It is more than three months since the Russian army triumphantly declared that they had seized Grozny from the separatist rebels, but they have yet to take decisive control of the ruined trophy city. Every night its inhabitants are woken up by sniper shots rattling through the silence, as Chechen fighters target Russian posts under cover of darkness. Every morning officers gather to calculate how many more of their men have been killed or injured during the night. Small groups of Chechen fighters, who know the terrain intimately, hide in the bombed-out shells of Grozny's apartment blocks. Soldiers in the city are on full alert.
Every car coming into the city is scrutinised thoroughly.
But it's impossible to know where to expect the next attack, which is why the situation is so tense,' Mikhail Sulomatin, a military police officer, said. The chaos in Grozny reflects a wider picture of disarray, as rebels adopt similar terrorising tactics on military bases throughout the state. Police Captain Alexander Zuyev witnessed another guerrilla attack last Monday in the Argun region, as his troops drove over a home-made Chechen land mine. After the explosion, fighters started firing on us from the woods nearby. Over the past week the situation across Chechnya has become much more dangerous for us.