1.
Mil Mi-8
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The Mil Mi-8 is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Union, and now produced by Russia. In addition to its most common role as a helicopter, the Mi-8 is also used as an airborne command post, armed gunship. Along with the related, more powerful Mil Mi-17, the Mi-8 is among the worlds most-produced helicopters, as of 2015, it is the third most common operational military aircraft in the world. Due to the position of the engine, this enabled Mikhail Mil to justify redesigning the front half of the aircraft around the single engine. The prototype, which was named V-8, was designed in 1958, powered by an AI-242,010 kW Soloviev turboshaft engine, the single engined V-8 prototype had its maiden flight in June 1961 and was first shown on Soviet Aviation Day parade in July 1961. During an official visit to the United States in September 1959, on Khrushchevs return, he ordered the creation of a similar helicopter, which was to be ready for the return visit by the American president, to save face. A luxury version of the Mi-4 was quickly created and Khrushchev took an inspection flight, however, it would be necessary to have a second engine for reliability. In May 1960, the order was given for Mikhail Mil to create his twin engine helicopter, the Sergei Isotov Design Bureau accepted the task of creating the engines. The second prototype flew in September 1961, the aircraft completed its factory based testing in February 1963. The fifth and final prototype was a production prototype for the passenger market. In November 1964, all joint testing had completed and the soviet government began mass production. Production started in the Kazan Production Plant, with the first aircraft completed by the end of 1965 and it was only then that the Soviet military rushed a troop-carrying variant of the Mil Mi-8 into production. By 1967, it had introduced into the Soviet Air Force as the Mi-8. There are numerous variants, including the Mi-8T, which, in addition to carrying 24 troops, is armed with rockets, the Mil Mi-17 export version is employed by around 20 countries, its equivalent in Russian service in the Mi-8M series. The only visible difference between the Mi-8 and Mi-17 is that the rotor is on the starboard side of the Mi-8. Also Mi-17 also has some improved armour plating for its crew, the naval Mil Mi-14 version is also derived from the Mi-8. The Mi-8 is constantly improving and the newest version still remains in production in 2016, the Mi-8 family of helicopters became the main Soviet and later Russian helicopter covering a large range of roles in both peace time and war time. Large fleets of Mi-8 and its derivatives are employed by military and civil operators
2.
Grozny
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Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River, according to the 2010 Census, it had a population of 271,573, up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census, but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989 Census. In Russian, Grozny means fearsome, or redoubtable, the word as in Ivan Grozny or Ivan the Terrible. While the official name in Chechen is the same, informally the city is known as Соьлжа-Гӏала, Sölƶa-Ġala, which literally means the city on the Sunzha River. In December 2005, the Chechen parliament voted to rename the city Akhmadkala —a proposition which was rejected by his son Ramzan Kadyrov, the fortress of Groznaya was founded in 1818 as a Russian military outpost on the Sunzha River by general Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov. As the fort was being built the workers were fired upon by the Chechens, the Russians solved the problem by placing a cannon at a carefully chosen point outside the walls. When night fell and the Chechens came out of their places to drag the gun away all the other guns opened up with grapeshot. When the Chechens recovered their senses and began to carry away the bodies the guns fired again, when it was over 200 dead were counted. Thus did the fort receive its baptism of fire. It was a prominent defense center during the Caucasian War, after the annexation of the region by the Russian Empire, the military use of the old fortress was obsolete and in December 1869 it was renamed Grozny and granted town status. As most of the residents there were Terek Cossacks, the town grew slowly until the development of oil reserves in the early 20th century and this encouraged the rapid development of industry and petrochemical production. In addition to the oil drilled in the city itself, the city became a center of Russias network of oil fields. The result was the population almost doubled from 15,600 in 1897 to 30,400 in 1913, one day after the October Revolution, on November 8,1917, the Bolsheviks headed by N. Anisimov seized Grozny. As the Russian Civil War escalated, the Proletariat formed the 12th Red Army, however, with the arrival of Denikins armies, the Bolsheviks were forced to withdraw and Grozny was captured on February 4,1919 by the White Army. Underground operations were carried out, but only the arrival of the Caucasus front of the Red Army in 1920 allowed the city to end up with the Russian SFSR on March 17. Simultaneously it became part of the Soviet Mountain Republic, which was formed on January 20,1921, on November 30,1922, the mountain republic was dissolved, and the national okrug became the Chechen Autonomous Oblast with Grozny as the administrative center. At this time most of the population was still Russian, as Cossacks were viewed as a potential threat to the Soviet nation, Moscow actively encouraged the migration of Chechens into the city from the mountains. In 1934 the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Oblast was formed, becoming the Chechen-Ingush ASSR in 1936, in 1944, the entire population of Chechens and Ingush was deported after rebelling against Soviet rule
3.
Chechnya
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The Chechen Republic, commonly referred to as Chechnya, is a federal subject of Russia. It is located in the North Caucasus, situated in the southernmost part of Eastern Europe, the capital of the republic is the city of Grozny. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was split into two parts, the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic, the latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which sought independence. Following the First Chechen War with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Russian federal control was restored during the Second Chechen War. Since then there has been a reconstruction and rebuilding process, though sporadic fighting continues in the mountains. According to Leonti Mroveli, the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, the word Caucasian is derived from the Vainakh ancestor Kavkas, dr. Henry Harpending, University of Utah, supports her claims. People living in prehistoric mountain cave settlements used tools, mastered fire, traces of human settlement that date back to 40,000 BC were found near Lake Kezanoi. Cave paintings, artifacts, and other evidence indicates continuous habitation for some 8,000 years. 10, 000–8000 BCE Migration of Nakh peoples to the slopes of the Caucasus from the Fertile Crescent, Invention of agriculture, irrigation, and the domestication of animals. Pottery is known to the region, settlements made out of clay bricks discovered in the plains. In the mountains there were discovered settlements made out of stone and surrounded by walls, 4000–3000 BCE Invention of the wheel, horseback riding, metal works, dishes, armor, daggers, knives, arrow tips. The artifacts were found near Nasare-Cort, Muzhichi, Ja-E-Bortz, Abbey-Gove 900–1200 AD The kingdom in the center of the Caucasus splits into Alania, german scientist Peter Simon Pallas believed that Ingush people were the direct descendants from Alania. The Alan tribes build fortresses, castles, and defense walls locking the mountains from the invaders, part of the lowland tribes occupied by Mongols. 1500 AD First Russian involvement in the Caucasus,1558 Temryuk of Kabarda sends his emissaries to Moscow requesting help against Vainakh tribes from Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the Terrible marries Temryuks daughter Maria Temryukovna, alliance formed to gain the ground in the central Caucasus for the expanding Tsardom of Russia against stubborn Vainakh defenders. Chechnya was a nation in the Northern Caucasus that fought against foreign rule continually since the 15th century, the Chechens converted over the next few centuries to Sunni Islam, as Islam was associated with resistance to Russian encroachment. Notable in Chechen history, this particular Russo-Persian War marked the first military encounter between Imperial Russia and the Vainakh, as the Russians took control of the Caspian corridor and moved into Persian-ruled Dagestan, Peters forces ran into mountain tribes. Peter sent a force to subdue them, but the Chechens routed them
4.
Ingushetia
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The Republic of Ingushetia, also referred to as simply Ingushetia, is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital is the town of Magas, with its 3,000 square km, in terms of area, the republic is the smallest of Russias federal subjects except for the federal cities. It was established on June 4,1992 after the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was split in two, the republic is home to the indigenous Ingush, a people of Vainakh ancestry. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 412,529, Ingushetia is one of Russias poorest and most restive regions. The Ingush, a nationality group indigenous to the Caucasus, mostly inhabit Ingushetia and they refer to themselves as Ghalghai (from Ingush, Ghala and ghai. The Ingush speak the Ingush language, which has a high degree of mutual intelligibility with neighboring Chechen. Ingush were/are traditionally a classless society based on a clan system, every member within a clan and clans themselves are viewed as equal. Unlike the neighboring nations in the Caucasus, Ingush never had social superiors or inferiors, the self namings represent different Vainakh tribes which make up the Ingush population today. The history of the Ingush is closely related to Chechens, roman, Georgian, and later Russian missionaries Christianised the Ingush. The remains of churches, notably the Tkhabya-Yerd and the Albe-Yerd can be found in Ingushetia. Ingush peacefully converted to Islam at the end of the 19th century which is almost three centuries after the beginning of Islamization in Chechnya and Dagestan, According to Leonti Mroveli, the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, the word Caucasian is derived from the Vainakh ancestor Kavkas. According to Professor George Anchabadze of Ilia State University The Vainakhs are the ancient natives of the Caucasus, as appears from the above, the Vainakhs, at least by name, are presented as the most Caucasian people of all the Caucasians in the Georgian historical tradition. The Soviet-Russian anthropologists and scientists N. Ya, melikashvilli wrote, Among Ingush the Caucasian type is preserved better than among any other North Caucasian nation, Professor of anthropology V. V. Bounak Groznenski Rabochi 5, VII,1935. Professor G. F. Debets recognized that Ingush Caucasian anthropologic type is the most Caucasian among Caucasians, in an article in Science Magazine Bernice Wuethrich states that American linguist Dr. The mitochondrial DNA of the Ingush differs from other Caucasian populations, the Caucasus populations exhibit, on average, less variability than other populations for the eight Alu insertion poly-morphisms analysed here. The average heterozygosity is less than that for any region of the world. Within the Caucasus, Ingushians have much lower levels of variability than any of the other populations,10, 000–8000 BC Migration of Nakh people to the slopes of the Caucasus from the Fertile Crescent. Invention of agriculture, irrigation, and the domestication of animals, pottery is known to the region
5.
