Wars in the Caucasus

TheWars in the Caucasuswere a series of interrelated ethnic and political conflicts which engulfed theCaucasusin the period shortly before and after thedissolution of the Soviet Union.The conflicts, resulting from centuries of ethnic tensions, reached a boiling point as the formerrepublics of the Soviet Unionbegan to seek independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Exacerbated byethnic nationalistclaims, they led to the establishment of severalde factoindependent states, violent government change and arefugee crisisthat led to the displacement of 1.5–2 million people.
Colonised by Russia during the 19th century, the Caucasus experienced significant unrest from 1917 to 1923, during theRussian Civil War. DuringWorld War II, several ethnic groups wereexpelled to Central Asia and Siberiaby the Soviet government, and the land was subsequently settled by other peoples. After expellees returned to the Caucasus during theKhrushchev Thaw, they found that their homes were now occupied and that the Soviet government was continuing attempts to eradicate their cultures. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, dissent against the Soviet Union emerged in the North Caucasus, Georgia and Armenia. Between 1985 and 1989, this grew into a low-level uprising, asperestroikaandglasnostled to increasingly-open dissent. Amidst the Soviet Union's dissolution, armed militants began engaging one another in combat.
The Wars in the Caucasus have at times been described as a series ofdecolonisation wars,ethnic conflictsor wars against Russianneocolonialismin the region. The Russian military was actively involved in all of the region's conflicts, pursuing strategies of securing strategic aims such as natural gas and railways or motorways. Russia intervened against nationalist, pro-Western leaders in Georgia (Zviad Gamsakhurdia), Azerbaijan (Abulfaz Elchibey)and Chechnya (Dzhokhar Dudayev), killing the latter.
The Wars in the Caucasus had a destructive effect on the region, leading to one of the steepest declines in economic output in the world during the 1990s. Numerous war crimes were committed during the war, including acts ofethnic cleansingand, in the case of Chechnya, what is occasionally referred to asgenocide. As much as 10% of the population of the Caucasus was displaced by fighting, and organised crime, drug trafficking and Islamic extremism proliferated, leading to theinsurgency in the North Caucasusand the growth of theIslamic State.
TheCaucasus, located in Eastern Europe and Western Asia,was colonisedby theRussian Empirein the early and mid-19th century.The region has long been noted by foreign observers for the frequency of conflict in the region, with Russian observers describing it as "anarchic". A combination of Russiandivide and ruletacticsand poor harvests led to mass migration amidst theFirst globalisation, which exacerbated conflicts over land use.TheRussian Civil Warfurther helped to lay the groundwork for future ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus. This was particularly true in Azerbaijan, asBolsheviksunder the leadership ofStepan Shaumianformed an alliance with theArmenian Revolutionary Federationand subsequently began attacking Azerbaijanis.
The Civil War continued in the Caucasus until 1923, asOttomanand British military interventions unsuccessfully sought the region's fragmentation. Upon its conclusion, the newly establishedSoviet Unioninitially accepted the ethno-religious differences in the Caucasus, declaring several ethnic groups to be formally self-governing.Shariawas initially maintained, as was theArabic scriptused to write most languages in the North Caucasus. In the mid-1920s, these freedoms were clamped down upon and the local populace was forced to hand over its weapons to the Soviet government. Fearing a pan-Islamic uprising in the region, the Soviets pursued a process of further delimitation in order to foster sectarian tensions. The most notable of these cases was the formal division ofCircassiansinto three separate ethnic groups (Adyghe, Cherkess andKabardians) In other cases, multiple ethnicities were placed together under a single administrative unit, asKarachayswere with the Cherkess andBalkarswith the Kabardians.
AmidstWorld War II, the Soviets yet again shifted course regarding the Caucasus. Fearing that Muslims in the North Caucasus would defect toNazi Germany, the government ofJoseph Stalinrecognised Islam and established amuftiateover the region. This policy, however, was limited in response to the brief German occupation, in which the German military reopened closed mosques, closedcollective farms, and promised sovereignty to ethnic groups which collaborated. Once the Soviets regained control of the region, a series of decrees by Stalin from November 1943 to March 1944 led to theforced relocationof the entire Balkar,Chechen,Ingush,and Karachaypopulations toCentral AsiaandSiberia. The autonomous governments which existed in the region were dissolved and residents' homes were given over to new inhabitants, who were primarily ethnic Russians. Thousands died during the forced migrations, andNeil Melvinwrote in 2007 that they were "one of the darkest periods in the history of the native peoples of the North Caucasus."
