23:16, 11 December 2004

War in Chechnya began 10 years ago

10 years ago, in the morning of December 11, 1994, units of the Russian army and the Russian Interior Ministry entered Chechnya simultaneously from three directions. It happened in spite of the fact that negotiations between representatives of the federal center and Chechnya for the resolution of the conflict by peaceful means were to be held in Mozdok, North Osetia on December 12. This was the beginning of the first Chechen war, which was officially called "the introduction of constitutional order".

The reason for the war in Chechnya was in fact a failed attempt to overthrow president of the republic Dzhokhar Dudayev. On November 26, armed opposition groups, led by head of Chechnya's Nadterechny district administration Umar Avturkhanov, entered the town of Grozny with the support of Russian soldiers. But units loyal to Dudayev smashed them.

"When they ask me who is responsible for the beginning of the war in 1994, I always give two names - Boris Yeltsin and Dzhokhar Dudayev. Both of them planned to gain victory," Edilbek Khasmagomadov, a Chechen historian and political scientist, said.

Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent