The Second Chechen War: Inside Putin's First Invasion

It is a war that brings much-needed context to Putin’s reign over Russia, and many of the crimes committed in his current invasion of Ukraine. In the 1990s, the republic of Chechnya declared its independence from the Russian Federation and began an open rebellion, leading to two separate wars being fought to reintegrate the region. It was in the second of these wars that Putin was in the midst of his rise to power, and the future president was prepared to do whatever it took to show that Russia would never back down.

The First Chechen War and the Collapse of Soviet Order

On December 26th, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, bringing an end to nearly 70 years of dominion over eastern Europe and central Asia. From its ashes, 15 independent countries emerged, born from the former Soviet Socialist Republics. This included countries like Latvia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and others, largely consisting of a majority ethnicity and local language.

What is not as well known is that several of the Republics were further subdivided into so-called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, smaller regions or states with some level of self-governance, such as Crimea. And although the constitution of the USSR stated that these autonomous regions were granted many of the same privileges that their larger counterparts were granted, when the Soviet Union was beginning to be carved up in 1991, a lot of these autonomous republics began vying for independence, especially the ones within Russia. Russia, reeling from the dissolution of the USSR and grasping for the shreds of its former power, knew that resolving the issue of these autonomous republics was of utmost importance.

They simply couldn’t afford to lose dozens of states and millions of people. Even after waves of referendums saw the republics vote to remain in the Russian Federation, protests for autonomy and independence didn’t slow down, and so Boris Yeltsin, then President of Russia, made some compromises with the complaining states, and most of their demands for autonomy were satisfied with a treaty outlining various tax breaks and promises of limited self-governance. By 1994, every one of these issues had been resolved, except one — Chechnya, a region in the northern Caucasus.

Chechnya refused to bow down to any demands from Moscow, and Moscow failed to reach any compromises with them. Perhaps the situation could have been settled by further negotiations, but no such attempts at diplomacy were made, and the situation rapidly deteriorated. Lacking a strong central government and not having much of a police force, Chechnya was becoming a dangerous place, with crime absolutely rampant.

In just a single year, there were a shocking four airplane hijackings, and just after these, a bus with 41 occupants was held hostage for 15 million dollars. There was reported violence against non-Chechens, and multiple factions were fighting for control in an undeclared civil war. By 1993, the Russian government was openly supporting pro-Russia factions in the area, hoping they’d be able to take control and reunify the rogue state.

After these pro-government forces suffered a major defeat, Russian troops were officially mobilized and sent to Chechnya in December 1994 to fight the separatists.

Disaster at Grozny and Russia’s Humiliating Withdrawal

The First Chechen War was a complete disaster. Nearly 100,000 Russian soldiers marched into Chechnya, fighting for control in the mountainous countryside and besieging the capital, Grozny. The capital was devastated, flattened by months of artillery fire, and the city’s population dropped from 400,000 to just 140,000 as the citizens fled, died, or were captured.

Still, Grozny didn’t fall, as Chechen guerrillas put up heavy resistance and inflicted serious casualties on the Russian troops. Despite Russia’s immense advantage in numbers, firepower, artillery, and air superiority, the war was so brutal that Russian morale was rock-bottom. On top of this, the stagnation of the conflict and the heavy toll on civilian life put the Russian public staunchly against the invasion, and by 1996 President Boris Yeltsin declared a ceasefire, leaving Chechnya in the hands of the victorious separatists.

But, like a festering wound, simply leaving Chechnya alone in its de facto independence wasn’t going to solve any of Russia’s problems, and things were about to get a whole lot worse. After the monumental failure of the First War, Chechnya became an even more lawless land. With the local police in shambles and the Russian government taking a full hands-off approach, the region fell into the hands of local warlords and former separatist fighters, all of whom were unemployed now that the capital had been decimated.

Kidnapping was so rampant that ransoms brought in an estimated 200 million dollars between 1996 and 1999. Soon, the danger began to spread outside of Chechnya as well. In 1996, in the neighboring province Dagestan, a bomb was detonated in an apartment building, killing 68 people, most of whom were Russian border guards.

A few months later, bombs were detonated in two railway stations, killing more than 30. Then, in 1997, a combined force of 100 Dagestani and Chechen militants raided a Russian Army base, killing dozens and kidnapping two local women in the process. These alleged pro-Chechen terror attacks made everyone in the country uneasy, and support for a second invasion was beginning to grow.

