of militants into Dagestan in 1999, led one of the three - the southern armed formation. Currently on the wanted list.

This "bright comrade", during the First Chechen War, established strong ties with many field commanders, including Khattab. The Wahhabis, to whom Khattab belonged, as well as his supporter, the Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev, gradually began to gain popularity in Ichkeria, where, after the end of the war, a very tense situation developed.

After the conclusion of the treacherous Khasavyurt Accords in August 1996 and the withdrawal of Russian troops, the territory of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria became a stronghold of international terrorism and the slave trade. Mercenaries from different countries peace.

Despite the Sharia laws that have been in force for more than two years, by the way, the bloody video evidence of which is still drifting across the Internet, the "freedom fighters" who felt their impunity continued to engage in a profitable criminal business. Kidnappings have not stopped either, on the contrary, both official Russian representatives and citizens have become new targets. foreign countries. The bandits do not give preference to any profession or position: both journalists and employees fell into the clutches of the militants humanitarian organizations, and religious missionaries, this is not counting the workers and builders and even children. It was possible to escape only by paying a ransom that was too much for the common people.

In addition, on the territory of Ichkeria, many camps were organized for the training of militants who trained new "wolves". By the way, in a short period of time 1997-1999, more than one attack was made on Russian frontier posts, as well as on the territory of Russia, terrorist attacks continued to thunder.

Militant invasion of Dagestan

However, these very attacks were not just thugs from the main road. The odious leaders of gangs, Chechen Shamil Basayev and Arab Emir Khattab, were preparing a full-scale armed invasion of neighboring Dagestan, or rather, its mountainous part.

Why exactly there? Because at that time, in the mountains of Dagestan, there were practically no regular units, and the transfer of troops was complicated by difficult landscape conditions. Today, video recordings of militants of those times have been preserved. After reviewing them, you come to the conclusion that they prepared carefully, brand new camouflage from the needle. Grenade launchers, mortars, military equipment. I'm not talking about a variety of small arms. The video shows how thousands of militants get to their destination in loaded KAMAZ trucks (!). Where do they get such finances from? Is it really the budget of Ichkeria? No. As we know very well, the sponsorship of the "sacred struggle against the infidels" came from abroad, and from a variety of states. As for the Arab countries, whole rallies gathered there in support of the Chechen brothers in arms. However, the “fighters” had to report to their sponsors, hence the thousands of videos with various explosions, ambushes, shelling, executions, etc., accompanied by heart-rending cries of “Allahu Akbar!”.

Let's return to our "friend" Kebedov. In 1997-98, the Dagestan Wahhabis, outlawed in their homeland, found refuge in the territory of the CRI, by the way, many took an active part in the First Chechen War. Bagautdin Kebedov also showed up in Chechnya. He organized a new Islamic governing body - something like a government in exile and called it the "Islamic shura of Dagestan." Further events began to develop rapidly.

Together with the Chechen field commanders, Kebedov organizes and equips more and more militant groups. And already in April 1998, the founding congress of the "Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan" was held, the head of this organization was Shamil Basayev, well-known from the First Chechen War. New armed formations of militants are also being formed there, one of which was the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, and the Arab emissary Khattab, again well known to us, became its commander.

During the congress of the organization, issues of the liberation of the Caucasus from the oppression of Russia were discussed, and the leaders of the organization vehemently criticized the Russian leadership in relation to their policy in Dagestan.

Thus, all the threads are woven together. Military preparations for the operation began, again generously paid for from abroad. Since the beginning of 1999, Kebedov's militants infiltrate in small groups into the territory of Dagestan and dissolve in the mountain villages, where they carry out ideological work, and also build military bases and weapons depots.

And in June 1999, the first armed clashes between militants and the Dagestan police began. The leadership of Dagestan insisted on conducting a large-scale military operation. Meanwhile, Kebedov turned to the field commanders for help. As a result, Shamil Basayev, Khattab, commander of the Islamic Regiment special purpose, the well-known kidnapper Arbi Baraev, Ramzan Akhmadov, the commander of the Sharia Guard of the CRI, Abdul-Malik Mezhidov, who is still hiding to this day, and others, in total more than 40 field commanders, agreed to help the ideologist of the Dagestani Wahhabis.

fighting

August 1, 1999- "in order to prevent penetration into the territory of the region and possible provocations by local followers of extremism" sent from Makhachkala to the Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan consolidated detachment militia (about 100 people). The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic was transferred to the barracks position, and also, 5th of August- the redeployment of the 102nd brigade of internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs begins to cover the Chechen-Dagestan border in the Tsumadinsky district.

BUT August 7- militants of the “Islamic peacekeeping brigade” of Basayev and Khattab, numbering from 400 to 500 militants, freely entered the Botlikh region of Dagestan and captured a number of villages (Ansalta, Rakhata, Tando, Shodroda, Godoberi), announcing the start of the operation “Imam Gazi-Magomed” . The video shows the terrorists entering the villages. First of all, in one of the villages, the policeman surrenders his weapon, and he is allowed to go home. Soon, the small population of the village pours out into the street, where Basayev and Khattab, with an important look, hold a kind of “press conference” for the residents, and the militants, having seized the shops, destroy the alcohol. There is nothing surprising here. Accustomed to filming, militants know how to behave during filming in order to appear as “honest liberators”. Basayev appreciated the power of funds mass media back in 1995 in the Budyonnovsk hospital.

8 August- militants captured the villages of Shodrota and Ziberkhali. And the next day, the "Islamic Shura of Dagestan" distributed the "Declaration on the Restoration of the Islamic State of Dagestan" and the "Resolution in connection with the occupation of the State of Dagestan" (these documents are dated August 6). Shura declared the State Council of the Republic of Dagestan deposed and formed an Islamic government. On the territory of several districts of Dagestan, the Shura television channel begins broadcasting calls for gazavat and other ideological materials of the Islamists. Shura officially appointed Shamil Basayev and Arab field commander Khattab as temporary commanders of militant forces in Dagestan.

However, after the capture of the villages, Russia's reaction was immediate. According to information Agency Finmarket, referring to the Vesti program August 9 ex-Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin thanked the Cabinet of Ministers for the work done, while he focused on the situation in Dagestan and the Caucasus, saying that the situation is very difficult. "Perhaps we can lose Dagestan." Then the people of the country understood that everything was serious.

