FIRST WAR

In 1991 Chechen general Dzhokhar Dudayev expelled the Communist government in Groznyy. Presidential elections were held in October, and Dudayev won a resounding victory. In November 1991, shortly before the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Chechnya declared itself an independent state; however, the Russian government refused to recognize it as such. The Ingush separated from Chechnya and formed their own republic. Dudayev set up a government in Groznyy but was unable to persuade any countries to recognize Chechnya's independence or invest in its economy.

In December 1994 the Russian Federation government under President Boris Yeltsin launched a full-scale invasion of Chechnya to halt the republic's movement toward independence. Groznyy was almost completely destroyed before it was taken by the Russians in February 1995. Thousands of people were killed in the fighting. The Russians ousted the rebel leaders, installed a puppet government in Groznyy, and stationed Russian troops in the area. Dudayev was forced into hiding, but his rebel forces refused to surrender, and fighting continued between the two sides; Dudayev was killed in a rocket attack in April 1996.

In late May 1996 President Yeltsin and acting Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev agreed to a cease-fire, but fighting continued on both sides. By June, when further peace negotiations were held, more than 40,000 people--including large numbers of civilians--had been killed in the conflict, and an estimated 300,000 Chechens had fled to other parts of Russia. The Russian government offered the Chechens almost complete autonomy within the Russian Federation but refused to allow the republic to secede. While some Chechens were willing to support a negotiated settlement to end the war, the rebels continued to fight, claiming that they would settle for nothing less than complete independence from Russia.

In August 1996 a major Chechen offensive to retake Groznyy was successful, with Russian forces suffering a humiliating defeat. Later that month, Yeltsin's national security adviser, Aleksandr Lebed, brokered a peace agreement with Chechen leaders in which both sides agreed to postpone a decision on Chechnya's status until 2001. By December 1996 all Russian troops had withdrawn from the republic. In Chechnya's presidential elections the following month, Yandarbiyev was defeated by the chief of staff of the Chechen forces, Aslan Maskhadov. In May 1997 Maskhadov and Yeltsin signed a peace treaty that formalized the terms of the earlier truce. Maskhadov soon lost authority to more radical rebel commanders, however, and the republic descended into a state of anarchy.

SECOND WAR

In August 1999 hundreds of Islamic guerrillas crossed into Dagestan from Chechnya and occupied several villages, claiming the formation of a separate Islamic territory. Although Russian air and artillery attacks returned the villages to federal control, incursions into Dagestan became increasingly common by Chechen guerrillas seeking to create an Islamic state. Meanwhile, a deadly wave of terrorist bombings struck three Russian cities, including Moscow, in August and September 1999. Russian leaders accused Islamic terrorists from Chechnya of organizing the attacks, precipitating a new Russian military offensive to establish federal control in Chechnya.

In late September Russian warplanes began a campaign of air strikes against targets in Chechnya. In October Russian ground forces entered Chechnya with the goal of capturing Groznyy. Russian forces surrounded the city by early December. Despite heavy bombing and artillery fire, rebels entrenched in fortified buildings managed to hold Groznyy for many weeks, waging a fierce street-by-street battle with advancing Russian troops. By the time the fighting ended in early February 2000, Groznyy was reduced to ruins. Fighting continued in the mountainous regions of southern Chechnya, traditionally the stronghold of the Chechen rebels.

In May 2000 Russian president Vladimir Putin declared that Chechnya would be ruled federally. Akhmad Kadyrov was appointed by the Kremlin to replace Chechen president Maskhadov. Maskhadov ignored the federal government's demand for his unconditional surrender and became one of the principal leaders of the Chechen insurgency.

The conflict showed no signs of abating through 2001, with serious human-rights violations by Russian troops and constant attacks by Chechen guerrillas against Russian forces in the region. The Russian government characterized the war in Chechnya as an "antiterrorist operation" against fundamentalist Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda and other international terrorist organizations.

In October 2002 a band of 41 Chechen guerrillas seized a theater in Moscow, taking about 800 civilians hostage and rigging the theater with explosives. They demanded the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. Russian special forces stormed the theater after pumping an opiate-based gas into the building to disable the rebels, all of whom were killed. Most of the 129 hostage deaths were due to the effects of the powerful gas.

Shortly after the hostage crisis, Putin announced a referendum would be held in Chechnya on a proposed new constitution that affirmed Chechnya's status as a republic within the Russian Federation. The vote was held in Chechnya in March 2003. Official results showed extremely high voter turnout and an overwhelming majority vote in favor of the new constitution. Under the constitution, Chechnya is allowed an unspecified level of autonomy and an elected government but is subordinate to federal law. Chechen rebels claimed that the vote, which they had boycotted, was a political farce and stated their intent to continue their secessionist struggle.

In May 2004 Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov was assassinated in a bomb attack. The republic held a special presidential election in August to replace him. The Kremlin-backed candidate, Chechnya's interior minister Major General Alu Alkhanov, won the election.

Chechen separatist warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for organizing a school siege in Beslan, a town in the Russian republic of Alania (also known as North Ossetia), in early September 2004. A suicide battalion of pro-Chechen rebels held the school's students and teachers hostage for two days. During a chaotic gun battle with Russian security forces, the bombs of the rebels detonated in a gymnasium where the hostages were being held. The siege resulted in the deaths of more than 330 people, and hundreds more were injured. More than half of the casualties were children. Afterward, Russian president Putin vowed to take tougher action against terrorism, including preemptive strikes against Chechen separatists.