Chechen Conflict Documentary

A Correspondent Documentary On the Chechen Conflict with Russia From Its Beginning in the 1790's To The current time.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

The Wolf Of The Caucasus

Witness Account Of Russian War Crimes In Chechnya

The following is a list of accounts of war crimes commited against Chechen civilians and Chechen fighters, These source from an eyewitness to many of the events and the boasts of a Russian Soldier.


"I remember a Chechen female sniper. We just tore her apart with two armored personnel carriers, having tied her ankles with steel cables. There was a lot of blood, but the boys needed it to let off some steam."

"The main thing is to have them (Chechens) die slowly. You don't want them to die fast, because a fast death is an easy death."

"The summary executions don't just take place against suspected fighters. One 33-year-old army officer recounted how he drowned a family of five - four women and a middle-aged man - in their own well."

"You should not believe people who say Chechens are not being exterminated. In this Chechen war, it's done by everyone who can do it," he said. "There are situations when it's not possible. But when an opportunity presents itself, few people miss it."

"I would exterminate and kill all the men I met during mopping-up operations. I didn't feel sorry for them one bit."

"We shouldn't have given them time to prepare for the war," he continues. "We should have slaughtered all Chechens over 5 years old and sent all the children that could still be re-educated to reservations with barbed wire and guards at the corners."

"But where would you find teachers willing to sacrifice their lives to re-educate these wolf cubs? There are no such people. Therefore, it's much easier to kill them all. It takes less time for them to die than to grow." 

"So there will be one Chechen less on the planet, so what? Who will cry for him?"

War has no rules for the Brutal Russian forces battling Chechen Separatists. Many Russian Troops openly admit committing atrocities against both Chechen guerrillas and civilians, "It's part of the military culture of impunity" they say. But many now have troubled consciences.

They call it bespredel - Literally, "no limits." It means acting outside the rules, violently and with impunity. It translates as "excesses" or "atrocities."

It's the term Russian soldiers use to describe their actions in Chechnya.

"Without bespredel, we'll get nowhere in Chechnya," a 21-year-old conscript explained. "We have to be cruel to them. Otherwise, we'll achieve nothing."

Since Russia launched a new war against separatist rebels in its republic of Chechnya a year ago, Russian and Western human rights organizations have collected thousands of pages of testimony from victims about human rights abuses committed by Russian servicemen against Chechen civilians and suspected rebel fighters.

To hear the other side of the story, a man traveled to more than half a dozen regions around Russia and interviewed more than two dozen Russian servicemen returning from the war front.

What they recounted largely matches the picture painted in the human rights reports: The men freely acknowledge that acts considered war crimes under international law not only take place but are also commonplace.

In fact, most admitted committing such acts themselves--everything from looting to summary executions to torture.

"There was bespredel all the time," one 35-year-old soldier said. "You can't let it get to you."

The servicemen say atrocities aren't directly ordered from above; instead, they result from a Russian military culture that glorifies ardor in battle, portrays the enemy as inhuman and has no effective system of accountability.

"Your army is based on professionalism," said a 27-year-old paratrooper who served alongside U.S. troops as a peacekeeper in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Our army is based on fervor."

Russian officials, including the Kremlin's war spokesman, Sergei V. Yastrzhembsky, have criticized the human rights reports, saying they are riddled with rumor and rebel propaganda.
Officials have sometimes blamed reported atrocities on what they describe as rebel fighters dressed as Russian soldiers.

But they acknowledge that some human rights violations do occur and say they are taking steps to curb them.

"[Chechens] are Russian citizens, for whose sake the operation was undertaken in the first place," Yastrzhembsky said in an interview. "They should be treated according to the same laws as in the rest of Russia. Any violation, regardless of who commits it, must be reviewed by the procurator [investigating magistrate] and the guilty parties should be punished."

That may be the Kremlin's official position, but servicemen say things are different on the ground. In part because of media coverage of Chechen slave-trading, torture and beheadings, the soldiers believe that the enemy is guilty of far worse atrocities.

Although they know that executions and other human rights violations are wrong, they also consider them an unavoidable--even necessary--part of waging war, especially against such a foe.

In their view, human rights workers and other critics are simply squeamish about the real nature of war.

"What rules? What Geneva Conventions? What difference does it make if Russia has signed them?" said a 25-year-old army officer. "I didn't sign them, none of my friends signed them. . . . In Russia, these rules don't work."