Stavropol Krai
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Stavropol Krai is a federal subject of Russia in the North Caucasian Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Stavropol, the krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the northern slopes of Caucasus Major. The krai was established as North Caucasus Krai on October 17,1924, after undergoing numerous administrative changes, it was renamed Ordzhonikidze Krai, after Sergo Ordzhonikidze, in March 1937, and Stavropol Krai on January 12,1943. In 1970-1978, Mikhail Gorbachev, a native of Stavropol Krai and he left the region for Moscow in 1978, when he was promoted to a Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, to become the Partys General Secretary and the nations leader 7 years later. Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Krai Administration, the Charter of Stavropol Krai is the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Stavropol Krai is the regional standing legislative body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, the krai administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the krai Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 2,786,281, up from 2,735,139 recorded in the 2002 Census. The population of the krai is concentrated in the basins of the Kuban River and of the Kuma River. The Kuban Cossacks are now generally considered ethnic Russians, even though they are of Ukrainian origin, the 2010 Census counted thirty-three ethnic groups of more than 2,000 persons each, making this federal subject one of the most multiethnic in Russia. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group. Birth Rate,11.22 per 1,000 Death Rate,13.32 per 1,000 Net Immigration, +3.5 per 1,000 NGR, -0. 21% per Year PGR, +0. 14% per Year Births,34,768 Deaths,33,356 According to a 2012 official survey 46. In addition, 19% of the population declares to be spiritual but not religious, 16% is atheist, Stavropol Krai is administratively divided into twenty-six districts and ten cities/towns. The districts are subdivided into nine towns of district subordinance, seven urban-type settlements. Irrigated agriculture is developed in the region. As of the beginning of 2001, Stavropol Krai had 3,361 km of irrigation canals, among the major irrigation canals are, Nevinnomyssk Canal, the trunk of the Kuban-Yegorlyk Irrigation System. The Great Stavropol Canal, transporting water from the Kuban River eastward across the entire krai, the Terek-Kuma Canal and Kuma-Manych Canal, transporting water from the Terek River via the Kuma River to the East Manych River. Закона №132-кз от2 декабря2015 г, «О поправках к Уставу Ставропольского края»
6.
Dagestan
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The Republic of Dagestan, also spelled Daghestan, is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea. With a population of 2,910,249, Dagestan is very diverse and Russias most heterogeneous republic, with none of its several dozen ethnicities. Largest among these ethnicities are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgian, Laks, Azerbaijani, Tabasaran, ethnic Russians comprise about 3. 6% of Dagestans total population. Russian is the official language and the lingua franca among the ethnicities. Dagestan has been a scene of Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, according to International Crisis Group, the militant Islamist organization Shariat Jamaat is responsible for much of the violence. The word Dagestan is of Turkish and Persian origin, dağ means mountain in Turkish and -stan is a Persian suffix meaning land. Some areas of Dagestan were known as Albania, Avaria, the name Dagestan referred to Dagestan Oblast during 1860 to 1920, corresponding to the southeastern part of the present-day Republic. It is the southernmost part of Russia, and is bordered on its side by the Caspian Sea. Major rivers include, Sulak River Samur River Terek River Vladas River Ccenter River Dagestan has about 405 kilometers of coast line on the Caspian Sea, most of the Republic is mountainous, with the Greater Caucasus Mountains covering the south. The highest point is the Bazardüzü/Bazardyuzyu peak at 4,470 meters on the border with Azerbaijan, the southernmost point of Russia is located about seven kilometers southwest of the peak. Other important mountains are Diklosmta, Gora Addala Shukgelmezr and Gora Dyultydag, Dagestan is rich in oil, natural gas, coal, and many other minerals. The climate is hot and dry in the summer but the winters are harsh in the mountain areas, Average January temperature, +2 °C Average July temperature, +26 °C Average annual precipitation,250 to 800 mm. Dagestan is administratively divided into forty-one districts and ten cities/towns. The districts are subdivided into nineteen urban-type settlements, and 363 rural okrugs. In the first few centuries AD, Caucasian Albania became a vassal, with the advent of the Sassanian Empire, it became a satrapy within the vast domains of the empire. In later antiquity, it was a few times fought over by the Roman Empire, over the centuries, to a relatively large extent, the peoples within the Dagestan territory converted to Christianity alongside Zoroastrianism. In the 5th century AD, the Samian peregrinations took place from Ukraine to this land, during the Sassanian era, southern Dagestan became a bastion of Iranian culture and civilisation, with its centre at Derbent, and a policy of Persianisation can be traced over many centuries. In 664, the Persians were succeeded in Derbent by the Arabs, by the 15th century, Albanian Christianity had died away, leaving a 10th-century church at Datuna as the sole monument to its existence
7.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
8.
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
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The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is the unrecognized secessionist government of the Chechen Republic. The republic was proclaimed in late 1991 by Dzhokhar Dudayev, and this change was rejected by some members of the former Chechen government-in-exile. Ichkeria was a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, diplomatic relations with Ichkeria were also established by the partially recognized Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the Taliban government on 16 January 2000. This recognition ceased with the fall of the Taliban in 2001, however, despite Taliban recognition, there were no friendly relations between the Taliban and Ichkeria—Maskhadov rejected their recognition, stating that the Taliban were illegitimate. In October 1991, he won the presidential election, Dudayev, in his new position as president of Ichkeria, unilaterally declared the republics sovereignty and its secession from the Soviet Union and Russia. Not recognized by any government except Georgia under Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the country has maintained an unstable existence, dudayevs government had created the constitution of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which was introduced on March 1992. In the same month, the opposition attempted a coup détat, a month later, Dudayev introduced direct presidential rule, and in June 1993, dissolved the parliament. After staging another coup attempt in December 1993, the organized a Provisional Council as a potential alternative government for Chechnya. However, the issue of contention was not independence from Russia, again, in 1995, during the heat of the First Chechen War, Khalid Delmayev, an anti-Dudayev belonging to an Ichkerian liberal coalition, stated that Chechnyas statehood may be postponed. Maskhadov sought to maintain Chechen sovereignty while pressing Moscow to help rebuild the republic, whose formal economy, Russia continued to send money for the rehabilitation of the republic, it also provided pensions and funds for schools and hospitals. Most of these transfers were stolen by corrupt Chechen authorities and divided between themselves and favoured warlords, nearly half a million people have been internally displaced and lived in refugee camps or overcrowded villages. Two Russian brigades were stationed in Chechnya and did not leave He took effort to rebuild the country, Chechnya had been badly damaged by the war and the economy was in a shambles. Aslan Maskhadov tried to power in his hands to establish authority. The war ravages and lack of economic opportunities left numbers of armed former guerrillas with no occupation, kidnappings became common in Chechnya, procuring over $200 million during the three year independence of the chaotic fledgling state, but victims were rarely killed. In 1998,176 people had kidnapped, and 90 of them had been released during the same year according to official accounts. There were several public executions of criminals, Maskhadov hoped that this would discredit the opposition, putting stability before his own ideological affinities. However, according to former Foreign Minister Ilyas Akhmadov, the public primarily supported Maskhadov, his Independence Party and this was exemplified by the much greater numbers in political rallies supporting the government than those supporting the Islamist opposition. President Maskhadov started a campaign against hostage-takers, and on 25 October 1998, Shadid Bargishev
9.
Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya
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The Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya was an international unit of Islamist Mujahideen that fought in Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus. It was created by Fathi al-Jordani in 1995 during the First Chechen War, during the Second Chechen War it played an important part in further fighting. The unit has been known by several names throughout its existence, examples include the Mujahideen in Chechnya, the Islamic Regiment, the Islamic Battalion, the Arabs in Chechnya and the Ansaar in Chechnya. The term Arab Mujahideen is often used by one of the official media outlets. Although the core of the unit has always consisted of Arab volunteers and it is not to be confused with the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment, al-Qaeda’s 055 Brigade or the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade. Foreign Mujahideen have played an important part in both First and Second Chechen Wars, many of them were veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war and prior to the Russian invasion, they used their expertise to train the Chechen separatists. During the First Chechen War they were notorious and feared for their guerilla tactics, after the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya most of the mujahideen decided to remain in the country, including Khattab who married a woman from Dagestan. In 1999, foreign fighters played an important role in the Invasion of Dagestan, shamil Basayev and Khattab had created the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade which was composed of Chechen Arab and Dagestani fighters. The invasion was started in support of the Islamic Djamaat of Dagestan separatist rebels, after the battle they retreated back into Chechnya. The incursion provided the new Russian government with a pretext for intervention, during the ensuing Second Chechen War, the Arab Mujahideen played another important part, both for delivering fighters and their financial contributions. It was during this time that the Russians succeeded in eliminating the most prominent mujahideen commanders Khattab, the battalion was mostly composed of Arab and Turkish Jihadists. Its first Emir was Ibn Al-Khattab who was killed in March 2002 and succeeded by Abu al-Walid and his successor became Abu Hafs al-Urduni who was killed in November 2006. He was succeeded by Muhannad, who was killed in a clash with security forces in the Chechen village of Serzhen-Yurt on 21 April 2011, several weeks later, his successor Abdulla Kurd was also killed. The battalion is split into units of Mujahideen commanded by their respective Emirs. Pan-Islamism White Tights Afghanistan, Islamic mujahid movement Yugoslav wars, Bosnian mujahideen
10.