Ordinary Dagestanis, Muslims just like the invading terrorists, took up arms and went to defend their villages. I recall the remark of one militiaman: “Just give us weapons, we will squeeze the militants out of there ourselves!”. Indeed, the footage from August 1999 resembles nothing less than partisans from the Great Patriotic War, when all men, young and old, picking up a variety of weapons, everything that shoots, go to fight.

With August 9 to 18 there are fierce battles for the strategically important height "Donkey's Ear", between the Wahhabis and the Novorossiysk and Stavropol paratroopers of the federal forces (coordinates: 42 ° 39 "59" N 46 ° 8 "0" E). On the part of the federal forces, 2 assaults were undertaken, it came to hand-to-hand combat. The fighting lasted almost 2 weeks, over time, the militants were driven out. As a result of the fighting, the paratroopers lost 13 people killed, including the commander of the battalion of the 108th Guards Parachute Regiment of the 7th Guards Airborne Division, Major Sergei Kostin, who was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero Russian Federation(posthumously).

August 16- The State Duma decided "to consider the invasion of illegal armed groups from the territory Chechen Republic on the territory of the Republic of Dagestan by a particularly dangerous form of terrorism with the participation of foreign citizens, aimed at separating the Republic of Dagestan from the Russian Federation. During the fighting, the militants manage to knock out a Russian helicopter, with three generals on board, and August 17 repulse the attack of federal troops on the village of Tando. From the federal side: 6 burned infantry fighting vehicles, 34 dead, several dozen wounded.

However, this is where the military successes of the Islamic Peacekeeping Brigade end. August 23- Basayev withdraws the remnants of his troops to the territory of Chechnya. 24 August- federal forces regained control over the villages of Ansalta, Rakhata, Shodroda, Tando.

With August 29 to September 13, an operation was carried out to destroy already Dagestan militants, the so-called Wahhabi enclave, in the Kadar zone. By the way, the Chechens who came out of the fighting are again returning to the aid of their Dagestan brothers in arms, but already in the villages of the Kadar zone - Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi. Here's what the informational websites say about it: September 5 - detachments Chechen fighters under the command of Basayev and Khattab, they again enter Dagestan, "in order to ease the pressure of the military-militia forces on the rebellious villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi in the Kadar zone." The operation is given the name "Imam Gamzat-bek". According to the militants, this operation was not planned, but was carried out in response to the requests of the Muslims of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi to save them from destruction.».

6 September- the militants captured the Dagestan villages of Novolakskoye, Chapaevo, Shushiya, Ahar, Novokuli, Tukhchar, Gamiyakh, but September 7 were stopped by federal troops 3 kilometers from the city of Khasavyurt. And it's September 11th Shamil Basayev announced the withdrawal of Islamic formations from the Novolaksky district. He stated that the Mujahideen entered Dagestan in order to help fellow believers in the Kadar zone, and now, after the defeat of the militias, it makes no sense to continue fighting. September 14- federal forces regained control over the village of Novolakskoe, a large-scale military operation of the federal forces ended in the defeat of the militants.

Here I would like to point out a few facts:

1. Since the beginning of the operation in the Kadar zone, many different media representatives have already worked on the scene, including Alexander Sladkov and Arkady Mamontov. Thus, everything that happened was "live";

2. 11 September- near the village of Duchi, a Mi-8 artillery spotter helicopter was shot down, all three crew members died;

3. September 5 - militants destroyed a checkpoint near the village of Tukhchar. The captured Russian servicemen were beheaded. Fragments of the video recording of the execution will be used in almost all subsequent documentaries about the Chechen war. The names of the guys, like everyone else fallen heroes, will remain in our memory forever: Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, privates Vladimir Kaufman, Alexei Lipatov, Boris Eredneev, Alexei Polagaev and Konstantin Anisimov.

Results. Plans. Losses

According to official figures, 279 soldiers and officers were killed and 800 wounded. On August 31, 1999, during the cleansing of the village of Karamakhi, a nurse, Sergeant Irina Yanina, died - the first (and at the beginning of 2008 the only) woman awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation for military operations in the Caucasian wars. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the loss of militants in Dagestan is about 2,500 killed. Units of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and militias were involved. Apart from ground combat equipment, artillery and aviation were actively used.

In addition, in September 1999, massive explosions of residential buildings in Moscow, Buynaksk, Volgodonsk, also caused human casualties. Chechen terrorists are taking responsibility.

As for the results. The main one is the suppression of a major terrorist act that threatened the territorial integrity of the state. If we talk about the further plans of the command, then the war did not end with the destruction of militants in Dagestan. In front of the troops, sovereign Chechnya was waiting, where the remnants of the militants had infiltrated, and where they were already preparing for a new war. The Chechen knot has been tightened for too long, the time has come to cut it.

• air force
• Navy
• Airborne

MIA

GRU GSH

Border Troops of the Federal Border Service of Russia

State Council of Dagestan

Commanders

Bagautdin Kebedov Sirazhudin Ramazanov # Shamil Basaev Khattab Abu Jafar Khunkar Israpilov Arbi Baraev Ruslan Khaykhoroev † Abdul-Malik Mezhidov Umar Edilsultanov (Karpinsky)

Vladimir Putin Viktor Kazantsev Gennady Troshev Vladimir Shamanov Alexander Baranov Adilgerey Magomedtagirov Magomed Omarov Gadzhi Makhachev Said Amirov

Side forces Losses

Militant invasion of Dagestan, also known as Dagestan war(actually considered the beginning of the Second Chechen War), - armed clashes that accompanied the entry of detachments based on the territory of Chechnya under the command of Shamil Basayev and Khattab into the territory of Dagestan on August 7 - September 14, 1999. Initially, detachments of militants entered Botlikhsky (operation "Imam Gazi-Muhammad"- August 7-23), and then to the Novolaksky district of Dagestan (operation "Imam Gamzat-bek"- September 5-14).

Prerequisites

The penetration into Dagestan of the ideas of the radical Islamic movement - Wahhabism - began in the late 1980s. One of the representatives of the Dagestan Wahhabis was Bagautdin Kebedov, who during the First Chechen War established close contacts with the Arab mercenary Khattab and Chechen field commanders. After the death of Dzhokhar Dudayev in 1996 and the end of the First Chechen War, supporters of Wahhabism began to rapidly gain positions in Chechnya, which was facilitated by the policy of the President of the CRI Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. (Yandarbiev himself noted: “I have always been a believer. If I hadn’t been like that, I wouldn’t have introduced Sharia in Chechnya during the nine months that I was president. Although almost all the leadership did not want me to introduce Sharia so hastily.”)

In 1997-1998, several dozen (according to other sources, several hundred) Dagestan Islamists received political asylum in Chechnya. Some of them fought on the side of the separatists during the First Chechen War, others participated in the Dagestan Salafi underground, for which they were wanted in Dagestan itself. The aforementioned Bagautdin Kebedov, with the material support of Chechen field commanders, created and armed autonomous combat formations. He announced his intention to turn Dagestan into an independent Islamic state and began preparing an armed struggle against the "pro-Russian" leadership of the republic. He formed a kind of government-in-exile, calling it the Islamic Shura of Dagestan. With the participation of Kebedov and his supporters, in April 1998, the founding congress of the organization "Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan" (KNID), headed by Shamil Basayev, was held in Grozny. The idea of ​​creating this organization was consonant with the idea of ​​many Chechen field commanders - "the liberation of the Muslim Caucasus from the Russian imperial yoke." Under the auspices of the KNID, armed formations were created, including the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, commanded by Khattab. KNID has repeatedly threatened the “pro-Russian leadership” of Dagestan, accusing them of persecuting local Muslims, declaring the “lack of legitimate power” in the republic, etc.

In 1999, Kebedov's militants began to enter Dagestan in small groups and set up military bases and weapons depots in hard-to-reach mountain villages. In June-August 1999, the first clashes took place between militants who entered Dagestan and the Dagestan police, as a result of which several policemen were killed and wounded. The authorities of Dagestan called on the federal troops to conduct a large-scale military operation against the Islamists.

Kebedov persuaded the Chechen field commanders to help the Dagestan Muslims in "liberating the sacred Dagestan land from occupation by infidels." At the same time, he argued, referring to his relatives and supporters in Dagestan, that if Islamist detachments were brought into Dagestan, the vast majority of the population of Dagestan would support them and raise a general anti-Russian uprising. KNID, headed by Shamil Basaev and Khattab, agreed to provide military assistance to Kebedov, and also called on other field commanders to do so (in total, about 40 commanders of various levels gathered, including Arbi Baraev, Ramzan Akhmadov, Abdul-Malik Mezhidov and others).

The decision of the KNID to provide military support to Kebedov’s detachments (which by that time already included several hundred well-armed fighters) was influenced by the conflict that took place in the leadership of Chechnya in 1998-1999 between supporters of the course of Aslan Maskhadov (“moderates”) and “radicals ”(by the opposition Shura led by Shamil Basayev), as well as the unwillingness to refuse help to fellow believers, many of whom fought on the side of the Chechen separatists in the First Chechen War.

The official position of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

Chronology of events

• August 1 - "in order to prevent penetration into the territory of the region and possible provocations by local followers of Wahhabism" a combined police detachment (about 100 people) was sent from Makhachkala to the Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan.
• August 2 - 4 - Makhachkala policemen clash with local Wahhabi militants in the Tsumadinsky district.
• August 3 - the internal affairs bodies of Dagestan are transferred to the barracks.
• August 5 - the redeployment of the 102nd brigade of internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs begins to cover the Chechen-Dagestan border in the Tsumadinsky district.
• August 7 - units of the "Islamic Peacekeeping Brigade" of Basayev and Khattab, numbering from 400 (according to the militants themselves - 500 militants, freely entered the Botlikh region of Dagestan and captured a number of villages (Ansalta, Rakhata, Tando, Shodroda, Godoberi), announcing the beginning operations "Imam Gazi-Magomed" .
• August 8 - The militants captured the villages of Shodroda and Zibirkhali.
• August 9 - 11 - "Islamic shura of Dagestan" distributed the "Declaration on the restoration of the Islamic State of Dagestan" and "Decree in connection with the occupation of the State of Dagestan" (these documents are dated August 6). Shura declared the State Council of the Republic of Dagestan deposed and formed an Islamic government. Serazhutdin Ramazanov became the head of the Islamic government, and Magomed Tagaev became the minister of information and press. On the territory of several districts of Dagestan, the Shura television channel begins broadcasting calls for gazavat and other ideological materials of the Islamists. Shura officially appointed Shamil Basayev and Arab field commander Khattab as temporary commanders of militant forces in Dagestan.
• August 9 - 25 - Fight for the Donkey Ear height.
• August 11 - Islamic militants fired on and shot down a helicopter of federal troops. Among the wounded are three generals of the internal troops.
• August 12 – The Russian Air Force bombed militant positions in the areas of Gagatli and Andi settlements in Dagestan.
• August 13 - The battle for the village of Gagatli and the battles for the height of the Donkey's Ear south of the settlement of Shodroda. Death of Major Kostin.
• August 16 - The State Duma decided "to consider the invasion of illegal armed groups from the territory of the Chechen Republic into the territory of the Republic of Dagestan as a particularly dangerous form of terrorism with the participation of foreign citizens, aimed at separating the Republic of Dagestan from the Russian Federation" .
• August 17 - Militants repulse an attack by federal troops on the village of Tando. From the federal side: 6 burned BMPs, 34 dead, several dozen wounded.
• August 18 - Federal forces undertake a second assault on the Donkey's Ear height.
• August 23 - Basayev withdrew the remnants of his troops to the territory of Chechnya.
• August 24 - Federal forces regained control over the villages of Ansalta, Rakhata, Shodroda, Tando. According to Human Rights Watch, federal forces used vacuum bombs to storm the latter.
• August 29 - September 13 - military operation to capture and destroy the Wahhabi enclave in the Kadar zone.
• September 4 - Explosion of a residential building in Buynaksk.
• September 5
• September 5-6 - Capture of height 715.3 by Wahhabis.
• September 6 - militants captured the Dagestan villages of Novolakskoye, Chapaevo, Shushiya, Akhar, Novokuli, Tukhchar, Gamiyakh.
• September 7 - Federal forces stopped the militants 5 kilometers from the city of Khasavyurt.
• September 10-11 - The death of the Armavir special forces.
• September 11 - Mi-8 artillery spotter helicopter was shot down near the village of Duchi. All three crew members managed to jump out with parachutes, but Chechen snipers shot them in the air. Basayev announced the withdrawal of Islamic formations from the Novolaksky district. He stated that the Mujahideen entered Dagestan in order to help fellow believers in the Kadar zone, and now, after the defeat of the militias, it makes no sense to continue hostilities.
• September 14 - Federal forces regained control over the village of Novolakskoye.
• September 15 - Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev reported to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the territory of Dagestan was completely liberated from terrorists.