Peoples who had been deported from the North Caucasus were permitted to return home in the 1950s, amidst theKhrushchev Thaw, but found their homes occupied by the new settlers.The political, military, religious and economic elites of the region had been completely destroyed by the Soviets and the government began pushing for the adoption of industrial agriculture and Russian educators, seeking to destroy the surviving identities of the returning populations. This was resisted by women, who became responsible for reviving local village traditions that had been lost in the deportations,and, in the Northwest Caucasus,tariqasadhering toSufism.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, nationalism throughout the Caucasus continued to grow in strength. In Armenia and Georgia,Soviet dissidentsincreasingly came to be recognised by the Soviet government and public as a political force, particularly becoming violently anti-Soviet in Georgia.Georgian nationalism led to protests byAbkhazians, who felt threatened, and the Soviet government institutedaffirmative actionpolicies of "Abkhazisation" in theAbkhaz ASSRfrom 1978. These policies gave more or less opportunities to people based on the ethnicity listed on theirinternal passport, which could not be changed. Soviet policies led to the formalisation of ethnic divides in Abkhazia, where marriages between Georgians and Abkhazians had previously been common.
Meanwhile, North Caucasian ethnic groups who had lost land during the deportations began to organise, most notably the Ingush at the1973 Grozny meeting[ru], which demanded the return of formerly-Ingush territory held by theNorth Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.Protests by Armenians demanding recognition of theNagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast(NKAO), which was governed separately from Armenia as part of Azerbaijan, began to intensify, spurred on by centralisation in Azerbaijan that restricted the Autonomous Oblast's rights and encouraged Azerbaijani supremacy over Armenians.
The policies ofperestroikaandglasnost, initiated by Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachevin 1985, marked the beginning of low-level conflict between local nationalists and the Soviet government; while a union-wide phenomenon, this was particularly present in the Caucasus. From September 1985 to August 1989 the number of those killed in such clashes was assessed by researcher Astrid S. Tuminez as being in the "low hundreds". This conflict served as a reflection of growing discontent with Soviet rule over non-Russians at the time – in the same period, forty-seven large demonstrations occurred in the Soviet Union, almost entirely in republics that sought secession.
In February 1988, the government of the NKAO issued a demand to the Soviet government that it be annexed into Armenia. The Soviets refused, as this was impossible under theConstitution of the Soviet Union. Despite the refusal, the fact that the NKAO government had made such a request led to an outbreak of ethnic infighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Pogroms against Armenians occurred inBakuandSumgait, while Azerbaijanis were expelled from the Nagorno-Karabakh.
As the Soviet Union dissolved, the situation became increasingly militarised. Increasing numbers of Armenians and Azerbaijanis were displaced. The Soviet government sought in vain to prevent Armenia and Azerbaijan from declaring their independence. TheNagorno-Karabakh Republicdeclared independencevia referendum,while the Azerbaijan SSR formally abolished the NKAO. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the clashes escalated into a full-fledged war between the newly independent states of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces immediately began perpetrating massacres against civilians belonging to the other side. The 26 February 1992Khojaly massacre, during which 200 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, was the largest of such massacres.A string of defeats throughout spring 1992 led to the post-communist government ofAyaz Mutallibovbeing overthrown and replaced byAbulfaz Elchibey, a former Soviet dissident.Armenia received direct military support from Russia, which sent the366th Guards Motor Rifle Regimentto the Nagorno-Karabakh.In backing Armenia, Moscow primarily sought to topple Elchibey, a nationalist who sought to increase his country's connections to the Western world.Azerbaijan, on the other hand, was backed by the AfghanHezb-e Islami, which provided thousands of soldiers to fight Armenia as mercenaries.
Throughout 1993 theUnited Nations Security Councilpassed four resolutionsrelating to the conflict. Each of them called for respect to be given to the territorial sovereignty of Azerbaijan, the withdrawal of Armenian forces and a ceasefire.