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
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The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was a Ukrainian political organization created in 1929 in Vienna and acting in Western Ukraine. The OUN sought to infiltrate political parties, universities and other political structures. As revolutionary ultra-nationalists the OUN have been characterized by historians as fascist. The OUNs strategy to achieve Ukrainian independence included violence and terrorism against perceived foreign and domestic enemies, particularly Poland, in 1940, the OUN split into two parts. The older, more members, supported Andriy Melnyk while the younger. In response, the Nazi authorities suppressed OUN leadership, in October 1942 OUN-B established the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. To preempt future Polish efforts at re-establishing Polands pre-war borders, in 1943-44 UPA military units carried out ethnic cleansing against Polish people. Historians estimate that 60, 000-100,000 Polish civilians were massacred in Volhynia, after the war, the UPA fought against Soviet and Polish government forces. During Operation Vistula in 1947, the Polish government deported 140,000 Ukrainian civilians in Poland to remove the support base for the UPA, in the struggle Soviet forces killed, arrested, or deported over 500,000 Ukrainian civilians. Many of those targeted by the Soviets included UPA members, their families, during the Cold War, the OUN was covertly supported by western intelligence agencies, including the CIA. On the other hand, some argue that far-right or extreme-right aspects of modern OUN descendants are emphasized by political opponents for electoral purposes. In 1919 with the end of the Polish–Ukrainian War, the Second Polish Republic took over most of the territory claimed by the West Ukrainian National Republic, the UVO was strictly a military organization with a military command-structure. Yevhen Konovalets, the commander of the elite Sich Riflemen unit of the Ukrainian military. West Ukrainian political parties secretly funded the organization, when in 1923 the Allies recognized Polish rule over western Ukraine, many members left the organization. The legal Ukrainian parties turned against the UVOs militant actions, preferring to work within the Polish political system, as a result, the UVO turned to Germany and Lithuania for political and financial support. Although the members consisted mostly of Galician youths, Yevhen Konovalets served as its first leader and its leadership council and this party promoted constitutional democracy and sought to achieve independence through peaceful means. UNDO was supported by the Ukrainian clergy, intelligentsia, and the establishment and published the main western Ukrainian newspaper. In contrast, the OUN accepted violence as a tool against foreign
11.
Dzhokhar Dudayev
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Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev was a Soviet Air Force general and Chechen leader, the first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, a breakaway state in the North Caucasus. His family was of the Yalhoroy Teip and he was the thirteenth youngest child of veterinarian Musa and Rabiat Dudayev. He spent the first 13 years of his life in exile in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. His family was able to return to Chechnya in 1957. Following the 1957 repatriation of the Chechens and Ingush, he studied at evening school in Checheno-Ingushetia, in 1962, after two years studying electronics in Vladikavkaz, he entered the Tambov Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots from which he graduated in 1966. Dudayev joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1968 and he married Alla, a Russian poet and the daughter of a Soviet officer with whom he had three children. In 1962, Dudayev began serving in the Soviet Air Force where he rose to the rank of Major-General, Dudayev served in a strategic bombing unit of the Soviet Air Force in Siberia and Ukraine. He participated in the Soviet war in Afghanistan against the Mujahideen for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Star, reportedly from 1986-87 Dudayev had participated in bombing raids in western Afghanistan. Many of his military and political opponents who questioned his Muslim faith often made reference to his actions against the Mujahideen forces, for example, Sergei Stepashin asserted Dudayev participated in carpet bombing. These allegations were denied by Dudayev himself, Dudayev rose steadily in the Air Force, assuming command of the 326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division of the Soviet Long Range Aviation at Tartu, Estonia, in 1987 gaining the rank of Major-General. From 1987 through March 1990 commanded nuclear-armed long-range strategic bombers during his post there and he was also commander of the garrison of Tartu. He learned Estonian and showed great tolerance for Estonian nationalism when in autumn 1990 he ignored the orders to shut down the Estonian television, in 1990, his air division was withdrawn from Estonia and Dudayev resigned from the Soviet military. There is a plaque made of granite attached to the house on 8 Ülikooli street, Tartu. The house now hosts Hotel Barclay, and the cabinet of Dudayev has been converted into Dudaevs Room. In May 1990, Dudayev returned to Grozny, the Chechen capital, in August 1991, Doku Zavgayev, the Communist leader of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, did not publicly condemn the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Following the failure of the coup détat, the Soviet Union began to disintegrate rapidly as the constituent republics took moves to leave the beleaguered Soviet Union, taking advantage of the Soviet Unions implosion, Dudayev and his supporters acted against the Zavgayev administration. On 6 September 1991, the militants of the NCChP invaded a session of the local Supreme Soviet, Grozny television station and other key government buildings were also taken over. In November 1991, the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin dispatched troops to Grozny, Russia refused to recognize the republics independence, but hesitated to use further force against the separatists
12.
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev
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Zelimkhan Abdulmuslimovich Yandarbiyev was a Chechen writer and a politician, who served as acting president of the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria between 1996 and 1997. In 2004 Yandarbiyev was killed in exile in Qatar, originally a literary scholar, poet and childrens literature writer Yandarbiyev became a leader in the Chechen nationalist movement as the Soviet Union began to collapse. In July 1989, he founded the Bart Party, a democratic party that promoted the unity of Caucasian ethnic groups against Russian imperialism. In May 1990, he founded and led the Vainakh Democratic Party, the first Chechen political party, the VDP initially represented both Chechen and Ingush until their split after Chechnyas declaration of independence from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In November 1990 he became a deputy chairman to the newly formed All-National Congress of the Chechen People, which was led by Dzhokhar Dudayev, with Dudayev, he signed an agreement with Ingush leaders splitting the joint Chechen-Ingush republic in two. In the first Chechen parliament, from 1991–1993, Yandarbiyev headed the media committee, since 1991 he served as Vice-President of the self-proclaimed republic. In April 1996, following the assassination of his predecessor Dzhokhar Dudayev, together with Maskhadov, Yandarbiyev took part of signing of the lasting peace treaty in Moscow. The two Chechen leaders fell out badly the year, when Yandarbiyev was accused of being behind an assassination attempt against Maskhadov. Yandarbiyev subsequently joined forces with the hard-line Islamist opposition to Maskhadovs rule, in June 2003, his name was consequently added to the United Nations Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committees blacklist of al-Qaeda-related suspects. On February 13,2004, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was killed when a bomb ripped through his SUV in the Qatari capital, Yandarbiyev was seriously wounded and died in hospital. His 13-year-old son Daud was seriously injured, some, but not all, reports said two of his bodyguards were killed, but this has not been confirmed. Aslan Maskhadovs separatist foreign ministry condemned the attack as a Russian terrorist attack, the car bomb eventually led to Qatars first counter-terrorism law, declaring lethal terrorist acts punishable by death or life imprisonment. The day after the attack, Qatari authorities arrested three Russians in a Russian embassy villa, one of them, the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Qatar, Aleksandr Fetisov, was released in March due to his diplomatic status. According to Moscow, Yablochkov and Pugachyov were secret intelligence agents sent to the Russian Embassy in Doha to collect information about global terrorism, russia’s acting Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov pledged state support to the suspects and declared that their imprisonment was illegal. There were some speculations that Fetisov had been released in exchange for Qatari wrestlers detained in Moscow, the Qatari prosecutors concluded that the suspects had received the order to eliminate Zelimkhan Yandarbiev from Sergei Ivanov personally. On June 30,2004, both Russians were sentenced to imprisonment, passing the sentence, the judge stated that they had acted on orders from the Russian leadership. The agents however received a heroes welcome on returning to Moscow in January 2005, the Russian prison authorities admitted in February 2005 that they were not in jail, but said that a sentence handed down in Qatar was irrelevant in Russia. Obituary, Zelimkhan Yanderbiyev, BBC News, February 13,2004 OBITUARY, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, The Independent, February 14,2004
13.
Aslan Maskhadov
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Aslan Aliyevich Maskhadov was a leader of the Chechen independence movement and the third President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was credited by many with the Chechen victory in the First Chechen War, Maskhadov was elected President of Chechnya in January 1997. Following the start of the Second Chechen War in August 1999 and he was killed in Tolstoy-Yurt, a village in northern Chechnya, in March 2005. His family was of the Alaroy teip, in 1957, his family returned to Chechnya where they settled in Zebir-Yurt, Nadterechny District. Maskhadov joined the Soviet Army, trained in the neighbouring Georgian SSR and he then graduated with honours from the Leningrad Kalinin Higher Artillery in 1981. He was posted to Hungary with an artillery regiment until 1986. He served from 1990 as the chief of staff of Soviet missile and artillery forces in Vilnius, in January 1991, Maskhadov participated in the January Events, the seizure of the television tower by Soviet troops, but didnt participate in the assault itself. During his service in the Soviet Army, he was presented with two Orders For Service to Homeland, Maskhadov retired from the Soviet Army in 1992 with the rank of a colonel and returned to his native land. He was at the head of ChRI civil defence from late 1992 to November 1993, as the First Deputy Chairman of the ChRI State Defence Council and the chief of staff, Maskhadov organised defence of the Chechen capital during the Battle of Grozny. Maskhadov commanded the city from the Presidential Palace in Grozny, where on one occasion a Russian bunker buster bomb landed 20 meters from him, in February 1995, Dudayev promoted Aslan to Divisional General. Beginning in June 1995, Maskhadov took part in talks in Grozny to resolve the crisis in Chechnya. On 17 October 1996, Maskhadov was appointed Prime Minister of Ichkeria, while he also remained Chief of Staff, the elections were conducted on the basis of the Chechen constitution adopted in March 1992, according to which the Chechen Republic was an independent state. Representatives of more than 20 countries, as well as the United Nations, Maskhadov was inaugurated on 12 February 1997, and at the same time he assumed the office of prime minister and abolished the office of Defence Minister he had occupied since late 1996. Maskhadov remained commander-in-chief of the armed forces. On 12 May 1997, Maskhadov then attained the apex of his career when he signed a peace treaty with Yeltsin at the Kremlin. By the end of 1996, when Maskhadov assumed his office, the economy was destroyed and the warlords had no intention to disband their militias. Under such circumstances, Maskhadovs political fortunes began to wane and his political standing within Chechnya became increasingly insecure as he lost control to Basayev and other warlords. Even his Vice-President Arsanov became his political enemy, in February 1999, as a concession to radical Islamists, Maskhadov introduced Islamic Sharia law
14.