Losses

I can’t express in words the feelings when during one of the battles in Dagestan - in my perception from what I saw, it was the most cruel war! - I heard the wildest “recommendation” of one general to a certain addressee: “You take care of the equipment, I’ll throw the guys to you ...”

According to official figures, 279 soldiers and officers were killed and 800 wounded. On August 31, 1999, during the cleansing of the village of Karamakhi, a nurse, Sergeant Irina Yanina, died - the first (and as of April 2016 the only) woman awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation for military operations in the Caucasus.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the loss of militants in Dagestan is about 2,500 killed.

see also

Sources

2. // Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century: Losses Armed Forces/ ed. G. F. Krivosheev. - M.: Olma-Press, 2001. - S. 582-584.
3. // RBC, December 15, 1999
4. // Caucasian knot
5. Muzaev Timur// Political monitoring. - September 1999
6. Kudryavtsev A.V. // central Asia and the Caucasus. - No. 9. - 2000.
7. Suponina Elena// News time. - N° 230. - 12/17/2001
8. // RBC, 08/12/1999
9. // Russian newspaper
10. // Yasin Rasulov- Kavkaz Center
11. Lukin Oleg// Bridge. - No. 3. - 2008. ()
13. // Gazeta.ru dated 12-08-1999 (Issue No 113)
14. Decree of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation N 4277-II GD of August 16, 1999 ""
16. // Human Rights Watch
17. // Memorial, 09/27/99
18. Rubanets Nikolay, Manachinsky Alexander// Mirror of the week, 01.10.1999
19. // RBC, 09/07/1999
20. Khramov Anatoly

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An excerpt characterizing the Invasion of militants in Dagestan

Prince Andrei shrugged his shoulders and grimaced, as music lovers frown when they hear a false note. Both women released each other; then again, as if afraid of being late, they grabbed each other's hands, began to kiss and tear off their hands, and then again began to kiss each other on the face, and quite unexpectedly for Prince Andrei, both began to cry and began to kiss again. M lle Bourienne also began to cry. Prince Andrei was obviously embarrassed; but it seemed so natural to the two women that they wept; they did not seem to imagine that this meeting could have taken place otherwise.
- Ah! chere!…Ah! Marieie!…” both women suddenly spoke and laughed. - J "ai reve сette nuit ... - Vous ne nous attendez donc pas? ... Ah! Marieie, vous avez maigri ... - Et vous avez repris ... [Ah, dear! ... Ah, Marie! ... - And I saw it in a dream. - So you weren't expecting us?… Ah, Marie, you've lost so much weight.
- J "ai tout de suite reconnu madame la princesse, [I immediately recognized the princess,]" inserted m lle Bourienne.
“Et moi qui ne me doutais pas!…” exclaimed Princess Mary. - Ah! Andre, je ne vous voyais pas. [I had no idea!… Ah, Andre, I didn't even see you.]
Prince Andrei kissed his sister hand in hand and told her that she was the same pleurienicheuse, [crybaby,] as she always was. Princess Marya turned to her brother, and through her tears the loving, warm, and meek look of her eyes, beautiful at that moment, large, radiant, rested on the face of Prince Andrei.
The princess spoke incessantly. The short upper lip with the mustache flew down for a moment, touched, where necessary, to the ruddy lower lip, and a smile shining with teeth and eyes opened again. The princess told an incident that had happened to them on Spassky Hill, which threatened her with danger in her position, and immediately after that she reported that she had left all her dresses in Petersburg and that God knows what would go around here, and that Andrei had completely changed, and that Kitty Odyntsova married an old man, and that there is a groom for Princess Marya pour tout de bon, [quite serious,] but that we will talk about this later. Princess Mary still silently looked at her brother, and in her beautiful eyes there was both love and sadness. It was evident that her own train of thought had now been established in her, independent of the speeches of her daughter-in-law. In the middle of her story about the last holiday in Petersburg, she turned to her brother:
– And you are definitely going to war, Andre? oia said with a sigh.
Lise winced too.
“Even tomorrow,” answered the brother.
- II m "abandonne ici, et Du sait pourquoi, quand il aur pu avoir de l" advancement ... [He leaves me here, and God knows why, then how could he get a promotion ...]
Princess Mary did not listen to the end and, continuing the thread of her thoughts, she turned to her daughter-in-law, pointing with affectionate eyes at her stomach:
- Probably? - she said.
The face of the princess changed. She sighed.
“Yeah, probably,” she said. – Ah! It's very scary…
Lisa's lip drooped. She brought her face close to that of her sister-in-law, and suddenly burst into tears again.
“She needs to rest,” said Prince Andrei, wincing. Isn't it, Lisa? Take her to you, and I will go to the father. What is he, all the same?
- The same, the same; I don’t know about your eyes,” the princess answered joyfully.
- And the same hours, and walks along the alleys? Machine? Prince Andrei asked with a barely perceptible smile, showing that despite all his love and respect for his father, he understood his weaknesses.
“The same watch and machine, still mathematics and my geometry lessons,” Princess Mary answered joyfully, as if her geometry lessons were one of the most joyful impressions of her life.
When the twenty minutes that were needed for the time for the old prince to get up had passed, Tikhon came to call the young prince to his father. The old man made an exception in his way of life in honor of the arrival of his son: he ordered to let him into his half while dressing before dinner. The prince walked in the old way, in a caftan and powder. And while Prince Andrei (not with that peevish expression and manners that he put on himself in the living rooms, but with that animated face that he had when he talked with Pierre) was entering his father, the old man was sitting in the dressing room on a wide, morocco upholstered armchair, in a powder-manufacturer, leaving his head in Tikhon's hands.
- BUT! Warrior! Do you want to conquer Bonaparte? - said the old man and shook his powdered head, as much as the braided braid, which was in the hands of Tikhon, allowed. - At least take it well for him, otherwise he will soon write us down as his subjects. - Great! And he stuck out his cheek.
The old man was in good spirits after his afternoon nap. (He said that after dinner a silver dream, and before dinner a golden one.) He joyfully looked sideways at his son from under his thick overhanging eyebrows. Prince Andrei came up and kissed his father in the place indicated by him. He did not respond to his father's favorite topic of conversation - bantering with the current military people, and especially Bonaparte.
“Yes, I came to you, father, and with a pregnant wife,” said Prince Andrei, following with animated and respectful eyes the movement of every feature of his father’s face. - How is your health?
- Unhealthy, brother, there are only fools and lechers, and you know me: from morning to evening busy, temperate, well, healthy.
“Thank God,” said the son, smiling.
“God has nothing to do with it. Well, tell me, - he continued, returning to his favorite horse, - how do the Germans fight Bonaparte according to your new science, called strategy, taught.
Prince Andrew smiled.
“Let me come to my senses, father,” he said with a smile that showed that his father’s weaknesses did not prevent him from respecting and loving him. “Because I haven’t settled in yet.
"You're lying, you're lying," the old man shouted, shaking his pigtail to see if it was tightly braided, and grabbing his son by the arm. The house for your wife is ready. Princess Marya will bring her and show her, and talk from three boxes. It's their mother's business. I'm glad for her. Sit and tell. I understand Michelson's army, Tolstoy too... one-time landing... What will the southern army do? Prussia, neutrality... I know that. Austria what? - he said, getting up from his chair and walking around the room with Tikhon running around and handing out pieces of clothing. Sweden what? How will Pomerania be crossed?
Prince Andrei, seeing the urgency of his father's demand, at first reluctantly, but then more and more animated and involuntarily, in the middle of the story, out of habit, switching from Russian to French, began to outline the operational plan of the proposed campaign. He told how a 90,000-strong army was to threaten Prussia in order to bring it out of neutrality and draw it into the war, how part of these troops was to join the Swedish troops in Stralsund, how 222,000 Austrians, in conjunction with a hundred thousand Russians, were to act in Italy and on the Rhine, and how fifty thousand Russians and fifty thousand Englishmen would land at Naples, and how, as a result, an army of five hundred thousand different sides make an attack on the French. The old prince did not show the slightest interest in the story, as if he had not listened, and, continuing to dress as he walked, interrupted him unexpectedly three times. Once he stopped him and shouted:
- White! white!
This meant that Tikhon was not giving him the vest he wanted. Another time he stopped and asked:
- And soon she will give birth? - and, shaking his head reproachfully, he said: - Not good! Go on, go on.
The third time, when Prince Andrei finished the description, the old man sang in a false and senile voice: “Malbroug s” en va t en guerre. Dieu sait guand revendra.
The son just smiled.
- I'm not saying that this was a plan that I approve, - said the son, - I just told you what is. Napoleon had already drawn up his plan no worse than this.
Well, you didn't tell me anything new. - And the old man thoughtfully said to himself quickly: - Dieu sait quand revendra. - Go to the dining room.

