Access for journalists is strictly limited and increasingly rare. But a recent journey into Chechnya, organized by the Russian military, reveals a people under siege, and barely under Russian control. Moscow-appointed Chechen officials live under daily threat. Several have been killed by separatist guerrillas - and they work in heavily fortified compounds behind coils of razor wire and checkpoints. Even the simplest movement by troops in built-up areas seems to require complex security arrangements.
Tension is inescapable in the capital.
The soldiers chamber rounds in their Kalashnikov assault rifles and scan the muddy, frigid horizon with uncertainty. Just days ago, a roadside bomb here blasted a Russian convoy. Every road, every day, is checked for mines. The problem, in a global sense, is finished. Now most of the fighting is with criminal gangs, which are connected to the guerrillas.