Shamil Basayev
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Shamil Salmanovich Basayev was a Chechen militant Islamist and a leader of the Chechen movement. Beginning in 2003, Basayev used the nom de guerre and title of Emir Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris, in 1997–1998 he also served as vice-Prime minister of Chechnya in Maskhadovs government. Basayev was considered by some to be the leader of the radical wing of the Chechen insurgency. He was responsible for numerous attacks on security forces in and around Chechnya. ABC News described him as one of the terrorists in the world. Basayev was killed by an explosion on 10 July 2006, Shamil Basayev was born in the village of Dyshne-Vedeno, near Vedeno, in south-eastern Chechnya, in 1965 to Chechen parents from the Benoy teip. According to Gennady Troshev, he has some distant Russian ancestry and he was named after Imam Shamil, the third imam of Dagestan and Chechnya and the last leader of anti-Russian Avar-Chechen forces in the Caucasian War. His family is said to have had a history of involvement in Chechen resistance to Russian rule. His grandfather fought for the attempt to create a breakaway North Caucasian Emirate after the Russian Revolution. They were only allowed to return when the order was lifted by Nikita Khrushchev in 1957. Basayev, a football player, graduated from school in Dyshne-Vedeno in 1982, aged 17. For the next four years, he worked at the Aksaiisky state farm in the Volgograd region of southern Russia before moving to Moscow. He reportedly attempted to enroll in the law school of the Moscow State University but failed, however, he was expelled for poor grades in 1988. He subsequently worked as a salesman in Moscow, in partnership with a local Chechen businessman, Supyan Taramov. Ironically, the two men ended up on sides in the Chechen wars, during which Taramov sponsored a pro-Russian Chechen militia. In later interviews, Taramov would claim he hired Basayev as a favor for a friend. A few months later, in November 1991, the Chechen nationalist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev unilaterally declared independence from the newly formed Russian Federation, in response, Yeltsin announced a state of emergency and dispatched troops to the border of Chechnya. It was then that Basayev began his career as an insurgent — seeking to draw international attention to the crisis
15.
Ruslan Gelayev
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Gelayev was commonly viewed as an abrek and a well-respected, ruthless fighter. His operations spread well beyond the borders of Chechnya and even outside the Russian Federation and he was killed while leading a raid into the Russian republic of Dagestan in 2004. Ruslan Gelayev was born in 1964 in the village of Komsomolskoye near Urus-Martan,10 years after his parents had returned from the Stalinist deportation of Chechens into Central Asia. Gelayev lived for years outside Chechnya in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, held various jobs and, at one point. Together with the Chechen Battalion, Gelayev took part in the Battle of Gagra, during the subsequent war with Russia, Timur Mutsurayev wrote a song dedicated to the unit, Gelayevs Spetsnaz. In early 1995, he became the commander of the South-Western Front for the separatist forces, the Russians nicknamed him the Black Angel, after his radio communications call sign, Angel. Following the fall of Grozny and the Russian push into the highlands, Gelayev personally led the defense of the village of Shatoy. Mumadi Saidayev then took over the command of the front, the later President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov initially served under his command, together with Akhmed Zakayev, before they left it to form their own units. By 1996, Gelayev was seen as one of more radical Chechen commanders and this was seen as a rehearsal before the recapture of the city in the Battle of Grozny, in an operation led by Basayev in which Gelayev also participated, and that ended the war. After the war, Gelayev became a deputy minister under the new Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov in April 1997. He went on a Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and took the name Hamzat, the following year, in January 1998, he was appointed the defence minister of Chechnya, a largely honorific post which he held until he was replaced by Magomed Khambiyev in July 1999. Gelayev became the first deputy minister in charge of security forces. Gelayev, however, maintained links with both Maskhadov and his rivals, in particular with Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and Salman Raduyev. At the start of the Second Chechen War in late 1999, Gelayev commanded a force of some 1,500 fighters in the siege of Grozny. However, he and most of his men left the city without orders in January 2000, following Gelayevs unauthorized withdrawal from Grozny, Maskhadov demoted him from the rank of brigadier general to a private and stripped him of all military decorations. At that point, the notorious Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev contacted Gelayev, promising him aid, when Gelayevs forces arrived at the specified meeting place, where buses were supposed to be waiting to evacuate their wounded, they were ambushed by a large number of Russian troops. They retreated to Gelayevs native village of Komsomolskoye, Gelayev escaped, but with only a fraction of his men, and many of demoralized survivors decided to give up the fight. Anna Politkovskaya wrote, How could he ever think of taking the war home, to Komsomolskoe, some time after this crushing defeat at Komsomolskoye, the Russian government attempted to negotiate with Gelayev, since he was believed to be in conflict with the other Chechen commanders
16.
Arbi Barayev
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Arbi Alautdinovich Barayev was a Chechen warlord, who in 1996 became the founder and first leader of the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment in Chechnya. After the restoration of Russian Federal control, Barayev openly lived in his village until he was killed on 22 June,2001. Arbi Alautdinovich Barayev was born on 27 May,1974, in Alkhan-Kala, Chechen–Ingush ASSR, Barayev was a martial arts fan in his youth, and became a police officer in 1990 at the age of just 16. Barayev also protected Vice President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, with whom he formed a personal relationship. The war ended in 1996, with a Chechen separatist victory establishing a de facto independent Chechnya, Barayev formed the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment, where he and his associates became infamous for their alleged part in a wave of lawlessness which swept the devastated country. In 1997, Maskhadov signed a decree putting Barayev and his Special Purpose Islamic Regiment under the command of the Chechen interior ministry, Barayev, who also held the post of deputy commander of the National Guards, however refused to obey the order. When six of his men were detained in Ingushetia, Barayev attacked an Ingush police post and took hostages, one of them was killed, two more of his men were captured in Chechnya and made to confess to kidnappings on the state TV. His militia and some Islamist allies from Shariah Security forces fought with the Chechen government forces in a gun battle in the city of Gudermes in the summer of 1998. Between 50 and around 80 people were killed in the mutiny, the SPIR was not disarmed, but Barayev was stripped of his rank of Brigade General and declared as the enemy of Ichkeria and the Chechen people. A commonly accusation against Barayev regarded the late 1998 abduction and beheading of four foreign mobile phone engineers. A former Russian hostage Abdurakhman Adukhov told the BBC that Barayev told him it was actually Osama bin Laden who paid him $30m for the atrocity, Barayev himself denied that his group kidnapped and killed the foreigners. In August 1999, Russia launched the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Brigade, according to another version, Barayev and his men merely bribed their way out of Komsomolskoye while leaving Gelayev and his people to their fate. According to federal authorities, more than 40 Chechens died as a result of these clashes, Baiev described Barayev as a born killer, and his men were desperados with blood vendettas proclaimed against them for murder. They joined Barayev for protection against the avengers in a cycle of violence. He owned a stable of expensive cars, had several wives. Everyone assumed that he was in the pay of Russian intelligence, relatives of Arbi Barayev publicly denounced him for his crimes, saying that the family announced in the courtyard of the mosque that if anyone killed him, they would relinquish all claims. There would be no blood revenge, facing death threats from Barayev as well as from the federal side, Baiev was eventually forced to seek political asylum in the United States. Once arrested, Barayev was said to be released by the demand of Beslan Gantamirov
17.