At the appointed hour, powdered and shaved, the prince went into the dining room, where his daughter-in-law, Princess Mary, m lle Bourienne and the prince’s architect, who, by a strange whim, were admitted to the table, were waiting for him, although this insignificant person by his position could not count on such an honor. . The prince, who firmly adhered to the difference in fortunes in life and rarely allowed even important provincial officials to the table, suddenly proved to the architect Mikhail Ivanovich, who was blowing his nose in a checkered handkerchief in a corner, that all people are equal, and more than once inspired his daughter that Mikhail Ivanovich did nothing worse than you and me. At the table, the prince most often turned to the dumb Mikhail Ivanovich.
In the dining room, enormously high, like all the rooms in the house, the household and the waiters who stood behind every chair were waiting for the prince to come out; the butler, with a napkin on his hand, looked around at the table setting, winking at the lackeys and constantly darting restlessly from the wall clock to the door from which the prince was supposed to appear. Prince Andrei looked at a huge, new to him, golden frame depicting the genealogical tree of the Bolkonsky princes, hanging opposite the same huge frame with a badly made (apparently by the hand of a house painter) image of a sovereign prince in a crown, who was supposed to come from Rurik and be the ancestor the Bolkonsky family. Prince Andrei looked at this family tree, shaking his head, and chuckled with the air with which one looks at a portrait that is similar to the ridiculous.
How do I recognize him here! he said to Princess Marya, who came up to him.
Princess Mary looked at her brother in surprise. She didn't understand what he was smiling at. Everything her father had done aroused in her awe that was beyond negotiation.
“Everyone has their own Achilles heel,” continued Prince Andrei. “With his great mind, donner dans ce ridicule!” [succumb to this pettiness!]
Princess Marya could not understand the boldness of her brother’s judgments and was preparing to object to him, when the expected steps were heard from the study: the prince entered quickly, cheerfully, as he always walked, as if deliberately with his hasty manners representing the opposite of the strict order of the house.
At the same instant, the big clock struck two, and others echoed in a thin voice in the drawing-room. The prince stopped; from under thick drooping eyebrows, lively, shining, stern eyes looked around at everyone and stopped at the young princess. The young princess experienced at that time the feeling that the courtiers feel at the royal entrance, the feeling of fear and reverence that this old man aroused in all those close to him. He stroked the princess on the head and then, with an awkward movement, patted her on the back of the head.
"I'm glad, I'm glad," he said, and, still looking intently into her eyes, he quickly walked away and sat down in his place. - Sit down, sit down! Mikhail Ivanovich, sit down.
He showed his daughter-in-law a place beside him. The waiter pulled out a chair for her.
- Go, go! said the old man, looking at her rounded waist. - Hurry up, not good!
He laughed dryly, coldly, unpleasantly, as he always laughed, with one mouth and not with his eyes.
“You have to walk, walk, as much as possible, as much as possible,” he said.
The little princess did not hear or did not want to hear his words. She was silent and seemed embarrassed. The prince asked her about her father, and the princess spoke and smiled. He asked her about common acquaintances: the princess became even more animated and began to talk, conveying to the prince bows and city gossip.
- La comtesse Apraksine, la pauvre, a perdu son Mariei, et elle a pleure les larmes de ses yeux, [Princess Apraksina, poor thing, lost her husband and cried out all her eyes,] she said, more and more animated.
As she revived, the prince looked at her more and more sternly, and suddenly, as if he had studied her enough and formed a clear idea about her, turned away from her and turned to Mikhail Ivanovich.
- Well, Mikhail Ivanovich, Buonaparte is having a bad time with us. How did Prince Andrei (he always called his son that in the third person) told me what forces were gathering on him! And we all considered him an empty person.
Mikhail Ivanovich, who resolutely did not know when we were talking such words about Bonaparte, but who understood that he was needed to enter into a favorite conversation, looked at the young prince in surprise, not knowing himself what would come of it.
He is a great tactician! - said the prince to his son, pointing to the architect.
And the conversation turned again to the war, about Bonaparte and the current generals and statesmen. The old prince, it seemed, was convinced not only that all the current leaders were boys who did not understand the ABCs of military and state affairs, and that Bonaparte was an insignificant Frenchman who had success only because there were no Potemkins and Suvorovs to oppose him; but he was even convinced that there were no political difficulties in Europe, there was no war either, but there was some kind of puppet comedy played by today's people, pretending to do business. Prince Andrei cheerfully endured his father's mockery of new people and with apparent joy called his father to a conversation and listened to him.
“Everything seems good as it was before,” he said, “but didn’t the same Suvorov fall into the trap that Moreau set for him, and didn’t know how to get out of it?
- Who told you? Who said? shouted the prince. - Suvorov! - And he threw away the plate, which Tikhon quickly picked up. - Suvorov! ... Having thought, Prince Andrei. Two: Friedrich and Suvorov ... Moreau! Moreau would have been a prisoner if Suvorov's hands were free; and in his arms sat hofs kriegs wurst schnapps rat. The devil is not happy with him. Here you go, you will recognize these Hofs Kriegs Wurst Raths! Suvorov did not cope with them, so where is Mikhail Kutuzov to deal with? No, my friend,” he continued, “you and your generals cannot manage against Bonaparte; you need to take the French so that you don’t know your own and beat your own. The German Palen was sent to New York, to America, for the Frenchman Moreau,” he said, alluding to the invitation that Moreau had made this year to enter the Russian service. - Miracles! ... Were the Potemkins, Suvorovs, Orlovs Germans? No, brother, either you all went crazy there, or I survived out of my mind. God bless you and we'll see. Bonaparte they have become a great commander! Hm!…
“I’m not saying anything so that all orders are good,” said Prince Andrei, “only I can’t understand how you can judge Bonaparte like that. Laugh as you like, but Bonaparte is still a great commander!
- Mikhail Ivanovich! - the old prince shouted to the architect, who, having taken up the roast, hoped that they had forgotten about him. “Did I tell you that Bonaparte is a great tactician?” Vaughn and he says.
“Yes, Your Excellency,” replied the architect.
The prince laughed his cold laugh again.
- Bonaparte was born in a shirt. His soldiers are excellent. Yes, and the first he attacked the Germans. And only the lazy did not beat the Germans. Since peace has been standing, the Germans have been beaten all the time. And they are nobody. Only each other. He made his glory on them.
And the prince began to analyze all the mistakes that, according to his concepts, Bonaparte made in all his wars and even in public affairs. The son did not object, but it was clear that no matter what arguments were presented to him, he was just as little able to change his mind as the old prince. Prince Andrei listened, refraining from objections and involuntarily wondering how this an old man, sitting alone for so many years without a break in the countryside, in such detail and with such subtlety to know and discuss all the military and political circumstances of Europe in recent years.
“Do you think I, old man, don’t understand the real state of affairs?” he concluded. “And that’s where it is for me!” I don't sleep at night. Well, where is this great commander of yours, where did he show himself?
“That would be long,” answered the son.
- Go to your Buonaparte. M lle Bourienne, voila encore un admirateur de votre goujat d "empereur! [here is another admirer of your servile emperor ...] - he shouted in excellent French.
- Vous savez, que je ne suis pas bonapartiste, mon prince. [You know, Prince, that I am not a Bonapartist.]
- “Dieu sait quand revendra” ... [God knows when he will return!] - the prince sang out of tune, laughed even more out of tune and left the table.
The little princess was silent during the whole argument and the rest of the dinner and looked in fright now at Princess Marya, then at her father-in-law. When they left the table, she took her sister-in-law by the hand and called her to another room.
- Comme c "est un homme d" esprit votre pere, she said, - c "est a cause de cela peut etre qu" il me fait peur. [What a smart person your father is. Maybe that's why I'm afraid of him.]
- Oh, he's so kind! - said the princess.

