"The first Chechen war" began 9 years ago

Yesterday it was nine years since anti-Dudayev forces of the Chechen opposition made an attempted to topple General Dudayev. Actually, the event triggered the first war campaign in Chechnya.

At dawn of November 26, 1994, squads of armed opposition, backed up by Russian tanks and infantry, attacked Grozny from three directions. The clashes between opposition forces and President Dudayev's loyalists went on till the sunset and eventually ended in the victory of Dudayev's supporters. In 3 weeks, Russian troops invaded the territory of Chechnya "to restore the constitutional order."

"The defeat of Gantamirov, Avturkhanov, Labazanov and other warlords of the opposition supported by Russian authorities was nothing but an offensive challenge to Russian President Yeltsin, which resulted in further developments tragic for our nation," an unnamed ex-legislator of the Chechen Parliament holds. "General Dudayev didn't really want this war. He was in pursuit of an agreement with the Russian government, ready for considerable concessions to avoid the bloodshed. But, unfortunately, the Kremlin "war hawks" succeeded in persuading Mr. Yeltsin to conduct a victorious blitzkrieg."

According to the former deputy, Moscow officials needed "a small-scale victorious war" to boost the popularity of the Russian President and authorities in the country. "Thus far, we've been reaping the fruits of that fatal decision. Had the Kremlin negotiated with Dudayev, there would have been neither the first, nor the present military campaign in Chechnya, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of killed, wounded and missing people from both sides and in destroyed cities and villages of Chechnya; there would have been neither mutual atrocities and hostility, nor extremism we can see now. Everything could have been quite different," the Chechen legislator said.