Oleksandr Muzychko
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Oleksandr Ivanovych Muzychko, nicknamed Sashko Bilyi, was a Ukrainian political activist, a member of UNA-UNSO and coordinator of Right Sector in Western Ukraine. Russian prosecutors accused him of killing at least 20 captive Russian soldiers during the First Chechen War, the inquiry by the Russian Investigative Committee began in March 2014, years after the alleged killings. Muzychko had vowed to fight communists, Jews and Russians for as long as blood flows in my veins, Muzychko was born near Ural Mountains to a Ukrainian father and a Belarusian mother, both deported members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. During the First Chechen War he led the UNA-UNSO Viking group, in 1995 Muzychko was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to an individual. In 1997 he was accused of attempting to kill a member of UNA-UNSO in Kiev, in 2003 Muzychko was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for racketeering and kidnapping. In 2009 he was accused in a corporate raid. In 2012 he ran for the parliament in the 153rd electoral district coming sixth. On 27 February 2014, Muzychko attacked the Prosecutor of the Rivne Oblast in his office, on 28 February 2014, criminal proceedings were opened against him. On 7 March 2014, ITAR-TASS reported that he was wanted by Russian authorities for war atrocities, on 11 March 2014, Russian State Duma opposition leader Valery Rashkin urged Russian special services to follow Mossad examples and assassinate Right Sector leaders Dmytro Yarosh and Muzychko. On 24 March 2014 Oleksandr Muzychko was shot dead, there are conflicting stories about how this happened. An official inquiry concluded he had himself in the heart for three times at the end of a chase. According to Ukrainian MP Oles Doniy, a group of armed people arrived on three Volkswagen minivans and kidnapped Muzychko and five other people from a cafe near Rivne. They murdered Muzychko behind the cafe by two gunshots to the heart, in another telling of Doniys account, a group of attackers forced Muzychko to stop his car, pulled him from it, handcuffed him and shot him. According to the ministry of Ukraine, Muzychko died in a shoot-out with police in a cafe in Rivne. According to the ministry, the police raided the cafe to arrest Muzychko and he was shot when the police returned fire. The police were able to him and three others, but by the time the paramedics had arrived at the scene, he had died. On 25 March, police stated that Muzychko had shot himself and this was confirmed by an inquiry by the interior ministry, who concluded he had shot himself in the heart as police tried to bring him to the ground after a chase. The inquiry also concluded he had fired previously, resulting in a scratch on his skin, and that the police had acted lawfully
18.
Boris Yeltsin
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Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician and the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999. Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the reforms as one of Gorbachevs most powerful political opponents. During the late 1980s, Yeltsin had been a member of the Politburo, no one had resigned from the Politburo before. This act branded Yeltsin as a rebel and led to his rise in popularity as an anti-establishment figure, on 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. However, Yeltsin never recovered his popularity after a series of economic. He vowed to transform Russias socialist economy into a capitalist market economy and implemented economic shock therapy, price liberalization, due to the sudden total economic shift, a majority of the national property and wealth fell into the hands of a small number of oligarchs. The well-off millionaire and billionaire oligarchs likened themselves to 19th century robber barons, in October 1993, troops loyal to Yeltsin stopped an armed uprising outside of the parliament building, leading to a number of deaths. Yeltsin then scrapped the existing Russian constitution, banned political opposition, on 31 December 1999, under enormous internal pressure, Yeltsin announced his resignation, leaving the presidency in the hands of his chosen successor, then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Yeltsin left office widely unpopular with the Russian population, Yeltsin kept a low profile after his resignation, though he did occasionally publicly criticise his successor. Yeltsin died of heart failure on 23 April 2007. Boris Yeltsin was born in the village of Butka, Talitsky District, Sverdlovsk, USSR, growing up in rural Sverdlovsk, he studied at the Ural State Technical University, and began his career in the construction industry. In 1934 Nikolai Yeltsin was convicted of anti-Soviet agitation and sentenced to hard labour in a gulag for three years, Nikolai remained unemployed for a period of time and then worked again in construction. His mother, Klavdiya Vasilyevna Yeltsina, worked as a seamstress, Boris studied at Pushkin High School in Berezniki. In 1949 he was admitted to the Ural Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk, majoring in construction, the subject of his degree paper was Construction of a Mine Shaft. From 1955 to 1957 he worked as a foreman with the building trust Uraltyazhtrubstroy, from 1957 to 1963 he worked in Sverdlovsk, and was promoted from construction site superintendent to chief of the Construction Directorate with the Yuzhgorstroy Trust. In 1963 he became chief engineer, and in 1965 head of the Sverdlovsk House-Building Combine, responsible for sewerage and he joined the ranks of the CPSU nomenklatura in 1968 when he was appointed head of construction with the Sverdlovsk Regional Party Committee. In 1975 he became secretary of the committee in charge of the regions industrial development. In 1976 the Politburo of the CPSU promoted him to the post of the first secretary of the CPSU Committee of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Yeltsin was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 17 March 1961 to 13 July 1990, and a nomenklatura member from 1968
19.
Pavel Grachev
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Grachev, born in 1948 in Tula Oblast, RSFSR, joined the Soviet Armys airborne troops in 1965 and finished the Ryazan Airborne Military Command School. In 1972, he joined the Soviet Communist Party, after commanding parachute platoons, companies and battalions in the 1970s, he attended the Frunze Military Academy and the General Staff Academy, graduating in 1981. In December 1990, he was appointed commander of the Soviet airborne troops, in August/December 1991, Grachev became the Soviet Unions First Deputy Minister of Defence during its break-up. Grachev took part in the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 and the events of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, in November 1994 Yeltsin called Grachev the best defense minister of the decade. In late 1994 through 1996, Grachev played a key role in initiating and leading the First Chechen War and he was rumoured to have launched the disastrous storming of Grozny while drunk during the celebrations of his 1 January birthday. Eventually, in July 1996, following his re-election, Yeltsin sacked the disgraced Grachev, the war soon ended, with hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties. In December 1997, Grachev was appointed a military adviser to Rosvooruzhenie State Corporation. On 25 April 2007, Grachev was fired from this position, Grachev died on 23 September 2012 of acute meningoencephalitis, in the Vishnevsky Military Hospital in Krasnogorsk. Grachev was accused of being involved in major military corruption scandals, which was not proven in court. The alleged corruption, which gained Grachev the nickname of Pasha Mercedes, was the focus of a series of published by the investigative journalist Dmitry Kholodov. Four of Grachevs airborne officers and two others were tried in the murder of Kholodov but were later acquitted. The archival footage of Grachev saying tank regiments are commanded by total idiots, you send in the infantry first, Grachev, Here for a While, The Moscow Times,13 July 1995. Pavel Grachev, Disgraced but Indispensable, The Jamestown Foundation,3 May 1996
20.
Vladimir Shamanov
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After his retirement in October 2016, Shamanov became head of the State Duma Defense Committee. Shamanov was removed from duty in January 2000, quoting health reasons, in November 2007, his impending return to the military service has been announced. In August 2008, he commanded the Russian forces in Abkhazia during the 2008 South Ossetia war with Georgia. On August 12,2008 he took control over 9,600 Russian servicemen in Abkhazia, on 26 May 2009 Vladimir Shamanov became the new commander of the VDV, replacing Lieutenant-General Valeriy Yevtukhovich who was being discharged to the reserve. Shamanov was appointed by Dmitry Medvedev to neutralize discontent over the cuts, although Shamanov supported the programme, he cancelled all cuts and changes in the VDV and announced that the airborne troops would be reinforced. On 4 October 2016, Shamanov retired from the Russian Armed Forces, Shamanov has an image of an over-the-top ruthless man among the other Russian military leaders, with certain insurgency-related sources calling him the Butcher of Chechnya. He cynically believes that all Chechens – men and women, even children – are bandits and he has a serious xenophobic streak. He’s cruel, but it comes from his sense of duty, he’s honest about it, but that doesn’t make it less frightening. In December 1999 Shamanov was awarded his second Hero of the Russian Federation medal for actions around the village of Alkhan-Yurt earlier that month. However, Human Rights Watch have asked the Russian government to open an investigation into his role the incident in Chechnya, Shamanov was reported as threatening to shoot villagers who pleaded with him to halt the abuses. Later, he dismissed calls for accountability for the abuses, saying that the Russian soldiers were doing a sacred thing, nevertheless, he denied the accusations of human rights violations in the foreign media. In the 2004 The Washington Post interview, Shamanov rejected the allegations as fairy tales and suggested that human groups had planted the bodies in Alkhan-Yurt. Shamanovs forces are believed to have looted and pillaged and killed in the other places during the second Chechen campaign, among them at Katyr-Yurt, Shami-Yurt. In March 2000, Shamanov exhibited strong sympathy towards the war crimes suspect Colonel Yuri Budanov, Budanov, Shamanov trumpeted, was one of his best commanders and offered this challenge, Dont put your paws on the image of a Russian soldier and officer. Later, Shamanov came to Rostov-on-the-Don to defend Budanov during trial, ultimately, Budanov was convicted for the March 2000 kidnapping and murder of the young Chechen woman Elza Kungaeva. On September 21,2004, Shamanov, now the Ulyanovsk regional governor, backed a pardon for Budanov, in March 2007 Shamanov met in the White House with the U. S. President George W. Bush, which was criticised by human rights groups. This isnt someone the U. S. president should be meeting with and this is someone the president should be calling for an investigation of, HRW commented. Shamanov had to admit to inappropriate behaviour and only got a reprimand for this incident and he could easily have been dismissed
21.
Russian Federal State Statistics Service
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Russian Federal State Statistics Service is the governmental statistics agency in Russia. Goskomstat was the centralised agency dealing with statistics in the Soviet Union and this renaming amounted to a formal demotion of the status of the agency. In addition to overseeing the collection and evaluation of state statistics, Goskomstat was responsible for planning and carrying out the population and it carried out seven such censuses, in 1926,1937,1939,1959,1970,1980, and 1989. 39, on Ulitsa Myasnitskaya, Tsentrosoyuz building, home to Goskomstat, was designed by the Swiss-born architect, Federal State Statistics - Soviet period of activity Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation
22.