Perhaps most important, the servicemen described a pervasive and powerful culture of impunity in the Russian armed forces. They believe that authorities say one thing in public but deliberately turn a blind eye to many war crimes. A few even said investigators helped cover up such atrocities. Right or wrong, the soldiers are confident that authorities will make no serious effort to investigate war zone misconduct.

"You don't make it obvious, and they don't look too hard," another 21-year-old conscript said. "Everyone understands that's the way it works."

Many of the servicemen admitted having troubled consciences. But like a mantra, most repeated what they had been taught--that whether one likes it or not, going to war means acting bespredel.

"What kind of human rights can there be in wartime?" said a 31-year-old police commando. "It's fine to violate human rights within certain limits."

"The main thing is to have them die slowly. You don't want them to die fast, because a fast death is an easy death." - Andrei

Andrei's pale eyes glow against his tanned skin. He's been home only 10 days. He opens and closes kitchen cabinets, searching confusedly for sugar for his tea. "I still haven't gotten used to domestic life," he apologizes. He has just turned 21.
During basic training, he recalls, Red Cross workers came to his base to teach about human rights and the rules of war.

"They tried to teach us all kinds of nonsense, like that you should treat civilians 'politely,' " he says. "If you behave 'politely' during wartime, I promise you, nothing good will come of it. I don't know about other wars, but in Chechnya, if they don't understand what you say, you have to beat it into them. You need the civilians to fear you. There's no other way."

Andrei says the lesson that stuck was the one his commander taught him: how to kill.
"We caught one guy--he had a fold-up [radio] antenna. He gave us a name, but when we beat him he gave us a different name. We found maps in his pockets, and hashish. He tried to tell us he was looking for food for his mother. My commander said,

'Stick around and I'll teach you how to deal with these guys.' He took the antenna and began to hit him with it. You could tell by the look in [the Chechen's] eyes that he knew we were going to kill him.

"We shot him. There were five of us who shot him. We dumped his body in the river. The river was full of bodies. Ours, too. Three of our guys washed up without heads."

Andrei says he knows that officially, Russian troops are supposed to turn all suspected rebels over to military procurators. But in practice, his unit literally took no prisoners.

"Once they have a bruise, they're already as good as dead," Andrei says. "They know they won't make it to the procurator's office. You can see it in their eyes. They never tell us anything, but then again, we never ask. 

"The easiest way is to heat your bayonet over charcoal, and when it's red-hot, to put it on their bodies, or stab them slowly. You need to make sure they feel as much pain as possible. The main thing is to have them die slowly. You don't want them to die fast, because a fast death is an easy death. They should get the full treatment. They should get what they deserve. On one hand it looks like an atrocity, but on the other hand, it's easy to get used to.

"I killed about nine people this way. I remember all of them", says Andrei.

Russian Soldiers do not believe in the humane act of taking prisoners:

Servicemen say the type and frequency of bespredel vary significantly from one unit to another. A few said such things never happened in their units. But even they knew of incidents involving other units.

Other than looting, the most common crime recounted to The Times was the execution of suspected rebels.

"We called it 'taking them to the police station,' " said one police commando. "The nearest police station was 300 kilometers [about 200 miles] away. In reality, they wouldn't make it farther than the next corner."

Nearly all of the servicemen interviewed said they didn't bother taking prisoners.

"We had a clear-cut policy with prisoners: We didn't take any," said another police commando. "To be more precise, we did take one prisoner once and tried to hand him over to the procurator's office. But one of our men was wounded on the way, and then we decided--no more prisoners.

What's the point? We already risk our lives greatly when we fight against them.
Why risk them again to save the lives of fighters and give them the chance to go to jail when what they deserve is death? . . . You can carry out the sentence right on the spot."
The summary executions don't just take place against suspected fighters.


One 33-year-old army officer recounted how he drowned a family of five--four women and a middle-aged man--in their own well.

"You should not believe people who say Chechens are not being exterminated. In this Chechen war, it's done by everyone who can do it," he said. "There are situations when it's not possible. But when an opportunity presents itself, few people miss it.

"I don't know what it is, bespredel or not," he continued. "But it is a war. A war is a very cruel thing, and matters of life and death should not be judged by civilian standards."

Mutilation of corpses and torture were reported less frequently but clearly were common in a number of units. Several servicemen interviewed for this report confirmed that some members of Russian special forces cut off the ears of their victims in a revenge ritual.