False Flags and the Apartment Bombings That Preceded War

In 1997, Chechnya officially declared itself an Islamic Republic, attracting the attention of Muslim jihadist groups in Central Asia, many of whom had made their way to Chechnya. Two years later, in 1999, these fighters, who often had experience fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, joined an army of around 4,000 Chechens, and the group marched into Dagestan in an invasion attempt to support another group of separatists there. Dagestan was also proclaimed to be an independent Islamic State, and war was declared on Russia.

But, instead of the local population joining the rebels as they’d hoped, a huge volunteer force grew to fight them off and side with the government. The Russian government immediately responded, deploying federal forces both on the ground and in the air. This war saw the first use of a vacuum bomb being used in combat, and was also the introduction of Russia’s T-90 tank.

The rebels were seriously outgunned in these battles and quickly began losing territory. After a failed rebel counterattack, the remaining separatists retreated back to Chechnya. Right about here things started to look suspicious.

Many believe that Russian forces intentionally allowed the rebels in Dagestan to escape back to Chechnya, giving a reason to invade it once again. And just before the brief war in Dagestan had ended, a series of bombings once again rocked Russia. Over the course of a couple weeks, several explosions went off in apartment buildings and shopping malls, with one even going off in Moscow, in total killing more than 350 people.

Investigations quickly revealed that Chechen rebels were behind the attacks, and public support for a new war was growing stronger now that the fighting was getting a little closer to home. But this official narrative of Chechen terror has some critics, especially since at one point, Russian FSB agents — essentially the Russian successor to the KGB — were arrested by local police while planting an explosive in an apartment building, but the police were ordered by the government to release the agents. Months before the blasts, Russian journalist Aleksandr Zhilin wrote that there would be government-organized terror attacks in Moscow, citing a leaked Kremlin document.

His warning was largely ignored. Stranger still was when Russian politician Gennadiy Seleznyov made an announcement on September 13th, 1999, stating that an apartment building in Volgodonsk had been blown up — three whole days before the attack even took place. A different member of the Russian State Duma later called him out, noting the discrepancy.

Seleznyov didn’t answer, instead just turning his mic off. The main evidence for the attacks being carried out by Chechens is a single phone call, made to a news agency by a man with a Caucasian accent claiming responsibility. Another phone call claimed that the Liberation Army of Dagestan was responsible, but there is no evidence that such an organization has ever existed.

This is why many believe that the apartment bombings were a false flag operation carried out to sway public opinion about Chechnya. It boosted the popularity of none other than Vladimir Putin, who at this point had just barely become prime minister and was vocally pro-war. Perhaps Putin himself organized the attacks to gain support, as he was the former head of the FSB, but it’s likely that no one will ever know as investigations into the matter are either blocked or heavily sanitized, and many documents related to the incident have been sealed for 75 years.

An independent commission to investigate the bombings was formed by members of the Russian State Duma, but anyone asking questions met suspicious ends. Two members of the committee, Sergei Yushenkov and Yuri Shchekochikhin, were assassinated, and a third died in a hit-and-run car accident. One lawyer, Mikhail Trepashkin, said that his investigation found that the basement of one of the targeted buildings had been rented by an FSB officer prior to the bombings, but he was conveniently arrested on illegal arms possession charges before he could bring his evidence to light.

The Bombing Campaign and the Advance on Grozny

Regardless of whoever was behind the blasts, there were now 350 casualties and a very angry public, siding with Putin who vowed to lay waste to anyone related to terrorism. And following through with his promise, just a couple weeks later, Russian troops were once again marching south, heading straight for Chechnya. The Second Chechen War began with a massive bombing campaign, carrying out at least 1,700 sorties throughout September 1999.

The first targets included Grozny Airport, which was reduced to rubble, and oil refineries, whose fires blanketed the landscape in thick smoke. Within just a few weeks, more than 30 bridges had been destroyed, telephone lines were out, and electricity was completely gone. Hundreds of people were killed or injured in these initial bombings, as civilian housing was often the target of missile strikes, leading to at least 100,000 Chechens to flee their homes and run to Georgia, Dagestan, or into the mountains.

By September 22nd, Russian troops had reportedly surrounded Chechnya on three sides and were prepared to advance, but military planners were hesitant, knowing that heavy casualties awaited their men if they moved too quickly, just like it had been five years earlier. Instead, it was advised that the strikes continue from a distance until it was safer to move in. But everything changed overnight on October 1st, when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a surprise announcement, declaring Chechnya’s President Aslan Maskhadov illegitimate and his parliament unlawful.

