In September 1999, a series of explosions hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, killing more than 300, injuring more than 1,000, and spreading a wave of fear across the country. The bombings, together with the Invasion of Dagestan, triggered the Second Chechen War. The handling of the crisis by Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, boosted his popularity greatly and helped him attain the presidency within a few months.
Zelimkhan Abdulmuslimovich Yandarbiyev was a writer and politician from Chechnya, who served as acting president of the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria between 1996 and 1997. In 2004, Yandarbiyev was assassinated while in exile in Qatar.
The Security Service of Ukraine is the main internal security agency of the Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combating organized crime and terrorism. The Constitution of Ukraine defines the SBU as a military formation, and its staff are considered military personnel with ranks. It is subordinated directly under the authority of the president of Ukraine. The SBU also operates its own special forces unit, the Alpha Group.
Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev is a Russian politician, security officer and former intelligence officer who has served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia since 2008. He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1999 to 2008. Belonging to the siloviki faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle, Patrushev is believed to be one of the closest advisors to Putin and a leading figure behind Russia's national security affairs. He played a key role in the decisions to seize and then annex Crimea in 2014 and to invade Ukraine in 2022. He is considered as very hawkish towards the West and the United States. Patrushev is seen by some observers as one of the likeliest candidates for succeeding Putin.
On 7 October 2006, Russian journalist, writer and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment block in central Moscow. She was known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and for criticism of Vladimir Putin. She authored several books about the Chechen wars, as well as Putin's Russia, and received several international awards for her work. Her murder, believed to be a contract killing, sparked a strong international reaction. Three Chechens were arrested for the murder, but were acquitted. The verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court of Russia and new trials were held. In total, six people were convicted of charges related to her death.
On February 13, 2004, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was assassinated when a bomb ripped through his SUV in the Qatari capital, Doha. Yandarbiyev was fatally wounded and died on the way to the hospital while his 13-year-old son Daud was seriously injured and arrived in critical condition. According to some reports, two of his bodyguards were killed as well.
Adam Sultanovich Delimkhanov is a Russian politician who has been a member of the State Duma since 2007. He is a member of the ruling United Russia party. He is the head of the Chechen branch of Rosgvardia. Conflicting reports have emerged regarding Delimkhanov's fate, suggesting that he may have died during the Ukraine conflict.
From the end of February 2014, in the aftermath of the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the ousting of Russian-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, demonstrations by Russian-backed, pro-Russian, and anti-government groups took place in major cities across the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine. The unrest, which was supported by Russian military and intelligence, belongs to the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, is a Russian army veteran and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who played a key role in the Russian annexation of Crimea, and then in the Donbas War as an organizer of militant groups in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
In early 2014, there were clashes between rival groups of protestors in the Ukrainian city of Odesa, during the pro-Russian unrest that followed the Ukrainian Revolution. The street clashes were between pro-unity protesters and anti-government (anti-Maidan), pro-Russian protesters. Violence erupted on 2 May, when a 'United Ukraine' rally was attacked by pro-Russian separatists. Stones, petrol bombs and gunfire were exchanged; two pro-Ukraine activists and four pro-Russia activists were shot dead in the clashes. The pro-Ukraine protesters then moved to dismantle a pro-Russian protest camp in Kulykove Pole, causing some pro-Russian activists to barricade themselves in the nearby Trade Unions House. Shots were fired by both sides, and the pro-Ukraine protesters attempted to storm the building, which caught fire as the two groups threw petrol bombs at each other.
The assassination of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian politician opposed to the government of Vladimir Putin, occurred in central Moscow on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge at 23:31 local time on 27 February 2015. An unknown assailant fired seven or eight shots from a Makarov pistol. Four of them hit Nemtsov in the head, heart, liver and stomach, killing him almost instantly. He died hours after appealing to the public to support a march against Russia's war in Ukraine. Nemtsov's Ukrainian partner Anna Duritskaya survived the attack as its sole eyewitness.
The Dzhokhar Dudayev Chechen Peacekeeping Battalion is a Chechen volunteer battalion named after the first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Dzhokhar Dudayev. The battalion is made up of Chechen volunteers, many of whom fought in the First Chechen War and Second Chechen War on the side of the Republic of Ichkeria, Ingush, Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians.
Arkady Arkadyevich Babchenko is a Russian print and television journalist. From 1995, Babchenko served in the communication corps in the North Caucasus while participating in the First Chechen War. He later volunteered for six months during the Second Chechen War. After leaving the army in 2000 he worked as a war correspondent for more than a decade. Since 2017 he has worked as a presenter for the TV channel ATR. In 2006 he published the book One Soldier's War, about his experiences in Chechnya.
Amina Viktorivna Okueva was a Ukrainian-born doctor of Chechen-Polish descent, Euromaidan activist, convert to Islam, and police lieutenant. During the Euromaidan she worked as a medic in the Kyiv-2 battalion and saw combat in the city of Debaltseve after it was taken over by Russian-aligned rebels in 2015. She was killed in an ambush by unknown attackers on 30 October 2017. Her husband Adam Osmayev, a leader of the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion, was injured in the ambush but survived.
Sergey Orestovich Beseda is a Russian politician, Colonel General and government agent who has headed the Fifth Service of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) internal intelligence agency since 2009.
Mamihan Umarov was an Austrian blogger of Chechen origin, also known as Anzor from Vienna; political emigrant. He was known as an ardent opponent and critic of Ramzan Kadyrov's activities as head of the Chechen Republic in Russia. On July 4, 2020, he was shot and killed in Vienna by a Russian agent.
According to Ukrainian government officials and news sources, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has survived a number of assassination and kidnapping attempts by Russian or pro-Russian agents during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Darya Aleksandrovna Dugina, also known under the pen name Daria Platonova, was a Russian journalist, political scientist, and activist. She was the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, a supporter of Vladimir Putin and a far-right political philosopher, whose support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine she shared.
On 8 October 2022, at 6:07 a.m., a fire broke out on the Crimean Bridge as a result of an explosion of a bomb loaded onto a truck, which occurred on the road bridge, on the westbound vehicle lanes running from Russia to Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea. Two two-lane vehicular spans of the bridge collapsed into the water. Two adjacent eastbound lanes on a separate structure survived. The railway bridge was also significantly damaged by a railway tanker car that caught fire. Five people were killed, and the Investigative Committee of Russia launched an investigation.