"Cutting ears may seem savage to some, but it has its explanations," said one commander. "It's an old tradition among the special forces--you cut off the ears of the enemy in order to later lay them on the tombstone of your friend who was killed in the war. . . . It's not a manifestation of barbarism. It's just our way of telling our deceased mate: Rest in peace. You have been avenged."


"I would kill all the men I met during mopping-up operations. I didn't feel sorry for them one bit." - Boris

Boris' body was both built and broken by years of boxing. His face, hands and torso have the strength and subtlety of cinder blocks. Since he returned from the war zone, he has had trouble sleeping at night.

"Sometimes I fear I will not be able to control myself, especially after a couple of drinks," the thirty something police commando says. "I wake up in a cold sweat, all enraged, and all I can see is dead bodies, blood and screams. At that moment, I'm ready to go as far as it takes. I think if I were given weapons and grenades, I would head out and start 'mopping up' my own hometown." He says he can no longer remember all the people he killed.

"I killed a lot. I wouldn't touch women or children, as long as they didn't fire at me. But I would kill all the men I met during mopping-up operations. I didn't feel sorry for them one bit. They deserved it," he says. "I wouldn't even listen to the pleas or see the tears of their women when they asked me to spare their men. I simply took them aside and killed them."

When he came home from Chechnya, he resigned from his unit. He says he's happy to be in a regular job. And he's trying to forget the war. But there are some things he can't forget.

"I remember a Chechen female sniper. She didn't have any chance of making it to the authorities. We just tore her apart with two armored personnel carriers, having tied her ankles with steel cables. There was a lot of blood, but the boys needed it. After this, a lot of the boys calmed down. Justice was done, and that was the most important thing for them.

"We would also throw fighters off the helicopters before landing. The trick was to pick the right altitude. We didn't want them to die right away. We wanted them to suffer before they died. Maybe it's cruel, but in a war, that's almost the only way to dull the fear and sorrow of losing your friends."

Russian Soldiers Kill For Revenge:

Notions of provocation and revenge are central to the servicemen's mind-set. In Russian culture, a man not only has the right but is also honor-bound to respond to a "provocation." When a Russian serviceman is killed or mistreated by the enemy, his comrades must take revenge.

Nearly all of the servicemen who recounted incidents of bespredel--a slang term that originated in Russia's prisons--described them as revenge attacks for the deaths of their comrades.
"When you see your mates drop down on the ground, when you take your dead and wounded to the hospital, this is when hatred rises within you," said a 23-year-old army officer. "And the hatred is against all Chechens, not just the individual enemies who killed your friends. This is when bespredel starts."

These tendencies in Russian military culture have been intensified by a virulent Russian hatred of the Chechens - a hatred running higher in this conflict than in the 1994-96 war in the republic.

Sergei Kovalyov, a Soviet-era dissident who served as human rights commissioner in Chechnya during the first war until he was fired for his outspokenness, says the Kremlin fosters a culture of impunity that makes it all but certain that some excesses might take place.
"As usual, it is the authorities who are to blame because they deliberately refuse to do what they should do--monitor the situation, suppress unlawful actions and severely punish the guilty. But they deliberately do not do it," he said.

"If one were to make a list of those guilty of the cruel treatment of peaceful civilians, one should start with President [Vladimir V.] Putin," Kovalyov said. "He knows perfectly well what is happening."

And that, Kovalyov said, is "not too far from genocide."

"It's much easier to kill them all. It takes less time for them to die than to grow." - Valery

Valery is a personnel officer, what in Soviet times would have been called a commissar. He's a lieutenant colonel responsible for morale and discipline. He shouldn't talk to reporters.

But the night is dark, the beer from the roadside kiosk outside his army base is cold, and he has a lot on his mind. He checks documents, then launches into a diatribe.

"In this war, the attitude toward the Chechens is much harsher. All of us are sick and tired of waging a war without results," he says. "How long can you keep making a fuss over their national pride and traditions? The military has realized that Chechens cannot be re-educated. Fighting against Russians is in their blood. They simply don't know how to do anything else."


"We shouldn't have given them time to prepare for the war," he continues. "We should have slaughtered all Chechens over 5 years old and sent all the children that could still be re-educated to reservations with barbed wire and guards at the corners."

"But where would you find teachers willing to sacrifice their lives to re-educate these wolf cubs? There are no such people. Therefore, it's much easier to kill them all. It takes less time for them to die than to grow."