Elchibey was overthrown in acoup d'étatbySurat Huseynov(which journalistThomas de Waaland researcher Murat Gül have claimed was done with the support of Russia), andHeydar Aliyevsubsequently became president. In 1994, theOrganisation for Security and Co-operation in Europeestablished theMinsk Groupunder the auspices of France, Russia and the United States, with the aim of negotiating a ceasefire.A Russian-backed truce was subsequently approved in May of that year, though Aliyev rejected a plan to station 18,000 Russian peacekeepers in the region. The Nagorno-Kabarakh Republic acquired all of its claimed territories as well as swathes of undisputed land within Azerbaijan.
Ethnic relations between Georgians andAbkhaziansbegan to fall apart in 1989. Increasing Abkhaz demands for further autonomy led to Georgian protests,which were subsequentlyviolently suppressedby the Soviet government.In July of that year, the Abkhaz capital ofSukhumiwas rocked byviolent civil unrestover Georgian demands forAbkhazian State Universityto be transformed into a local branch ofTbilisi State University.
In theSouth Ossetian Autonomous Oblastin northern Georgia, meanwhile, a legal struggle was evolving, as the Georgian and South Ossetian governments began passing contradictory laws. South Ossetia unilaterally declared itself anAutonomous Soviet Socialist Republicon 20 September 1989, a decision that was reversed by theGeorgian SSR's government on 10 November of that year. A series of riots inTskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital, caused casualties and led the Soviet central government to impose a state of emergency in the region. The Georgian government responded by blockading South Ossetiaand eventually declaring the region's autonomy defunct on 11 December 1990. TheSouth Ossetian warbegan shortly thereafter.
Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a Soviet dissident and fierce nationalist, was elected as the first President of Georgia after a group of dissident parties won the1990 Georgian Supreme Soviet election. Georgia subsequently seceded from the Soviet Union in aMarch 1991 referendum.While he was initially popular and won 87% of the vote, Gamsakhurdia's policies of Georgian ethnic nationalism and his clampdown on both political opposition and freedom of the press made him unpopular.
Though Abkhazia had voted in the 1991 referendum to remain as part of the Soviet Union, they initially accepted becoming part of a post-Soviet Georgia, unlike South Ossetia. In return for remaining under Georgia, Abkhazia was allowed to retain its autonomy and permitted an electoral system that disproportionately favoured Abkhazians over Georgians in thePeople's Assembly of Abkhazia.Meanwhile, fighting continued to escalate in South Ossetia; hundreds of villages were destroyed, and 43,000 Ossetians fled to the neighbouringNorth Ossetian ASSR, within Russia.
From September to December 1991, protests against Gamsakhurdia's government gradually evolved into street violence between his supporters and opponents. These protests culminated in a January 1992coup d'état,overseen by members of the former communistnomenklatura, theGeorgian mafiaand disgruntled former allies of the President.Gamsakhurdia refused to surrender, fleeing toChechnya, and his native region ofMingrelia(in Georgia's west) rose up in revolt against the new government.After two months of political deadlock, former Soviet leader of Georgia and foreign ministerEduard Shevardnadzewas offered the office of President, which he accepted.The Russian military, via theTranscaucasian Military District's headquarters in the Georgian capital ofTbilisi, provided support to the putschists against Shevardnadze in retaliation for his nationalist and pro-Western views.
As Georgia's political order collapsed, Abkhazia's government issued a request to the putschists to renegotiate the Abkhaz–Georgian relationship in June 1992. After receiving no response, they unilaterally readopted the 1925 constitution of theSocialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia, tantamount to declaring independence. In response, Shevardnadze's government deployed the Georgian military in the breakaway region, citing the presence of Gamsakhurdia loyalists. This was treated as a declaration of war by Abkhazia's government, leading to the beginning of theWar in Abkhazia.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union and its replacement by theRussian Federationled Russia to further increase support for separatists; North Ossetia threatened to not acede to the Federation via signing theTreaty of Federationunless Russian PresidentBoris Yeltsinprovided support for South Ossetia. In late May 1992, North Ossetia closed the natural gas pipeline to Georgia. This subsequently led Yeltsin and Shevardnadze to sign theSochi agreementon 24 June 1992, declaring a ceasefire to be enforced by Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia.Russia also provided support to Abkhazia by supplying them with heavy weapons and securing air supremacy.The Abkhazians were also backed by theConfederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, a militant political group led byMusa Shanibovthat called for the North Caucasus to become independent from Russia.
