Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, close to the Caspian Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country of Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia-Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.
The First Chechen War, also known as the First Chechen Campaign, or the First Russian-Chechen war, was a war of independence which the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria waged against the Russian Federation from December 1994 to August 1996. The first war was preceded by the Russian Intervention in Ichkeria, in which Russia tried covertly to overthrow the Ichkerian government. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya, but they faced heavy resistance from Chechen guerrillas and raids on the flatlands. Despite Russia's overwhelming advantages in firepower, manpower, weaponry, artillery, combat vehicles, airstrikes and air support, the resulting widespread demoralization of federal forces and the almost universal opposition to the conflict by the Russian public led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire with the Chechens in 1996, and finally, it signed a peace treaty in 1997.
Akhmed Halidovich Zakayev is a former Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister of the unrecognised Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI). He was also the Foreign Minister of the Ichkerian government, appointed by Aslan Maskhadov shortly after his 1997 election, and again in 2006 by Abdul Halim Sadulayev. During the First Chechen War, Zakayev took part in the battles for Grozny and other military operations, as well as in high-level negotiations with the Russian side.
The Second Chechen War took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 to April 2009.
Aslan (Khalid) Aliyevich Maskhadov was a Soviet and Chechen politician and military commander who served as the third president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Alu Dadashevich Alkhanov is a Russian politician and the former president of Russia's Chechen Republic. He is a career police officer who fought within the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces during the First Chechen War. He was elected as president on 30 August 2004. On 15 February 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Alkhanov as the Chechen President and appointed him a Deputy Justice Minister of Russia.
The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission today is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, which it regards as being of current strategic importance to the United States. Jamestown publications focus on China, Russia, Eurasia, and global terrorism.
The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was a de facto state that controlled most of the former Checheno-Ingush ASSR. On 30 November 1991, a referendum was held in Ingushetia in which the results dictated its separation from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, joining the Russian Federation instead as a constituent republic.
Doku Khamatovich Umarov, also known as Dokka Umarov as well as by his Arabized name of Dokka Abu Umar, was a Chechen mujahid in North Caucasus. Umarov was a major military figure in both wars in Chechnya during the 1990s and 2000s, before becoming the leader of the greater insurgency in the North Caucasus. He was active mostly in south-western Chechnya, near and across the borders with Ingushetia and Georgia.
Movladi Saidarbievich Udugov is the former First Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI). As a Chechen propaganda chief, he was credited for the Chechens' victory on the information front during the First Chechen War.
The Dagestan War, also known as the Invasion of Militants in Dagestan began when the Chechnya-based Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB), an Islamist group, led by Shamil Basayev, Ibn al-Khattab, Ramzan Akhmadov and Arbi Barayev, invaded the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan, on 7 August 1999, in support of the Shura of Dagestan separatist rebels. The war ended with a major victory for the Russian Federation and Dagestan Republic, and the retreat of the IIPB. The invasion of Dagestan served as the main casus belli alongside the series of apartment bombings in September 1999 for the Second Chechen War.
The 141st Special Motorized Regiment, also known as the Kadyrovites,Kadyrovtsy and Akhmat special forces unit after Akhmad Kadyrov, is a paramilitary organization in Chechnya, Russia, that serves as the protection of the Head of the Chechen Republic. The term Kadyrovtsy is commonly used in Chechnya to refer to any armed, ethnically-Chechen men under the control of Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov - although nominally they are under the umbrella of the National Guard of Russia.
The International Foundation for Civil Liberties is a non-profit organization established by the Russian-British oligarch Boris Berezovsky in November 2000. The foundation is headquartered in New York City and headed by Alexander Goldfarb. The stated mission of the foundation is "to provide financial, legal, informational and logistical resources to secure human rights and civil liberties in Russia."
Rappani Khalilov, also known as Rabbani, was the militant leader of the Shariat Jamaat of the Caucasian Front during the Second Chechen War, in the volatile southern Russian republic of Dagestan. He was killed on September 17, 2007, in a fierce shoot-out with the Russian special forces.
The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) is a Finland-based non-governmental organization monitoring the human rights situation in Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus. The society produces daily press releases claiming serious human rights violations. At its former main office Nizhny Novgorod, where it produced the Rights Protection newspaper jointly with the Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society. The RFCFS received the 2004 Recognition Award by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.
Estimates of casualties in the Second Chechen War vary wildly, from 25,000 to 200,000 civilian dead plus 8,000 to 40,000 Russian military.
Vakha Arsanov was a vice president in the Aslan Maskhadov government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
The Borozdinovskaya operation was a zachistka-type operation by Russian forces in Borozdinovskaya, Chechnya, on June 4, 2005, during the Second Chechen War. Members of the Special Battalion Vostok, an ethnic Chechen Spetsnaz unit of the Russian GRU, killed or disappeared 12 people in the ethnic minority Avar village of Borozdinovskaya, near the border with the Dagestan. Representatives of the Russian federal authorities expressed outrage over the incident, and the commander of the unit responsible was convicted.
The presidency of Boris Yeltsin began with his first inauguration on 10 July 1991, and ended on 31 December 1999 when he announced his resignation. A referendum held on 17 March 1991 approved the creation of the post of president of Russia; Yeltsin was elected Russia's first president in a presidential election held on 12 June 1991.