Valery was in Chechnya in the early phase of the war, when he says there was little oversight from the high command and there were no pesky journalists.

"The solution to Russia's war, in fact, would have been very easy--the old methods used by Russian troops in the Caucasus in the 19th century. For the death of every soldier, an entire village was burned to ashes. For the death of every officer, two villages would be wiped out. This is the only way this war can be brought to a victorious end and this rogue nation conquered."

Valery acknowledges that atrocities occur but says that, in effect, soldiers are carrying out a policy the government needs but is afraid to declare.

"For political reasons, it's impossible to murder the entire adult population and send the children to reservations," he says. "But sometimes, one can try to approximate the goal."

"So there will be one Chechen less on the planet, so what? Who will cry for him?" - Gennady

Gennady is a paratrooper and proud of it. He's wearing a telnyashka, the paratroopers' trademark striped undershirt, and a robin's-egg-blue beret studded with badges. It's Paratroopers' Day, and the 24-year-old has come to a city park to meet his pals and trade war stories. He spent a few months in Chechnya last winter and expects to return this fall.

Gennady says his officers taught him to trust no one in Chechnya, not even the children.
"There were cases when small kids would run to the middle of the road, right in front of a moving convoy of trucks and APCs. And they were shot dead right on the spot by soldiers who thought the kid could be carrying a mine or a grenade. Hell knows, maybe they weren't. But it is better to be safe than sorry."

Gennady says that although he's been home for a few months, his hatred hasn't abated.

"I hated them when I fought in Chechnya, and I hate them now. I can't even watch TV when it shows Chechens, I feel all my muscles start to ache and I want to smash something."

Gennady says the most important lesson his commanders taught him was: Shoot first. Think later.

"Our officers would always teach us: Be careful, do not feel ashamed to be afraid of everything. Fear is your friend, not your enemy, in Chechnya. It will help you stay alive and come back home to your families.

If you see someone who looks suspicious, even a child, do not hesitate - shoot first and only then think. Your personal safety is priority No. 1. All the rest does not matter.

So there will be one Chechen less on the planet, so what? Who will cry for him? Your task is to complete the mission and return home unscathed."

After the destruction of Chechnya's capital Grozny, The UN named it "The most destroyed City on earth" You can read my account of visiting Grozny here.


The average estimate of the number of Chechens murdered under the Russian Federation is around 250,000 Civilians and 16,299 Militants.

A message to the barbaric Russian Forces and The FSB: "War crimes have no expiration date, When you die, you will have to answer to God."


The Wolf Of The Caucasus 

Documentary On Chechnya

An English Speaking Documentary with Russian Subtitles.


The documentary covers the Chechen History and Conflict in detail.

The Wolf Of The Caucasus

The Life Choices Of Chechen Youth

There are young people in Chechnya who live in prosperity and rapidly pursue their careers. If they sing the praises of Putin and Kadyrov, that is. For all the others, life can be very difficult.


Only a few years ago, today's Chechen youth was all in the same boat, or rather in the same refugee camp. Literally and figuratively. Crowded into tents and trains, stranded in the refugee camps of Chechnya's neighbouring republics, the young were united in sympathy and hatred. Just teenagers, they prayed for Chechen rebels and dreamt of growing up as quickly as possible to join them and take revenge on the Russians. The hatred for Russia united them more than anything else.


Years have passed. The former residents of refugee camps have grown up, their paths have separated. Some have jumped on the bandwagon of new pro-Russian authorities, in pursuit of fabulous wealth and incredible careers. Others have followed their ancient dreams and joined the rebels. Those who have not chosen either path live on the margins of politics and history, trying to survive and feed their family. The camps where they hated and loved together were demolished long ago.


Radjap Musaev is among those who have quickly become accustomed to the new authorities. As a teenager, like tens of thousands of Chechen refugees, he lived with his family in Ingushetia. What remains of those days is an interesting video-interview, released in broken English to a foreign journalist. In the darkness of the tent, with the few meagre belongings and tin plates donated by some charitable organisation, young Radjap tells the story of his dream of becoming a lawyer and defending the victims of Russia's war in the region, as well as to sue Russia for what it did to his country.