Russian troops advanced across the border, with the intent of capturing the northern portion of the region, up to the Terek River. This operation was successful in just four days, with the Russian army moving quickly through the hills and rugged terrain, only encountering minor resistance. Already, this was shaping up to be a dirty conflict.

A Russian artillery shell struck a civilian bus, killing 11, and Russian fighters dropped cluster bombs on the village of Elistanzhi, killing more than 30. Chechen President Maskhadov sent a peace plan to Moscow, which was rejected, and appealed to NATO for intervention, but NATO wanted no business in the matter. A week later, Russian troops crossed the Terek River, advancing slowly and relying on heavy artillery to clear the path ahead.

Chechens fled these bombardments in the hundreds of thousands, causing a refugee crisis that overwhelmed every nearby province. Any Chechens unfortunate enough to flee toward the Russians were captured and placed in filtration camps, with the aim of weeding out possible spies or saboteurs. As the Russians approached the city, the fighting intensified, with a crucial battle taking place on a strategic ridge guarded by 200 Chechens.

After the Chechens retreated, the Russians were in artillery range of Grozny, and heavy shelling commenced. To complement the shelling, Scud missiles were also launched on strategic targets. On October 21st, 1999, a short-range ballistic missile struck the crowded Grozny Marketplace, killing 140 civilians because there was supposedly an arms dealing shop somewhere in it.

A week later, another rocket attack was carried out, this time on a refugee camp, leaving 25 dead, including foreign journalists and Red Cross workers. A major Russian victory came in November, when the leaders of Chechnya’s second largest city, Gudermes, defected to the federal side. Smaller villages were captured systematically, with one, Bamut, wiped off the map with a vacuum bomb.

The Chechens counterattacked and resisted, but the Russians continued their advance, squeezing around Grozny like a boa constrictor, cutting it off from all supply lines and not allowing anyone to escape the doomed city.

The Siege of Grozny: Urban Warfare and Civilian Terror

Beginning in December 1999, the Russians began active operations into Grozny. Their tactics were meant to avoid repeating the mistakes of the First Chechen War, and involved intense artillery and airstrikes followed by small probes of infantry that had been specially trained in urban warfare. It was a better strategy than the previous ones, which had lost thousands of men, but it was still going to be an uphill battle.

Despite the immense shelling, the Chechens held their ground well. They knew their city better than anyone, and it became a deathtrap for the invaders to enter, as the rebels employed tactics such as luring enemies into crossfires and trapping vehicles in narrow streets. It was too dangerous and crowded to send very many tanks, so most of the battles were bloody door-to-door combat as the Russian soldiers attempted to take control of the streets.

Even once streets were cleared, Russians couldn’t take cover inside any buildings, as the vast majority of them had been rigged with traps, and only the Chechens knew the safe passages. This was especially dangerous because a lack of supplies meant that many of the Russian troops didn’t have proper body armor, so explosives in close proximity meant certain death. Using the rooftops and sewers, Chechens moved silently in small groups around the city, popping up behind the invaders and disappearing back to where they came from.

They inflicted a heavy toll on the attackers but suffered irreplaceable fighters in the process. Both sides accused the other of using chemical weapons, though from a neutral perspective there isn’t much evidence of their use at all, and it’s more likely that damaged industrial plants were to blame. Regardless, fears of chemical attacks were a boon to the Russians, as they caused many rebels to flee the city.

They weren’t the only ones who tried to flee, but many were unable to. The elderly and disabled had been left in basements to wait out the fighting, but now that winter had arrived, they were freezing and starving. More than 500 of these people were killed while attempting to flee, either mistaken for the enemy or murdered just in case.

Any remaining civilians must have felt even more doomed by December 11th, when leaflets were dropped across Grozny reading: “Persons who stay in the city will be considered terrorists and bandits and will be destroyed by artillery and aviation. There will be no further negotiations. Everyone who does not leave the city will be destroyed.”

Russia renounced this ultimatum in the face of international outrage. The brutal siege continued throughout December, with the Russians taking several big losses, including an entire armored column destroyed when it was trapped in a street and peppered with explosives from windows, and an ambush that killed more than 100 men. Both of these events were vehemently denied by the Russian government, but their news reached the outside world thanks to the likes of Associated Press and Reuters.

