Second Chechen War

The Second Chechen War began in August–October 1999, when Russian forces re-entered the Republic of Chechnya after the August 1999 incursion by Chechen-led militants into neighbouring Dagestan and a series of apartment bombings in Russian cities (Buynaksk, Moscow, Volgodonsk) in September 1999 that Russian authorities attributed to Chechen militants. Then–Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made the campaign a defining issue of his rapid political ascent, succeeding Boris Yeltsin as acting president on 31 December 1999.

Unlike the First Chechen War (1994–1996), which ended with the Khasavyurt Accord and the 1997 Moscow Treaty leaving Chechnya effectively self-governing under Aslan Maskhadov, the second campaign aimed at full reintegration. Federal forces encircled Grozny in late 1999 and, after heavy bombardment, captured the city in February 2000. The UN later described Grozny as one of the most destroyed cities on earth. Russia formally ended its "counter-terrorist operation" regime on 16 April 2009, though insurgent violence continued for years across the North Caucasus.

Key features of the conflict included:

• Heavy use of artillery and air power against urban areas, producing large civilian casualties and refugee flows into Ingushetia and Georgia's Pankisi Gorge.
• "Chechenisation" of the war from around 2003, transferring frontline duties to loyalist Chechen forces under Akhmad Kadyrov and, after his 2004 assassination, his son Ramzan Kadyrov.
• Insurgent tactics that spread beyond Chechnya, including the 2002 Dubrovka theatre siege in Moscow and the 2004 Beslan school siege in North Ossetia.
• Human rights findings: the European Court of Human Rights issued numerous judgments against Russia (e.g., Isayeva v. Russia, 2005) for violations of the right to life and prohibitions on torture.

The war entrenched Kremlin control through a personalised Kadyrov regime and shaped Russian doctrine on counter-insurgency, federal authority, and information control for years afterward.