Despite being weakened by simultaneously fighting both Abkhazia and Gamsakhurdia's supporters,the Georgian government successfullycaptured Sukhumiin summer 1992. The Abkhaz government underVladislav Ardzinba's leadership subsequently evacuated toGudautain the north, while fighting continued along the banks of theGumista River. In the countryside, ethnic Abkhazians and Armenians formed armed militias against local Georgian andSvanpopulations, who did the same. The Abkhaz government eventually launched an offensive that succeeded in retaking much of Abkhazia, including Sukhumi, though theKodori Valleywas secured by Svan militias.At least 30,000 ethnic Georgians were displaced by the Abkhaz government after their victory as part of aprocess of ethnic cleansing.A ceasefire agreement would eventually be signed on 14 May 1994, with Russian peacekeepers under the flag of theCommonwealth of Independent Statesenforcing thede factoborder.
Following the defeat of the Georgian government in Abkhazia, Gamsakhurdia returned from his Chechen exile to lead another rebellion against Shevardnadze. In order to secure his rule, Shevardnadze turned to Russian military support. He joined the Commonwealth of Independent States and theCollective Security Treaty Organisation, a military alliance led by Russia.Further Russian peacekeepers were also deployed to the region in what academic Stephen Blank describes as part of a strategy of neocolonialism.Gamsakhurdia was later defeated by the Georgian government and Russia, and died under disputed circumstances that were officially ruled a suicide.
Rather than joining theChechen Revolution, Ingushetia chose to remain as part of Russia in the hopes that formerly-Ingush parts ofPrigorodny District, which had been seized by North Ossetia following the 1944 expulsions would be returned, allowing them to resettle in the region.In 1991, the Soviet government passed the Law on the Rehabilitation of the Repressed Peoples, which allowed for the repatriation of people and the transfer of territory in cases where borders or populations had been exchanged under Stalin's rule. No concepts on managed repatriation were written in the law, and following its passage, a disorganised movement of Ingush people seeking to return to Prigorodny District began,led by Ingush nationalist groupNijsxo.This disturbed North Ossetians and served as the basis for future conflict.
North Ossetia's pro-communist government, ignoring edicts by Yeltsin to allow the return of Ingush expellees,began organising paramilitaries on 15 November 1991 and attempted to force them to leave. Ingushetia responded by establishing militias of their own. Throughout late 1991 and early 1992, low-level clashes between Ossetians and Ingush continued, further inflamed by the settlement of South Ossetian refugees in Prigorodny District.This culminated in a series of battles on 30or 31 Octoberbetween Ingushetia and North Ossetia across the latter's territory.
The conflict continued for five days, during which time over 400 Ingush and 200 Ossetians were killed. Fourteen Ingush villages were destroyed by North Ossetian forces,who expelled 40,000 Ingush from the region.The Russian government intervened in the war on 2 November 1992, declaring a state of emergency and the installation of a "Provisional Administration" over both North Ossetia and Ingushetia, which the Russian Armed Forces directed. The military, however, would not arrive until 5 November; in the interim between Yeltsin's decree and the arrival of Russian forces, during which time fighting and casualties continued.An agreement between Ingush presidentRuslan Aushevand North Ossetian presidentAkhsarbek Galazovwas negotiated by Yeltsin and signed in 1994, as a result of which Ingushetia surrendered its formal claims over Prigorodny District.
The East Prigorodny conflict was the least bloody of the Wars in the Caucasus.Despite this, it further worsened tensions between Ingush and Ossetians, leading to theInsurgency in Ingushetiain the early 21st century.The Russian military administration, in contrast to Yeltsin's pro-Ingush views, expressed favouritism towards the Ossetians as Orthodox Christians, and sought to use the conflict as a basis to invade thede factoindependentChechen Republic of Ichkeria. During their occupation of North Ossetia and Ingushetia, Russian forces continued pushing east into Chechnya until the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus threatened a regional uprising if Russia did not withdraw.
