The Chechen Syndrome

Abstract

During January 1995 Russian armed forces gained control over most of Grozny — capital city of the ‘separatist’ autonomous republic of Chechenya in the Russian Federation — by a heavy aerial and artillery bombardment that turned a major part of the five-square-mile area, previously home to a population of over 350 000, into a scene of desolation and destruction. On the 19th they gained possession of the badly damaged presidential palace, and then drove Chechen resistance forces back across the Sunzha river, which winds its way through central Grozny, making it the demarcation line between opposing battling forces.