This dyad belongs to the conflict Russia (Soviet Union): Chechnya
Summary of conflict Russia (Soviet Union): Chechnya
The dissolution of the Soviet Union gave rise to a separatist movement in Chechnya in southern Russia. The Russian government attempted to suppress Chechnya’s strive for independence twice, fighting armed conflicts against the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) from 1994 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2007. In the mid-2000s the conflict embraced large parts of the North Caucasus with radical Islamists gaining influence. This development led to the replacement of the ChRI and with the Caucasus Emirate by ChRI-leader Doku Umarov in 2007.
See Russia: Caucasus Emirate for developments in Chechnya and the North Caucasus 2007-2015 and Russia: Islamic State thereafter.
Conflict Summary
The Soviet Union consisted of a number of republics, with the Republic of Russia being the largest. Within the republics, there was a subcategory: the autonomous republics. During the Soviet era, the Autonomous Republic of Chechen-Ingush was under the authority of the Russian Republic. When several former Soviet republics became independent during 1991, local political leaders in Chechnya also started promoting the idea. In October 1991, Dzochar Dudayev was elected president by the Chechen people and declared the independent Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI). These elections were not recognized by the Russian leadership and when the Soviet Union officially dissolved on 25 December 1991, the former autonomous republic of Chechnya became part of the independent Russian Federation. According to the Russian leadership, no "illegal and criminal armed units" had the right to challenge the territorial integrity and the overall stability and security of the Russian Federation.
The conflict can be divided into two phases. During the first, from 1994 to 1996, President Boris Yeltsin headed the Russian government. During this period, the Russian involvement in Chechnya was unpopular among the Russian people. After some years of peace, the conflict escalated again in 1999 when Russian Prime Minister (later President) Vladimir Putin sent troops back in after Chechen militants carried out repeated incursions into Dagestan, and were blamed for a series of dedly bombing targeting Russian civilians. Putin constantly referred to the Russian action in Chechnya as a "campaign against terrorism" which increased public support for his management of the conflict.
During both conflict phases the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was obstructed by internal power struggles. Its forces have rarely been one unified army, but are better characterized as several different pro-Chechen groups. Even before the armed conflict became active in December 1994, Dudayev faced several Chechen armed political challengers. Following Dudayev's death in 1996, Aslan Maskhadov was appointed commander and later elected President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in elections held with support from OSCE in January 1997. After the conflict escalated in 1999, Maskhadov continued to claim to be the legitimate President of the region, even as Chechen Republic of Ichkeria controlled less and less territory. It was believed that the majority of forces were controlled by the Islamist military commander Shamil Basayev who increasingly acted independently from Maskhadov. However, Basayev remained careful not to challenge the authority of Maskhadov, despite holding a different opinion with regards to battlefield strategy and willingness to cooperate with non-Chechen volunteers. The structure of the Chechen leadership changed again drastically on 8 March 2005 when Maskhadov was killed by Russian troops. The successor to Maskhadov was the little known Adbul-Khalim Saydullayev. In 2006, both Saydullayev and Basayev were killed in clashes with the Russian forces, and the leadership for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was transferred to Doku Umarov. Under Umarov the ideological conflict between Chechen Nationalists and Islamists in the movement led to a definite split, with most forces joining Umarov in the abandonment of the goal of an independent Chechnya in favor of the creation of an greater Caucasus Emirate.
Start of the Chechen Wars
In conjunction with the declaration of independence, Dudayev's forces seized key buildings in the regional capital Groznyy. The few state representatives who resisted were killed. In the following years, the Russian leadership repeatedly invited Chechnya to become a republic within the Russian Federation, but Dudayev refused to accept anything less than full independence. In December 1994 the conflict escalated radically. After having supported Chechen opposition to Dudayev without managing to destabilize his forces, the Russian army launched a large-scale military offensive into Chechnya.