The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria became independent from the Soviet Union in 1990, though it remained unrecognised by the international community. Unlike other Muslim-majority republics that had significant independence movements from Russia (such asTatarstanandBashkortostan), Chechnya's ethnically homogenous nature and large support among local elites for independence led them to refuse accession into the Russian Federation.Russia had a vested strategic interest in securing Chechnya: the separatist region was home to a large natural gas pipeline, as well as a motorway and a railway. The government additionally was concerned of the possible spread of separatist sentiments to otherrepublics.
Yeltsin made his first military effort to secure control over Chechnya by launching acoup d'étatagainst the government of Chechen leaderDzhokhar Dudayevin November 1994. The coup attempt failed, humiliating the Russian government.On 11 December 1994, Yeltsin formally sent troops into Chechnya by presidential decree. Russia initially believed that the war would be short; Minister of DefencePavel Grachevclaimed that he would secure the Chechen capital ofGroznywith two divisions of theRussian Airborne Forcesby the new year, This attempt failed dramatically; in theensuing battle, several Russian brigades were destroyed by the Chechen military.The Russian military pursued a strategy ofshock and awe, launching astrategic bombingcampaign against most Chechen population centres. As a result of the bombings, tens of thousands of civilians were killed. Most of Chechnya was occupied by Russia within two months of fighting, forcing the government into the southern highlands.Chechen military fatalities, however, remained low during this time period, particularly in comparison to their Russian counterparts: within the first fifteen days of the war, 1,000 Chechen soldiers were killed in action compared to 12,000–13,000 Russian soldiers (between 48% and 52% of the initial invasion force).
From the highlands, the Chechen rump state continued to wage a guerrilla war. Russian counter-insurgency tactics relied on inflicting further civilian casualties, with German OSCE monitor Jürgen Heiducoff noting that "thousands of civilians are exterminated in order to kill ten or perhaps fifteen rebels."Following theBudyonnovsk hospital hostage crisisin June 1995, Chechen morale significantly improved as a result of the perceived victory.Russia killed Dudayev in April 1996, but this had little effect on the insurgents' morale or effectiveness.In the August 1996Third Battle of Grozny, the city was rapidly recaptured by Chechen forces, leading to the signing of theKhasavyurt Accordceasefire a few weeks later.
It is commonly agreed by scholars that several instances ofwar crimeswere committed during the Wars in the Caucasus. These crimes includeethnic cleansing, as well as allegations ofgenocide. In particular, the Russian government role in the First Chechen War was condemned by theInternational Court of Justice, which attempted to sway United States and Western European governmental policy to be more critical of Russian military actions.Heiducoff, the OSCE monitor, referred to Russian military tactics as an attempt to annihilate the Chechen people; Russian generalSergei Stepashinalso was reported as having said "to win this war the whole male Chechen population would have to be eradicated."
The refusal of involved countries, such as Russia, to both sign and ratify theRome Statute, has been cited by Georgian Ajarian politicianAslan Abashidzeand Russian legal theorist Elena Trikoz as being the key obstacle toInternational Criminal Courtproceedings regarding the Wars in the Caucasus. The reasons for this are dependent upon the respective country, but primarily based on issues of criminal justice reforms within theCommonwealth of Independent Statesand perceived threats to state sovereignty by the ICC's policies. As of 2009, the only nation in the Caucasus to sign and ratify the Rome Statute is Georgia, which did so in the hopes that what its government alleged to be genocide would be investigated in Abkhazia. Armenia has signed the Rome Statute and expressed support for it, but its laws continue to remain incompatible with the statute.
The Wars in the Caucasus dramatically depressed the local economy of Caucasus states and regions, slowing economic growth and increasing both poverty and corruption. As a result of the economic downturn during the wars, several million left the region in addition to those displaced by fighting, with most leaving to Russia. By 2000 only Azerbaijan had returned to 50% of its 1989 production levels. The economic changes were unprecedented in history, with a rapid decline in conditions from high standards of living to among the lowest in the world. Only Moldova and Tajikistan, both of which also suffered civil wars, experienced similar declines within the former Soviet Union during the same period.