North Caucasus
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The North Caucasus or Ciscaucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Sea of Azov and Black Sea on the west and the Caspian Sea on the east, within European Russia. Geopolitically, the Northern Caucasus includes the Russian republics and krais of the North Caucasus, the outer border of the Soviet Unions North Caucasus Krai was the same as that of present-day North Caucasus Economic Region which includes an oblast, two krais, and seven republics. The former North Caucasus Military District also included Astrakhan Oblast, Volgograd Oblast, and its administrative center was Rostov-on-Don until 10 January 1934, Pyatigorsk until January 1936, then Ordzhonikidze and, from 15 December 1936, Voroshilovsk. Geographically, the term North Caucasus also refers to the slope and western extremity of the Caucasus Major mountain range. The Forecaucasus steppe area is also encompassed under the notion of Ciscaucasus, thus the northern boundary of the Forecaucasus steppe is generally considered to be the Manych River. Ciscaucasus was historically covered by the Pontic steppe, mostly on fertile calcareous chernozyom soils and it is bounded by the Sea of Azov on the west, and the Caspian Sea on the east. According to the Concise Atlas of the World, Second Edition, shaw, Institute of British Geographers Media related to North Caucasus at Wikimedia Commons North Caucasus travel guide from Wikivoyage Relations between The North and South Caucasus. Articles in the Caucasus Analytical Digest No.27
23.
Post-Soviet conflicts
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This article lists the Post-Soviet conflicts, the violent political and ethnic conflicts in the countries of the former Soviet Union since shortly before its official breakup in December 1991. Some of these such as the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis or the 2013 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine were due to political crises in the successor states. Others involved separatist movements attempting to break away from one of the successor states, some of these conflicts ended in a stalemate or without a peace treaty, and are referred to as frozen conflicts. This means that a number of states are left sovereign over the entirety of their territory in name only. In reality, they do not exercise control over areas still under the control of rebel factions. Rebel groups are essentially left independent over large chunks of the territories they claim, in many instances, they have created institutions which are similar to those of fully fledged independent states, albeit with little or no international recognition. Recognition of these groups vary. In some instances such as Transnistria, no UN-member state has given its recognition, in the case of Georgias Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru have recognized them. Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations List of wars 1990–2002 List of wars 2003–2010 List of wars 2011–present Frozen conflict Post-Soviet states
24.
Nagorno-Karabakh War
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Inter-ethnic clashes between the two broke out shortly after the parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in Azerbaijan voted to unify the region with Armenia on 20 February 1988. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the result of a territorial conflict regarding the land. Full-scale fighting erupted in the winter of 1992. International mediation by several including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe failed to bring an end resolution that both sides could work with. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself, a Russian-brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994, but regular peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group have failed to result in a peace treaty. As many as 230,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan and 800,000 Azerbaijanis from Armenia, the territorial ownership of Nagorno-Karabakh today is still heavily contested between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The current conflict has its roots in events following World War I, shortly before the Ottoman Empires capitulation in the war, the Russian Empire collapsed in November 1917 and fell under the control of the Bolsheviks. Fighting soon broke out between the First Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in three regions, Nakhchevan, Zangezur and Karabakh itself, in Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan quarreled about the boundaries of the three provinces. The Karabakh Armenians attempted to declare their independence but failed to contact with the Republic of Armenia. British troops occupied the South Caucasus in 1919, and the British command suggested Andranik cease his offense, afterward, the British provisionally affirmed Azerbaijani statesman Khosrov bey Sultanov as the governor-general of Karabakh and ordered him to squash any unrest in the region. Afterward followed the Shusha massacre of an estimated 20,000 Armenians, Two months later however, the Soviet 11th Army invaded the Caucasus and within three years, the Caucasian republics were formed into the Transcaucasian SFSR of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks thereafter created a committee, the Caucasus Bureau. Under the supervision of the Peoples Commissar for Nationalities, the future Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was created in 1923, leaving it with a population that was 94% Armenian. The reversal was substantiated with the connections the region had with Azerbaijan. The capital was moved from Shusha to Khankendi, which was renamed as Stepanakert. Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars have speculated that the decision was an application of the principle of divide and this can be seen, for example, by the odd placement of the Nakhichevan exclave, which is separated by Armenia but is a part of Azerbaijan. Others have also postulated that the decision was a gesture by the Soviet government to help maintain good relations with Atatürks Turkey
25.
Georgian Civil War
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While the Gamsakhurdia rebellion was eventually defeated, the South Ossetia and Abkhazia conflicts resulted in the de facto secession of both regions from Georgia. As a result, both conflicts have lingered on, with occasional flare-ups, ethnic minority separatist movements – primarily on the part of the Ossetians and the Abkhaz, demanded fuller recognition in the new order of the early 1990s. Asserting its newly gained national prerogatives, Georgia responded with military attempts to restrain separatism forcibly, on January 5,1991 Georgias National Guard entered Tskhinvali, South Ossetian capital and fighting broke out in and around the city. The Georgian-Ossetian Conflict was the first major crisis faced by Gamsakhurdias government, at the time of the dissolution of the USSR, the United States government recognized as legitimate the pre-Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 1933 borders of the country. Because of this, the George H. W. Activity of the opposition against the Government of Zviad Gamsakhurdia caused a political dispute. Following the police dispersion of an opposition demonstration in Tbilisi on September 2, several oppositionists were arrested and their offices raided. The National Guard of Georgia, the paramilitary force in the country split into two, pro- and anti-Gamsakhurdia factions. Another powerful paramilitary organization, the Mkhedrioni led by Jaba Ioseliani also sided with the opposition, demonstrations and barricade-building marked the next three months. On 22 September, there were the first fatalities in Tbilisi, on September 24, state of emergency was declared in Tbilisi. On October 4 anti-Gamsakhurdia groups attacked the supporters of Gamsakhurdia, one supporter of the President was killed, by late October 1991, most of the leadership of the oppositional National Democratic Party, headed by Giorgi Chanturia, had been arrested. On 20 December 1991, Kitovanis fighters returned in force to begin the final onslaught against Gamsakhurdia, the armed oppositionists released Jaba Ioseliani, the leader of Mkhedrioni and mounted barricades in central Tbilisi. On December 22, the rebels seized several official buildings, and attacked the Parliament building where Gamsakhurdia, simultaneously, the rebels already controlling most of the city, brutally suppressed pro-Gamsakhurdia protests in and around Tbilisi. They fired on the crowds, killing and wounding several people, within several days of the fighting the main boulevard in the city, Rustaveli Avenue, had been destroyed and at least 113 people were killed. After the successful coup, a government, the Military Council, was formed in Georgia. The 1992 elections established Shevardnadze as the Chairman of Parliament and the Head of State, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, despite his absence, continued to enjoy substantial support within Georgia, especially in rural areas and in his home region of Samegrelo in western Georgia. The supporters of the president, the Zviadists, responded to the coup with spontaneous street demonstrations. One of the most serious occurred in Tbilisi on June 24,1992. However, they were out within a few hours by the National Guard
26.
Transnistria War
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Fighting intensified on 1 March 1992 and, alternating with ad hoc ceasefires, lasted throughout the spring and early summer of 1992 until a ceasefire was declared on 21 July 1992, which has held. The conflict remained unresolved, but in 2011 talks were held under the auspices of the Organization for Security, however, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the territorial changes resulting from it have remained in place. It represents slightly more than one tenth of Moldovas territory, in the Moldavian SSR, as in many other parts of the Soviet Union, national movements became the leading political force. According to John Mackinlay and Peter Cross, who conducted a study based on casualty reports and they suggest that the conflict is more political in nature. On 31 August 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR enacted two laws, one of them made Moldovan the official language, in lieu of Russian, the de facto official language of the Soviet Union. It also mentioned a linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity, the second law stipulated the return to the Latin Romanian alphabet. Moldovan language is the used in the former Soviet Union for a virtually identical dialect of the Romanian language during 1940–1989. On 27 April 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR adopted the tricolour flag with the Moldavian coat of arms and changed the national anthem to Deșteaptă-te. The national anthem of Romania since 1989, later that year the words Soviet and Socialist were dropped and the name of the country was changed to Republic of Moldova. This possibility caused fears among the Russian-speaking population that it would be excluded from most aspects of public life, from September 1989, there were strong scenes of protests in the region against the central governments ethnic policies. The language laws presented a particularly volatile issue as a proportion of the non-Moldovan population of the Moldavian SSR did not speak Moldovan. The problem of the language in the MSSR had become a Gordian knot, being exaggerated and, perhaps. Some described the laws as discriminatory and criticized their rapid implementation. Others, on the contrary, complained the laws were not followed, on 2 September 1990, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed, Pridnestrovie being the name for Transnistria in Russian. On 22 December 1990 president Gorbachev signed a decree that declared void the decisions of the Second Congress of People Deputies of Transnistria from 2 September, for two months, Moldovan authorities refrained from taking action against this proclamation. Transnistria became one of the republics that appeared throughout the USSR, alongside Abkhazia, South Ossetia. These unrecognized states maintained close ties with each other, the first clash between the Moldovan government and separatists occurred on 3 November 1990 in Dubăsari. A police detachment was dispatched to clear a roadblock placed by the city residents on the bridge over the river Dniester that effectively cut the city off from the central government, in the resulting shootout, three residents of Dubăsari were killed, the first casualties of the conflict
27.
