It launched its current offensive three years later in response to an armed incursion into a neighboring region and bomb blasts in Moscow and other Russian cities. Moscow says its forces have established control over all Chechen territory and it has engaged in a high-profile publicity campaign to show that local services are working again. The local administration, handed back to a civilian authority, returned to Grozny last month from Chechnya's second city, Gudermes. Russian television broadcasts reports showing schools and utilities in action and elderly residents collecting pensions. But servicemen come under constant attack, particularly in mountain regions, and some 3,000 soldiers and police have already died in the current campaign.
Death tolls are impossible to estimate for either rebels or civilians.
Television stations said an investigation was under way into why the two men, servicemen who stayed on beyond their conscription period, had decided to leave their base near the city of Chita. The reports said the pair had traveled three kilometers, when a general passing in his car tried to stop them to demand an explanation for being off base. One of the fugitives opened fire at him at point-blank range and killed him. The pair were captured after a five-hour search. Stories of desertion or soldiers running amok occur regularly in the armed forces, where brutality by officers or fellow recruits remains a serious problem.