The Wars in the Caucasus had the effect of a massive refugee crisis, ultimately resulting in the flight of 1.5to two million people,comprising 10% of the South Caucasus population at the time.The majority of these refugees were displaced within Russia or the South Caucasus states,though others fled to other countries, such asEuropean Unionmember states.Significant groups of the Chechen diaspora now exist in Ukraine,Polandand France,whileKurdish refugeesfrom Georgia and Armenia settled with other parts of theKurdish diasporain the European Union and Canada.
TheArmed Forces of Ukrainewere deployed to the Caucasus to evacuate 250,000 Georgian refugees fleeing Abkhazia in autumn 1993, marking the first overseas deployment of Ukraine's military.United Nations-organised refugee camps were established in Russia after the Wars in the Caucasus. Conditions in these camps were extremely poor, with most residents living in squalor.Refugees also faced problems from the Russian government, which sought to close the camps and relocate refugees to their countries of origin in spite of continued violence. In 2002, Russia was accused byHuman Rights Watchof forcibly relocating 20,000 Chechen refugees back to Chechnya,while Ingush inhabitants of East Prigorodny were forced to live in camps within the Republic of Ingushetia.
Iran also established refugee camps in Azerbaijan as part of an effort to prevent the entry of migrants toIranian Azerbaijan. Iran claimed to have taken in 40,000 refugees from the Wars in the Caucasus by November 1993. In establishing refugee camps within Azerbaijan, Iran was primarily motivated by antipathy towards the Azerbaijani government and popular support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Tied to the refugee crisis was the expansion of organised crime groups, both within and outside their home countries. TheGeorgian mafiaplayed a significant role in the Georgian Civil War, with bosses such asTengiz KitovaniandJaba Ioselianibringing Shevardnadze into power before later coming into conflict with his government. Following the civil war, a new generation of organised criminals emerged and asserted near-total dominance over the country's economy.In Chechnya, theChechen mafiawere among the leaders of efforts to maintain Chechen independence, providing support for Dudayev in return for members of their government being placed into government positions.
The Chechen mafia also grew outside Chechnya during the Wars in the Caucasus, with two causes; on one hand, the refugee crisis allowed members of the mafia to establish themselves in different areas. On the other hand, Chechen guerrillas turned to the arms and narcotics trade out of desperation during the First Chechen War.Members of the mafia have established themselves among Chechen refugee communities in Georgiaand France.A 2002 report by theLibrary of Congressto the United States government further alleged that the Caucasus had become a transit hub for heroin from theGolden Crescent.
The Wars in the Caucasus additionally had the effect of promoting radical nationalism andIslamismon a local level. Particularly in the North Caucasus, Islamism grew in strength following the wars and massive migration to cities. Some of these extremists would later fight as part of theSyrian oppositionorIslamic Stateduring theSyrian civil war.Typical depictions of the North Caucasus in Russia since the wars have depicted the region as a centre of Islamism(referred to asWahhabismby the Russian government),although the general population of the region has rejected the concept.Islamism in the North Caucasus has been used since the war as a demonstration of nationalistic and pro-independence sentiment in the region, and researcherGordon M. Hahnhas stated that the laterCaucasus Emiratemilitant group "includes but is not reducible to"Al Qaeda.The growth of radical Islam in the Caucasus in the aftermath of the wars was recognised byAyman al-Zawahiri, a high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda, as a potent source of recruits, and he noted that the North Caucasus was "one of three primary fronts in the war against the West".
Violence relating to the Wars in the Caucasus at times spilled outside of the region, primarily from North Caucasian Islamists into other parts of Russia. The first such instance happened during the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis on 14 June 1995, when Chechen militants led by commanderShamil Basayevtook several hostages at a hospital in southern Russia. Afterspetsnazunits failed to neutralise the militants, Prime MinisterViktor Chernomyrdinentered negotiations with Basayev. Chernomyrdin eventually agreed to some of Basayev's demands, including safe passage back to Chechnya. 129 people were killed during the attack, with an additional 415 injured.This was followed byanother attackinKizlyar, Dagestan the next year.The1999 Russian apartment bombings, which served as a pretext for theSecond Chechen War, were blamed on Chechen militants, though the extent to which this is true has been significantly debated.