Prince Andrei left the next day in the evening. The old prince, without deviating from his order, went to his room after dinner. The little princess was with her sister-in-law. Prince Andrei, dressed in a traveling frock coat without an epaulet, was packing with his valet in the chambers allotted to him. Having inspected the carriage and the packing of the suitcases himself, he ordered to lay it down. Only those things remained in the room that Prince Andrei always took with him: a casket, a large silver cellar, two Turkish pistols and a saber, a gift from his father, brought from near Ochakov. All these travel accessories were in great order at Prince Andrey's: everything was new, clean, in cloth covers, carefully tied with ribbons.
In moments of departure and a change in life, people who are able to think about their actions usually find a serious mood of thoughts. In these moments, the past is usually verified and plans for the future are made. The face of Prince Andrei was very thoughtful and tender. With his hands folded back, he paced the room quickly from corner to corner, looking ahead of him, and shaking his head thoughtfully. Was he afraid to go to war, was he sad to leave his wife—perhaps both, but apparently not wanting to be seen in such a position, hearing footsteps in the hallway, he hurriedly freed his hands, stopped at the table, as if he was tying the cover of the box, and assumed his usual, calm and impenetrable expression. These were the heavy steps of Princess Marya.
“They told me that you ordered the mortgage,” she said, out of breath (she must have been running), “but I so wanted to talk to you alone again. God knows how long we'll be apart again. Are you angry that I came? You have changed a lot, Andryusha, - she added, as if in explanation of such a question.
She smiled, pronouncing the word "Andryusha". Apparently, it was strange for her to think that this strict, handsome man was the same Andryusha, a thin, playful boy, a childhood friend.
- Where is Lise? he asked, only answering her question with a smile.
She was so tired that she fell asleep on the couch in my room. Ah, Andre! Que! tresor de femme vous avez,” she said, sitting down on the sofa opposite her brother. She is a perfect child, such a sweet, cheerful child. I loved her so much.
Prince Andrei was silent, but the princess noticed an ironic and contemptuous expression that appeared on his face.
– But one must be indulgent to small weaknesses; who does not have them, Andre! Don't forget that she was brought up and raised in the world. And then her situation is no longer rosy. It is necessary to enter into the position of everyone. Tout comprendre, c "est tout pardonner. [Whoever understands everything will forgive everything.] You think about it, poor thing, after the life to which she is accustomed, to part with her husband and remain alone in the village and in her position? This very hard.

Second Chechen campaign began with an attack by militants led by Basayev and Khattab on Dagestan. Initially, detachments of Chechen fighters entered the territory of the Botlikh region. Active fighting in this area continued from 7 to 23 August 1999. During these battles, detachments of militants were forced into the territory of Chechnya. From August 29 to September 13, Russian troops carried out an operation to capture and destroy the Wahhabi enclave that had formed in the so-called Kadar zone. On September 5, 1999, the detachments of Basayev and Khattab entered Dagestan for the second time, this time a blow was struck on the Novolaksky district of the republic. The blow was supposed to divert forces Russian army and militia from the rebellious villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi in the Kadar zone.