Tajikistani Civil War
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Politically, the rebel groups were led by liberal democratic reformers and Islamists, who fought together and later organized under the banner of the United Tajik Opposition. By June 1997, an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people had been killed, tensions began in the spring of 1992 after opposition members took to the streets in demonstrations against the results of the 1991 presidential election. Fighting broke out in May 1992 between old-guard supporters of the government and an organized opposition composed of ethnic and regional groups from the Garm. Ideologically, the opposition included democratic liberal reformists and Islamists, the government, on the other hand, was dominated by people from the Leninabadi region, which had also made up most of the ruling elite during the entire Soviet period. It was also supported by people from the Kulyab region, who had held posts in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Soviet times. After many clashes, the Leninabadis were forced to accept a compromise, on 7 September 1992, Nabiyev was captured by opposition protesters and forced at gunpoint to resign his presidency. Chaos and fighting between the opposing factions reigned outside of the capital Dushanbe, with the aid of the Russian military and Uzbekistan, the Leninabadi-Kulyabi Popular Front forces routed the opposition in early and late 1992. The coalition government in the capital was forced to resign, the violence was particularly concentrated in Qurghonteppa, the power base of the IRP and home to many Garmis. Tens of thousands were killed or fled to Afghanistan, in Afghanistan, the opposition reorganized and rearmed with the aid of the Jamiat-i-Islami. The groups leader Ahmad Shah Masoud became a benefactor of the Tajik opposition, later in the war the opposition organized under an umbrella group called the United Tajik Opposition, or UTO. Elements of the UTO, especially in the Tavildara region, became the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Iran did not involve itself militarily, but provided ideological support for Muslims who had long been denied the right to freely exercise their faith in the USSR. Other combatants and armed bands that flourished in this civil chaos simply reflected the breakdown of authority rather than loyalty to a political faction. In response to the violence the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan was deployed, most fighting in the early part of the war occurred in the southern part of the country, but by 1996 the rebels were battling Russian troops in the capital city of Dushanbe. Islamic radicals from northern Afghanistan also began to fight Russian troops in the region, a UN-sponsored armistice finally ended the war in 1997. This was in part fostered by the Inter-Tajik Dialogue, a Track II diplomacy initiative in which the players were brought together by international actors, namely the United States. The peace agreement completely eliminated the Leninabad region from power, presidential elections were held on November 6,1999. Akbar Turajonzoda, second-in-command of the UTO, repeated this warning on 26 June, President Rahmonov, UTO leader Sayid Abdulloh Nuri and Russian President Boris Yeltsin met in the Kremlin in Moscow on 26 June to finish negotiating the peace agreement. Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov met with the Foreign Ministers of Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to discuss the peace accord
28.
East Prigorodny Conflict
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Human Rights Watch/Helsinki takes no position on the ultimate status of the Prigorodnyi region. The report also examines the Russian governments weak response to events leading to the conflict and its utter failure to prevent the destruction of thousands of homes. Russian authorities also conducted population transfers of people in the area at will. In January 1920, the Autonomous Mountain Soviet Socialist Republic, referred to as the Mountaineers Republic, was formed, with its capital in Vladikavkaz. Initially, the Mountaineers Republic, included the Kabards, Chechens, Ingush, Ossetians, Karachai, Cherkess, and Balkars, in 1924, the Ingush were given their own territorial unit that included the Prigorodnyi region. In 1934, the Ingush were merged territorially with the Chechens, the Prigorodnyi region still remained within the Chechen-Ingush entity. Soon after, the depopulated Prigorodny district was transferred to North Ossetia, in 1957, the repressed Ingush and Chechens were allowed to return to their native land and the Chechen-Ingush Republic was restored, with the Prigorodny district maintained as part of North Ossetia. Between 1973 and 1980 the Ingush voiced their demands for the reunification of the Prigorodny district with Ingushetia by staging various protests and meetings in Grozny. Ethnic violence rose steadily in the area of the Prigorodny district, to the east of the Terek River, during the summer and early autumn of 1992, there was a steady increase in the militancy of Ingush nationalists. Ingush fighters marched to take control over Prigorodny district and on the night of October 30,1992, open warfare broke out, the first people killed where respectively Ossetian and Ingush militsiya staff. Russian OMON forces actively participated in the fighting and sometimes led Ossetian fighters into battle, on October 31,1992, a high-level Russian delegation arrived to stop the violence, however, the first deployment of Russian peacekeepers did not begin until early November. President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree that the Prigorodny district was to part of North Ossetia on November 2. The return of most refugees had been blocked by the local government, meanwhile, the former Ingush homes and settlements in the district have been gradually occupied by the Ossetian refugees from Georgia. It is estimated that between 1994 and 2008, around 25,000 of the Ingush people returned to Prigorodny District while some 7,500 remained in Ingushetia, however, the Beslan hostage crisis of 2004 hampered the return process and worsened Ossetian-Ingush relations. Towards sustainable return of Ingush forced migrants and lasting peace in Prigorodny district of North Ossetia Ossetia-Ingushetia
29.
1993 Russian constitutional crisis
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The constitutional crisis of 1993 was a political stand-off between the Russian president Boris Yeltsin and the Russian parliament that was resolved by using military force. The relations between the president and the parliament had been deteriorating for some time, Yeltsin used the results of the referendum of April 1993 to justify his actions. In response, the parliament declared that the decision was null and void, impeached Yeltsin. The situation deteriorated at the beginning of October, on October 3, demonstrators removed police cordons around the parliament and, urged by their leaders, took over the Mayors offices and tried to storm the Ostankino television centre. The army, which had declared its neutrality, stormed the Supreme Soviet building in the early morning hours of October 4 by Yeltsins order. The ten-day conflict became the deadliest single event of fighting in Moscows history since the Russian Revolution. According to government estimates,187 people were killed and 437 wounded, the Soviet Union broke up on 26 December 1991. Yeltsins economic reform took effect on January 2,1992. Soon afterward prices skyrocketed, government spending was slashed, and heavy new taxes went into effect, a deep credit crunch shut down many industries and brought about a protracted depression. Russias vice president, Aleksandr Rutskoy, denounced the Yeltsin program as economic genocide, indeed, during the first half of 1992, the average income of the population declined 2–2.5 times. Leaders of oil-rich republics such as Tatarstan and Bashkiria called for independence from Russia. Also throughout 1992, Yeltsin wrestled with the Supreme Soviet and the Russian Congress of Peoples Deputies for control over government and government policy. In 1992 the speaker of the Russian Supreme Soviet, Ruslan Khasbulatov, came out in opposition to the reforms, despite claiming to support Yeltsins overall goals. The president was concerned about the terms of the amendments passed in late 1991. Yeltsin, awaiting implementation of his program, demanded that parliament reinstate his decree powers. Parliament responded by voting to take control of the parliamentary army, Yeltsin nominated Viktor Chernomyrdin to be prime minister on December 14, and the parliament confirmed him. Yeltsins December 1992 compromise with the seventh Congress of the Peoples Deputies temporarily backfired, early 1993 saw increasing tension between Yeltsin and the parliament over the language of the referendum and power sharing. In a series of collisions over policy, the congress whittled away the presidents extraordinary powers, the legislature, marshaled by Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, began to sense that it could block and even defeat the president
30.
War of Dagestan
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The war ended with a major Russian victory and the retreat of the IIB. The Invasion of Dagestan was the casus belli for the Second Chechen War, during the inter-war period of 1996 to 1999, a war-ravaged Chechnya descended into chaos and economic collapse. Aslan Maskhadovs government was unable to rebuild the region or to prevent a number of warlords from taking effective control, the relationship between the government and radicals deteriorated. In March 1999, Maskhadov closed down the Chechen parliament and introduced aspects of Sharia law, despite this concession, extremists such as Shamil Basayev and the Saudi-born Islamist Ibn Al-Khattab continued to undermine the Maskhadov government. In late 1997, Bagauddin Magomedov, the ethnic Avar leader of the wing of the Dagestani Wahhabis. There he established ties with Al-Khattab and other leaders of Chechnyas Wahhabi community. In January 1999, Khattab began the formation of an Islamic Legion with foreign Muslim volunteers, at the same time, he commanded the peacemaking unit of the Majlis of Ichkeria and Dagestan. Other attacks targeted civilians and Dagestani police on a regular basis, on August 4,1999, several Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs servicemen were killed in a border clash with a group of Magomedovs fighters led by Bagaudin Kebedov. Khattab described himself as the commander of the operation while Basayev was the overall commander in the battlefield. They seized villages in the districts of Tsumadi and Botlikh, on August 10, they announced the birth of the independent Islamic State of Dagestan and declared war on the traitorous Dagestani government and Russias occupation units. The federal military response to the invasion was slow, and the efforts were initially fumbling, Basayev and Khattab were not welcomed as liberators as they had expected, the Dagestani villagers considered the invading force occupiers and unwelcome religious fanatics. Instead of a mass uprising, the border areas saw mass mobilization of volunteers against Basayevs. As resistance to the invaders stiffened, Russian artillery and airstrikes came into action and this conflict saw the first use of aerially delivered fuel-air explosives against populated areas, notably on the village of Tando by the federal forces. The rebels were stalled by the ferocity of the bombardments, their lines were cut. This gave Moscow time to assemble a counter-attack under Colonel-General Viktor Kazantsev, on August 23 the Basaev and Khattab announced they were withdrawing from Botlikhsky District to redeploy and begin a new phase in their operations. The war also saw the first use of the T-90 tank, in the Kadar zone, a group of 8 to 12 T-90S tanks pushed through stubborn resistance. One of the tanks was hit by 7 RPG rockets, on the morning of September 5, Chechen rebels launched a second invasion into the lowland Novolakskoye region of Dagestan, this time with a larger force. The rebels came within a mere five kilometers of the city of Khasavyurt
31.