It is a classic move in the Russian playbook to underreport casualties and to strictly control what gets released to the public, but the deaths were mounting up so quickly that the news became too difficult to contain.

Putin Takes the Presidency and Grozny Falls

Things were complicated further by a sudden resignation from President Yeltsin, who appointed Putin temporary president until the elections a few months later. With public support for the war beginning to fade as the reality of a long war set in, Putin immediately took things to the next level with an immediate increase in artillery and airstrikes. This war would make or break his favor with the Russian public; he couldn’t afford to take any chances.

The new tactic was simple — flatten a neighborhood with every artillery available and then sweep it with ground forces. Little by little, Grozny was reduced to crumbling cement and ashes, and the Chechens fought more ferociously than ever before, even taking down a Russian commander on January 19th, 2000, with a long-range shot from a sniper. The fighting was so intense in that neighborhood that the commander’s body wasn’t even recovered for another five days.

Despite the fierce resistance, the destructive potential of the Russians was simply overwhelming, and the Chechen leaders knew that they stood no chance in the long run. After some brief planning, they decided to make a run for the mountains, and on January 31st began heading southwest, attempting to break through the Russian lines. More than 4,000 men were making the trek, and they were quickly spotted on the outskirts of the city.

Surrounded on both sides and having to traverse an enemy minefield, they suffered between 500 and a thousand casualties before the survivors made their escape. Grozny had fallen at last, and the separatist government had been crushed. The remaining rebels fled through the mountains from village to village, and the Russians gave chase, indiscriminately bombing hundreds of civilians, but they weren’t able to catch them all, and the exiled fighters had no plans to surrender.

Once they’d established themselves in the mountains and appointed new leaders, the rebels began fighting a guerrilla war against the Russians, using the rugged terrain to their advantage, borrowing much of what they’d learned from the effective resistance in the Soviet-Afghan War, prepared to drag the war on for months or even years. Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, littered the streets, taking down Russian patrols daily, and food was smuggled into the mountains by night.

Mountain Insurgency and the Deadliest Day in Helicopter Aviation

Russia began sending attack helicopters to lead the counterinsurgency operation, but this ended in catastrophe, as more than a few of these were shot down by the Chechens, killing high-ranking officers on several occasions. In the deadliest of these attacks, an Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter was hit by a rocket fired from an Igla, a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile launcher, bringing the helicopter to a crash landing in the middle of a minefield. The doors were jammed and couldn’t be opened for several hours, leaving the crew trapped inside as burning fuel seeped into the interior.

Of the few that were able to escape the burning wreckage, many were killed by the mines that surrounded their crash site, and many more later succumbed to their burns. In total, 127 Russian soldiers lost their lives that day, making it the deadliest day in all of helicopter aviation. The mountain insurgency powered on, and the Russians grew more and more drastic with their countermeasures, such as attacking a crowd of pensioners in Shali, a town designated as a safe zone, simply because word had spread that rebels entered the town.

More than 150 civilians were killed by a combination of a missile strike and attack helicopters opening fire. Throughout the year 2000, various operations were carried out, mostly in the mountains, to locate and eliminate the remaining fighters, whose total number had dropped to an estimated one or two thousand. Despite the public’s shaky support throughout the conflict, they were quite pleased with it nearing an end, leading to Putin easily winning the March 2000 presidential elections.

Polls showed that people generally approved of his calm demeanor and, ironically, his strong anti-corruption rhetoric, and they were happy that he had followed through with his vow to crush the insurrection in Chechnya. After winning the elections, Putin reestablished direct federal control in Chechnya, setting up a pro-Russia government and appointing Akhmad Kadyrov as its head, before officially announcing the end of the war in 2002. A new constitution was adopted the following year, firmly placing the region under Moscow’s control.

Akhmad was assassinated in a blast from a car bomb and was replaced by his son, Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been the de facto leader of the Chechen Republic ever since.

A War That Never Truly Ended: Legacy and Human Cost

The reality is a lot more complicated than a clean ending. The war never really ended. The major operations and large-scale engagements came to a close, but the car bombs, assassinations, and ambushes continued.

In fact, they continued for another nine years, in an insurgency similar to what the US faced in Iraq. Finally, in 2009, the exiled leader of the separatists, Akhmed Zakayev, called for an end to the conflict, saying: “Starting with this day Chechens will never shoot at each other.” With this, Russia announced that its anti-terror operations were officially over and that peace had been brought to Chechnya.