The Russian army managed to take control of Groznyy in early 1995. However, fighting continued until April 1996, when Dudayev was killed and replaced by Maskhadov who agreed to a ceasefire with Russia. In August 1996, after a successful Chechen counterattack on Groznyy, negotiations resumed and a comprehensive ceasefire (the Khasavyurt Accords) was signed on 31 August 1996. The agreement stipulated that Russian forces would withdraw from the region while there was to be a moratorium on the core issue – the future status of Chechnya – until 31 December 2001.
From the very outset of the conflict, the fighting was accompanied by violence against civilians and indiscriminate killings. The Russian army has carried out indiscriminate air bombings and artillery attacks as well as counterinsurgency activities, which have included human rights abuses, including disappearances, allegations of torture and execution of civilians. The Chechen forces have relied on guerrilla warfare, hostage-taking and suicide bombings, in particular during the second phase of the conflict. There have also been thousands of enforced disappearances in the region during the conflict.
Second Chechen War
The conflict was not active in 1997 and 1998, but tension mounted following the involvement of Chechen-based armed groups in the Russia's Dagestan conflict of 1999. Following the 1999 apartment bombings in several Russian cities, fighting subsequently resumed in Chechnya, with Russia's stated ambition being to end the climate of insecurity in the region and to bring the de facto independent Chechnya back under Russian jurisdiction. By October 2000, the Russian forces had taken control over Groznyy and appointed a local administration. Nevertheless, clashes with the rebel forces showed no signs of abating in the following years.
Maskhadov, who had been elected President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in elections held with support from OSCE in January 1997, continued to claim to be the legitimate President of the region, even as Chechen Republic of Ichkeria controlled less and less territory. Maskhadov authority over the rebels was also limited, with the Islamist military commander Shamil Basayev, who increasingly acted independently from Maskhadov, believed to control the majority of forces. The Russian governments approach was a refusal to recognize President Maskhadov's authority. Because of this, the warring parties met for official talks only on two or three occasions, in 2001 and in 2003. None of these occasional contacts, or other low level or unofficial talks has led to the opening of proper negotiations.
In 2003, President Putin introduced a "peace plan", which included a referendum on a new constitution for a Chechen Republic within the Russian Federation with some local autonomy. An overwhelming majority supported the new constitution, while Maskhadov condemned the referendum and rejected the validity of the results.
In 2004–05, the conflict escalated again as the rebel forces seemed to grow stronger. The rebels also launched some large-scale hit-and-run offensives into cities, which they had not managed in the preceding years.
Shortly before his death Maskhadov in 2005 stated the necessity of "broadening the front of resistance" in contrast to earlier statements, which had claimed that the conflict would not spread outside Chechnya. The largest rebel attack during 2005, for example, was carried out in Nalchik, a town in the Southern Russian province Kabardino-Balkaria. In the following years, the conflict continued to spread geographically to neighboring republics in the Caucasus, particularly Dagestan and Ingushetia.
In 2006 and 2007, the conflict resulted in a significantly lower number of battle-related deaths than in the previous years. The rebels appeared to have been severely weakened, and did not carry out any spectacular terrorist attacks or large-scale operations. A reason for this could be the deaths of key figures within the Chechen leadership, not least the rebel military commander Shamil Basayev in 2006 and the hard-handed tactics of the Chechen local administration under Ramzan Khadirov.
On 7 October 2007 then-President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Doku Umarov, proclaimed the Caucasus Emirate, a unified Caucasian Islamic state, and abolished the ChRI. Thus, the goal of achieving independence for Chechnya was subsumed under the broader aim of establishing a Caucasus Emirate. As the incompatibility of the conflicting parties changed, UCDP regards the conflict over the ChRI as terminated by 7 October 2007. Instead, a new conflict over the Caucasus Emirate is recorded as starting the same day.
The former Deputy Prime Minister, Akhmed Zakayev, revived the the movement as a government in exile in November of that year, though it was then merely a fraction of its former strength. The revived Chechen Republic of Ichkeria has since July 2022 participated in the Russia-Ukraine war on the side of Ukraine, and has participated in small attacks across the border into Russia alongside the Russian Volunteer Corps, LSR and Sibir Battalion.