Second Chechen War
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The Second Chechen War was an invasion launched by the Russian Federation, starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Brigade. On 1 October, Russian troops entered Chechnya, the campaign ended the de facto independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and restored Russian federal control over the territory. Some Chechen separatists also carried out attacks against civilians in Russia and these attacks, as well as widespread human rights violations by Russian and separatist forces, drew international condemnation. In mid-2000, the Russian government transferred certain military operations to pro-Russian Chechen forces, the military phase of operations was terminated in April 2002, and the coordination of the field operations were given first to the Federal Security Service and then to the MVD in the summer of 2003. By 2009, Russia had severely disabled the Chechen separatist movement, Russian army and interior ministry troops no longer occupied the streets. Grozny underwent reconstruction efforts and much of the city and surrounding areas were rebuilt quickly, sporadic violence continues throughout the North Caucasus, occasional bombings and ambushes targeting federal troops and forces of the regional governments in the area still occur. On 15 April 2009, the government operation in Chechnya was officially ended, as the main bulk of the army was withdrawn, the burden of dealing with the ongoing low-level insurgency mainly fell on the shoulders of the local police force. The exact death toll from this conflict is unknown, unofficial estimates range from 25,000 to 50,000 dead or missing, mostly civilians in Chechnya. Russian casualties are over 5,200 and are about 11,000 according to the Committee of Soldiers Mothers, Chechnya is an area in the Northern Caucasus which has constantly fought against foreign rule, including the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. The Russian Terek Cossack Host was established in lowland Chechnya in 1577 by free Cossacks who were resettled from the Volga to the Terek River, in 1783, Russia and the Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, under which Kartl-Kakheti became a Russian protectorate. To secure communications with Georgia and other regions of the Transcaucasia, Russian forces first moved into highland Chechnya in 1830, and the conflict in the area lasted until 1859, when a 250, 000-strong army under General Baryatinsky broke down the highlanders resistance. Frequent uprisings in the Caucasus also occurred during the Russo-Turkish War, the Chechen states were opposed by both sides of the Russian Civil War and most of the resistance was crushed by Bolshevik troops by 1922. Then, months before the creation of the Soviet Union, the Chechen Autonomous Oblast of the Russian SFSR was established and it annexed a part of territory of the former Terek Cossack Host. Chechnya and neighboring Ingushetia formed the Chechen–Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936, in 1941, during World War II, a Chechen revolt broke out, led by Khasan Israilov. Chechens were accused by Joseph Stalin of aiding Nazi forces, in February 1944 Stalin deported all the Chechens and Ingush to the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSRs. Up to a quarter of people died during the resettlement. In 1957, after the death of Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev allowed the Chechens to return, afterwards, the authority of the Soviet government gradually eroded. During the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chechnya declared independence, in 1992, Chechen and Ingush leaders signed an agreement splitting the joint Chechen–Ingush republic in two, with Ingushetia joining the Russian Federation and Chechnya remaining independent
32.
2001 Kodori crisis
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The 2001 Kodori crisis was a confrontation in the Kodori Valley, Abkhazia, in October 2001 between Georgians and Abkhazian forces. The crisis was largely neglected by world media, focused on the concurrent US attack on Afghanistan, on October 4,2001, a group of Chechen and Georgian fighters led by the commander Ruslan Gelayev entered the gorge from the Georgian side and attacked the village Giorgievskoe. Then, on October 8,2001, a helicopter carrying United Nations observers was shot down over Kodori, chkhetiani, a resident of Kutaisi and born in 1973, had been condemned to a prison sentence of 15 years. On 29 July 2006, Mart Laar, former minister of Estonia. Laar also warned that future provocations of Georgia by Russia are to be expected, on 30 April 2008, Russia accused Georgia of massing 1500 troops in the Kodori region in preparation to invade Abkhazia. Georgia maintained the troops were present in accordance with a 1994 accord that allowed for peacekeeping forces in the region and were essential to maintaining order after the 2001 Kodori crisis, Russia responded by deploying troops to the region, further escalating tensions between Russia and Georgia. These forces would take part in the war in 2008
33.
Insurgency in the North Caucasus
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The Insurgency in the North Caucasus is an armed conflict between Russia and militants associated with the Caucasus Emirate and, since June 2015, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant groups. It followed the end of the decade-long Second Chechen War on 16 April 2009. It attracts people from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia, who participated in the conflict. The violence has mostly concentrated in the North Caucasus republics of Chechnya, Dagestan. Occasional incidents happen in surrounding regions, like North Ossetia-Alania, Karachay-Cherkessia, Stavropol Krai, in late 1999, Russias Premier, Vladimir Putin, ordered military, police and security forces to enter the breakaway region of Chechnya. By early 2000, these forces occupied most of the region, high levels of fighting continued for several more years and resulted in thousands of Russian and Chechen casualties and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. After his death, his successor, Dokka Umarov, declared continuing jihad to establish an Islamic fundamentalist Caucasus Emirate in the North Caucasus, Russias pacification policy in Chechnya has involved setting up a pro-Moscow regional government and transferring more local security duties to this government. An important factor in Russias apparent success in Chechnya has been reliance on pro-Moscow Chechen clans affiliated with regional President Ramzan Kadyrov, police and paramilitary forces under Kadyrovs authority have committed abuses of human rights, according to rulings by the European Court of Human Rights and others. Terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus appeared to increase substantially in 2007–2010, in the summer of 2009, more than 442 persons died in North Caucasus violence in just four months as compared to only 150 deaths reported in the entire year of 2008. In the period from 2010 to 2014, the number of casualties in the North Caucasus insurgency declined each year, the insurgency in the North Caucasus is a direct result of the two post-Soviet wars fought between Russia and Chechnya. The First Chechen War was a nationalist struggle, with secular and Islamist overtones, for independence from Russia and took place between 1994 and 1996. After a vicious struggle between Russian federal forces and Chechen separatist guerrillas, Chechnya was granted de facto independence per the terms of the Khasavyurt Accord, signed on 30 August 1996. What remained of the rebel units then withdrew into the inaccessible Vedeno. The republic remained a center of violence for many years. Reported casualties declined, with 26 security forces and 24 suspected militants being killed in 2014, Dagestan is the most religious, populous and complex of all the north Caucasian republics. It is double the size of Chechnya and consists of several ethnic groups. Dagestan has the highest levels of violence and extremism in the North Caucasus republics, the Russian Interior Ministry stated that of the 399 terrorist crimes committed in the North Caucasus in 2013,242 were in Dagestan. Along with Dagestan, Ingushetia bore the brunt of the violence in the North Caucasus in the Insurgencies early years, the Islamist insurgency in the republic sprang from the wars in neighbouring Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s
34.
War in Ingushetia
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The War in Ingushetia began in 2007 as an escalation of an insurgency in Ingushetia connected to the separatist conflict in Chechnya. The conflict has described as a civil war by local human rights activists and opposition politicians. By mid-2009 Ingushetia had surpassed Chechnya as the most violent of the North Caucasus republics, however, by 2015 the insurgency in the Republic had greatly weakened, and the casualty toll declined substantially in the intervening years. On 26 July 2007, a security operation was launched in Ingushetia. Moscow sent in an additional 2,500 MVD troops, almost tripling the number of forces in Ingushetia. In the next few days, hundreds of men were rounded up in the sweeps, by October 2007, police and security forces in Ingushetia were issued orders to stop informing the media of any incidents of a terrorist nature. In 2008, Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the highly critical opposition website Ingushetia. ru, was killed while in police custody, the aftermath of the killing was marked by an upsurge in separatist activity and animosity towards Russia and Russians among the Ingush population. At the center of controversy was the deeply unpopular President Murat Zyazikov. The Ingush Interior Minister Musa Medov was targeted by a bomber in October 2008. Eventually, Zyazikov was asked to resign, on 30 October 2008, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree to remove Zyazikov from office and replace him with Lieutenant Colonel Yunus-bek Yevkurov. This was hailed by the Ingush opposition as a victory, however, the violence did not end. According to police sources, nearly 50 people died in the almost daily clashes in this small republic in the first three months of 2009, assassinations and attempted assassinations of high-profile figures continued. On 10 June 2009 Aza Gazgireeva, the Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, was gunned down, Ingush President Yevkurov was seriously wounded in a suicide bomb attack on 22 June, and Construction Minister Ruslan Amerkhanov was shot dead in his office in August. After 2010, the levels of violence in Ingushetia began to decline, in 2014, the insurgencys leader Arthur Getagazhev was killed by security forces. In mid-2015, Yevkurov stated that the insurgency in the Republic had been defeated and he said that 80 fighters from the group had turned themselves in and been given amnesty and that the remaining active insurgents were greatly reduced in numbers. 2004 Nazran raid 2009 Nazran bombing East Prigorodny Conflict Insurgency in the North Caucasus Lokshina, how Chechnya came to Ingushetia, The Guardian,8 July 2008 Leahy, Kevin Daniel. Ingushetia Insurgency Adds to Russias North Caucasus Instability, World Politics Review,18 Nov 2008 Lokshina, Ingushetia Under Siege, Human Rights Watch, July 1,2009 Pakhomenko, Varvara. Ingushetia abandoned, OpenDemocracy,16 August 2009 Ingushetia insurgency worsening, BBC News,12 Nov 2009
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Foreign mujahideen[1][2][3][4][2]
Ukrainian volunteers[5]
Russia
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