The operation, which the militants called "Imam Gamzat-bek", began on September 5 and lasted until September 14. During this time, government troops were able to fully restore control over the Kadar zone, in the military sense, the operation of Bassaev and Khattab lost all meaning. They were unable to provide significant assistance to the Wahhabis in Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi, and the overwhelming majority of the population of Dagestan did not support the militants, and were ready to defend their republic in their hands. On September 14, government troops regained control over the village of Novolakskoye, and on September 15, 1999, the then Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev reported to Putin that the entire territory of Dagestan was completely liberated from Chechen gangs.

Battle for the TV tower

By the beginning of September 1999, the militants were forced out of the territory of the Botlikh region. The only villages supporting the bandits, Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi, which were also strongholds of the Wahhabis from among the local population, were surrounded by the federals. The outcome of the battles in this direction was obvious. However, the leadership of the militants decided to launch a surprise strike in the Novolaksky district of Dagestan, which had not yet been involved in hostilities. When planning this operation, Basayev and Khattab counted on the fact that the main forces of the Russian troops would be involved in hostilities on the territory of the Kadar zone. They counted on the speed of action and surprise, at the first stage it bore fruit.

Detachments of militants numbering up to two thousand people, again crossing the border with Dagestan, were able to occupy the border villages of Tukhchar, Gamiyakh (Khasavyurt district), as well as Chapaevo and Akhar (Novolaksky district) and the district center Novolakskoye itself. It was possible to stop the breakthrough of the militants only 5 kilometers southwest of Khasavyurt, which was the second largest city in Dagestan. With this blow, the enemy not only tried to pull off part of the Russian troops from the Kadar zone, but also still counted on destabilizing the situation in the republic itself. These plans of the militants failed, while even in the initial phase they faced certain difficulties.

Unexpectedly stubborn was the battle for the dominant height of the TV tower near the village of Novolakskoye. From this height, not only the district center was clearly visible, but also most of the territory of the districts and the main roads. For this reason, on the morning of September 5, 1999, the militants sent several dozen of their fighters to the height. However, it did not work out to take the height at once, although it was defended by only 6 people - 5 Dagestan policemen of the Novolaksky District Department of Internal Affairs, led by Lieutenant Khalid Murachuev, and one soldier of internal troops.

The group, which consisted of local policemen, was reinforced by one Russian machine gunner from the Russian Interior Ministry Troops. From the sounds of shooting that was heard from the village, the policemen understood what was happening in Novolakskoe. Lieutenant Murachuev managed to organize all-round defense and distributed the available ammunition. The garrison of the TV Tower successfully repulsed the first attack of the militants with dagger fire at close range. The second and third attacks of militants on the heights also failed. As a result, only 6 fighters kept more than 100 fighters near the height during the day.

Enemy attacks followed one another, between attacks the height was processed by militants from mortars. In total, the militants launched 7 attacks, which did not lead to success, filling up the approaches to the height with the dead. However, the forces of the defenders were also running out. During one of the attacks, a policeman was killed; in the next, a machine gunner was wounded. The two policemen who carried him out were surrounded and taken prisoner when they left the height. And at the height, lieutenant Murachuev and junior sergeant Isaev were still resisting, both were also wounded by that time. They were able to last the night. The last report from the height was received in the early morning of April 6, 1999: "The cartridges have run out, Mutei is wounded, he delivers grenades, I throw." In the end, the militants were able to break into the height and committed a brutal massacre over its last seriously wounded defenders. Lieutenant Khalid Murachuev was beheaded by militants.

Captured militants spoke about the details of the feat of the defenders of the height and their death in September 2000, indicating the burial places of the heroes. In that battle, up to 50 members of illegal gangs were killed and wounded. At the same time, the militants lost a day to take the TV tower height, having lost the effect of surprise. The battle at the height had not yet subsided, and units of Russian troops were already deploying around the village of Novolakskoye. For the courage and heroism that were shown in the performance of their duty, Lieutenant Khalid Murachuev and Junior Sergeant Mutei Isaev were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation on January 31, 2002.

Destruction of the checkpoint and execution of Russian servicemen in the village of Tukhchar

On September 5, 1999, during the re-invasion of militants into Dagestan, they committed a brutal murder of Russian servicemen in the village of Tukhchar. They filmed this murder on videotape, which later fell into the hands of federal forces, and the tragedy itself became widely known. A gang of Chechen fighters, led by Umar Karpinsky, was advancing on Tukhchar. The road to the village was covered by a checkpoint where Dagestani policemen served. A little higher on the mountain stood an infantry fighting vehicle and 13 soldiers from the 22nd separate brigade special purpose of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia from Kalach-on-Don.

Having entered the village of Tukhchar from the rear, the gang members were able to take the village police department and began shelling the height on which the brigade fighters were located. Quite quickly, a shot from a grenade launcher knocked out an infantry fighting vehicle of the internal troops, while the gunner died on the spot, and the driver was shell-shocked. The soldiers who survived the battle fled to the village, trying to hide from the militants. However, on the orders of Karpinsky, members of his gang conducted a search, examining both the village and the surrounding area. In one of the houses, the militants found a shell-shocked BMP driver, and in the basement of another, 5 more Russian servicemen. After a warning shot at the house from a grenade launcher, they had to surrender.

By order of Umar Karpinsky, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. Here, the militants executed six prisoners - one senior lieutenant and five conscripts. The militants cut the throats of five Russian servicemen, Karpinsky personally killed one of the victims, another soldier was shot while trying to escape. Later, a video of this terrible crime fell into the hands of the Dagestan operational services. Over time, all participants in this murder were punished. The organizer of the murder and the leader of the militants Umar Edilsultanov (Karpinsky) was destroyed after 5 months during an attempt to break through the militants from Grozny. Another 5 people involved in the murder were sentenced to various prison terms, three of them to life imprisonment.

Fight in Novolakskoye

In the very district center of Novolakskoye, more than 60 employees of the local police department, as well as fighters of the Lipetsk OMON stationed in the village, were blocked by militants. The fighters did not lay down their arms and fought with the enemy surrounded for about a day. An armored group from the 22nd Separate Special Purpose Brigade of the Interior Ministry of the Russian Federation was sent to help the village, but it could not break through to the encircled and was stopped by militant fire. According to the version of the Commander-in-Chief of the Internal Troops (at that time), General V. Ovchinnikov, he personally coordinated mortar fire on enemy positions in order to provide the surrounded riot police and policemen with the opportunity to break out of the encirclement.