They then withdrew the majority of their forces, marking the generally accepted end of the Second Chechen War, though skirmishes with local police are not unheard of even to this day. The numbers are hard to know for sure since the Russian government is rather tight-lipped on the subject, with Russia’s official number just 1,250, but independent groups estimate closer to 5,000, while the number of Chechen rebels killed is at least 10,000. At least 50,000 civilians were killed in the fighting, and Grozny was labeled by the UN in 2003 as the “most destroyed city on earth.”

In both Grozny and the surrounding villages, Russian soldiers were accused of every heinous crime — assaulting, looting, and murdering without regard. The worst of these was the Novye Aldi massacre in February 2000, when Russian soldiers went on a door-to-door sweep, slaughtering, robbing, and violating anyone they pleased, with hundreds of victims ranging from newborn babies to an 80-year-old woman. Mass graves of executed are discovered often, and there are likely hundreds more hidden corpses that won’t be found for years or decades.

No one was ever prosecuted for these crimes, a tale all too similar to the many atrocities committed in the current war in Ukraine. As many as 70% of the 1.5 million Russian soldiers conscripted to fight returned with serious traumatization, leading to the term “Chechen syndrome” being coined to describe their psychological damage. Many of these young men were never able to return to work, were physically disabled, became severe alcoholics, or simply spiraled into a life of crime.

As for the Chechen population, other than watching their city get reduced to powder and their friends and family killed, the survivors returned to live in serious poverty. One in every 10 babies born in Chechnya requires treatment for birth defects, but such treatment is generally unavailable in the region’s hospitals. Homelessness is a chronic issue, even for thousands of children, and crime rates are estimated to be twice the Russian average, with abductions still a prominent issue.

There is no telling if Putin believed the war to truly be worth such a price. On one hand, hundreds of thousands of refugees, tens of thousands of casualties, a traumatized generation of young men and a region cursed to remain impoverished for decades. But, on the other hand, resistance crushed, Chechnya finally reincorporated into Russia, and, for the foreseeable future, under the command of a leader forever loyal to Vladimir Putin.

Frequently Asked Questions

What role did the 1999 apartment bombings play in starting the Second Chechen War?

A series of bombings across Russia in 1999 killed more than 350 people. The official narrative blamed Chechen rebels, and public outrage helped justify a second invasion. However, multiple critics and independent investigators alleged the bombings were a false flag operation orchestrated by the FSB; Russian agents were caught planting an explosive in an apartment building and were ordered released, and several investigators who probed the matter were assassinated, imprisoned, or died in suspicious accidents before presenting their findings.

How did Putin use the Second Chechen War to rise to power?

Putin had only recently become prime minister when the conflict began and was vocally pro-war. His decisive prosecution of the campaign — including ordering a dramatic increase in artillery and airstrikes after he became acting president following Yeltsin’s sudden resignation — generated strong public support. He won the March 2000 presidential election on the back of public approval for his handling of the war and his anti-corruption rhetoric.

What made the siege of Grozny so devastating?

After months of aerial bombing and artillery fire reduced the city’s outskirts, Russian forces entered Grozny in December 1999 using intense shelling followed by infantry sweeps. Chechen fighters exploited their knowledge of the city, luring Russian troops into crossfires, trapping vehicles in narrow streets, and using sewers and rooftops to attack from behind. Thousands of civilians who could not flee were trapped in basements without heat or food. The UN designated Grozny the most destroyed city on earth in 2003.

What was the deadliest single incident of the war?

An Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter was shot down by a shoulder-fired Igla anti-aircraft missile, crash-landing in a minefield. Jammed doors trapped the crew inside as burning fuel seeped in, and survivors who escaped were killed by surrounding mines or later died from burns. In total, 127 Russian soldiers died in that single attack, making it the deadliest day in helicopter aviation history.

What were the long-term human costs of the Second Chechen War?

At least 50,000 civilians were killed. Russian soldiers were accused of systematic atrocities, including the Novye Aldi massacre in February 2000. As many as 70 percent of the roughly 1.5 million Russian conscripts returned with serious psychological trauma, a condition coined “Chechen syndrome.” The insurgency continued until 2009, when exiled separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev finally called for an end to the conflict.