At the same time, another version was presented by the direct participants in those battles, it was published in the magazine "Soldier of Fortune" No. 2 for 2001. That article contained the version of the Lipetsk OMON fighters about the battle for Novolakskoye. According to them, after an unsuccessful attempt to release the encircled with the help of the formed armored group, they were essentially abandoned to their fate. They made the decision to break out of the encirclement on their own, and, according to them, no distracting mortar strike from the federal forces was carried out. According to official figures, the fighters of the Lipetsk riot police were able to leave Novolaksky with minimal losses - 2 killed and 6 wounded. At the same time, the total losses Russian side during the battle in Novolakskoye officially amounted to 15 people killed and 14 wounded.

In total, during the month and a half battles on the territory of Dagestan in August-September 1999, the loss of federal forces, according to official data, amounted to 280 people killed and 987 wounded. The losses of the militants were estimated at 1.5-2 thousand killed. However, the federal forces were able to achieve real results only in the Buynaksky district of Dagestan, where the Wahhabist group in the Kadar zone was completely defeated. At the same time, in the regions bordering Chechnya, the troops failed to encircle and destroy all the militant groups that had invaded Dagestan, who, after fighting in Botlikh (August) and Novolaksky (September), were able to withdraw to the territory of Chechnya.

Having ousted the militants from the territory of Dagestan, the leadership in the Kremlin was given a choice: to strengthen the border with Chechnya and continue to repulse Basayev's further attacks, in parallel with this, trying to negotiate with the President of Chechnya Maskhadov, or repeat the military operation on the territory of Chechnya, in order to defeat the militants on their territory, having simultaneously solved the problem of returning Chechnya to the Russian Federation. The second option for the development of events was chosen, the second Chechen campaign began.

Information sources:
http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=7082
http://www.vestnikmostok.ru/index.php?categoryid=17&id_item=154&action=view
http://terroristica.info/node/245
http://otvaga2004.ru/fotoreportazhi/voyny-i-goryachie-tochki/oborona-dagestana-1999
https://en.wikipedia.org

In September 1999, a phase of the Chechen military campaign began, which was called the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus (CTO). The reason for the start of the operation was a massive invasion from the territory of Chechnya under the general command of an Arab mercenary.

The units of the so-called "Islamic peacekeeping brigade" of Basayev and Khattab (according to various sources, numbering from 400 to 1.5 thousand militants), freely entered the Botlikh region of Dagestan and captured five settlements (Ansalta, Rakhata, Tando, Shodroda, Godoberi).

On September 5, 1999, about two thousand militants occupied the dominant heights in the Novolaksky district of Dagestan, hoping to capture the cities of Khasavyurt and Buynaksk, followed by access to Makhachkala. Large forces of illegal armed formations (IAF) concentrated in the Kizlyar direction. The total number of militants on the Dagestan-Chechen border has reached 10 thousand people.

The power structures of Russia sent units of the 136th brigade of the Ministry of Defense, the 102nd brigade of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, police units of local and central subordination to the invasion area. The command of the Joint Group was entrusted to the commander of the North Caucasian Military District, Colonel-General Viktor Kazantsev.

On the same days - September 4-16 - in several Russian cities (Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buynaksk) a series of terrorist acts were carried out - explosions of residential buildings.

In the middle of September Russian leadership It was decided to conduct a military operation to destroy the militants on the territory of Chechnya. On September 18, the borders of Chechnya were blocked by Russian troops.

On September 23, the President of the Russian Federation issued a Decree "On measures to increase the effectiveness of counter-terrorist operations in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation", which provides for the creation of a Joint Group of Troops (Forces) in the North Caucasus to conduct counter-terrorist operation.

By September 25, the federal forces had driven out the illegal armed formations from Dagestan, continuing their liquidation on the territory of Chechnya.

On September 30, a ground operation began - armored units of the Russian army from the Stavropol Territory and Dagestan entered the territory of the Naursky and Shelkovsky regions of the republic.

Years, the entire flat part of the territory of the Chechen Republic was liberated. The militants concentrated in the mountains (about 5 thousand people) and settled in Grozny.

On February 7, 2000, Grozny was taken under the control of federal forces. To fight in Chechnya, in addition to the eastern and western groups operating in the mountains, a new grouping "Center" was created.

The last large-scale operation was the liquidation of the group in the area of ​​the village (March 5-20, 2000). After that, the militants switched to sabotage and terrorist methods of warfare, and the federal forces countered the terrorists with the actions of special forces and operations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On April 20, 2000, 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.

In January 2001, a gradual withdrawal of the Defense Ministry troops from Chechnya began. It was announced that only the Ministry of Defense (15 thousand people) and the brigade remained here on a permanent basis. Internal Troops Ministry of Internal Affairs (7 thousand people). The leadership of the KTO was entrusted to the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation. The primary task was to carry out special operations to destroy the remaining small illegal armed formations and their leaders.

During the CTO in Chechnya in 2002 in Moscow, it was committed at the Theater Center on Dubrovka. In 2004, there was a series of terrorist attacks: terrorists blew up a subway car filled with people at the Avtozavodskaya station in Moscow,

May 9 during festive events in Grozny, dedicated to the Day Victory, the president of Chechnya was killed during the terrorist attack, in August suicide bombers blew up two planes in the air - Tu-154 and Tu-134, on September 1 hostages were taken at school No. 1 in the city of Beslan in North Ossetia.

In 2005, after the destruction of Khattab, Abu al-Walid and many other field commanders, the intensity of the sabotage and terrorist activities of the militants decreased significantly. The only large-scale operation of the militants (a raid on Kabardino-Balkaria on October 13, 2005) ended in failure.

From midnight on April 16, 2009, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAC) of Russia, on behalf of President Dmitry Medvedev, abolished the CTO regime on the territory of the Chechen Republic.

For two years of active hostilities within the framework of the CTO (from October 1999 to October 2001), the losses of federal forces are estimated at 3,438 people dead and 11,661 wounded, the losses of militants - about 11 thousand people.

The irretrievable losses among the civilian population, according to estimates, amounted to 5.5 thousand people, of which about 4 thousand people were killed. The number of people missing in action is incalculable.