A few years later, Radjap has become one of Russia's most passionate supporters. In his blog, under the name of "wild Chechen", he speaks of "foreign mercenaries" and denounces the United States' plans to weaken Russia in order to rule the world unchallenged. In his passionate invectives, he accuses the Russian opposition of receiving money from the U.S. State Department and NATO, that also dreams of Russia's downfall. Such propaganda, in the best style of Soviet news agencies, sounds strange and incongruous from the same boy, just a bit more grown up, who from a dark, damp camp dreamed of condemning Russia for crimes against humanity. It is hard to imagine how, in just a few years, he managed to make a career in the pro-Russian organisation Nashi, where he became chief coordinator for Chechnya. Having become a darling of the authorities, he was then appointed head of "Grozny Inform", the main Chechen news agency.


But there is more. As it turned out a couple of months ago, Musaev had access to millions of roubles allocated by Nashi to the online fight against dissidents. The hacker group Anonymous got into the mailbox of the head of Nashi press office and spread its content online, including correspondence with Musaev. The amount of money spent by Moscow to fund Internet trolling and create fake blogs with the "Caucasian Bloggers" project is stunning. For every letter, every minute spent online, any provocation on blogs disliked by the authorities, Musaev and his fellows received tons of money. Musaev himself, the correspondence shows, received 18 million roubles per year – 2,4 were his salary and the rest was paid in order for him to build a positive image of Russia in the blogosphere and attract more and more young people into the "Caucasian bloggers'" network. Not for free, of course. So, the boy from the refugee camp in Ingushetia has become a millionaire.


Arbi Sagaipov, who lived in a "humanitarian" tent camp in Ingushetia more or less in the same years as Radjap did, has not become a millionaire. In 2004, once war was declared to be over and the Chechen government began to fight for the return of refugees, Arbi was 16. He did not return to Chechnya, but moved to Moscow with his family. Two years later, he was admitted to the university and later, together with his father, he opened a small business in the Russian capital. Even living in the heart of this country has not allowed him to forgive Russia, let alone love it.


In 2010, unbeknownst to his family, Arbi returned to Chechnya to join the rebels. By then, nobody called them with the noble name of "resistance fighters" any longer – just terrorists. Since then, his mother Tamara has been looking for him all over Chechnya, hoping to dissuade him from an apparently meaningless fight. Once, she managed to get in touch with a group of rebels in a forest near the Chechen village of Shatoi. "They seemed almost like children", she says. "None of them was older than my Arbi". There were about twenty rebels in the group. They called themselves mujahideen and their fight against the Russian occupation a jihad – a holy war against the invading enemy, the duty of every Muslim. "I watched them and could not hold back the tears. They are children, they are 17-18. What have they seen of their lives, and what do they know of life? Why should they wander in the woods, half-starved, and die so young, when their peers get to live the big life? They should not have to die just because they can't or won't submit to power". Tamara has not managed to find her son. The rebels told her there were three or four Arbis in that group. And rebels in the woods do not use their real names. However, Tamara returns to Chechnya a few times a year and wanders through villages and towns, looking for information about her son who left for a confused, incomprehensible war that swallows more and more young lives.


The young Chechens who go "into the woods" to join the rebels are generally considered misfits. Many experts of Chechnya and Northern Caucasus see unemployment and social problems as the main reasons pushing young men to join the rebels. It would certainly be foolish to deny the influence of unemployment and lack of prospects on young Chechens' radical and even religious fanaticism. Probably, however, the main reason why, despite over a decade of cruel persecution, the Chechen resistance cannot be crushed lies in the patriarchal tradition of Chechen society, where the man is not only the breadwinner, but first and foremost the head of the family. Now, the position of men has changed dramatically. They cannot protect or provide for the family if they do not collaborate with the regime and become part of it.


The phenomenon, completely new in Chechnya, of men singing the praises of authorities from the TV screens, rivalling in servility and flattery, sickens the younger generation. Moreover, with thousands of armed men from various security agencies around day and night, violence against unarmed people, or at best verbal humiliation, is routine. Going to court is useless, because the court – as all other state institutions – is a party to power.

Thus, part of Chechen society, educated according to a tradition of equality and justice, has no place in the new system of rules that has suddenly engulfed the country: rights are on the side of those with weapons and money, and in order to get weapons and money Putin and his lieutenants must be worshipped. Hence the growing gap between the young people who drink with pleasure at the Kremlin's springs and those who consider them poisonous.


The injustices and humiliations suffered by young Chechens at the hands of their pro-Russian peers fuel the resistance. In this sense, the Chechen government – and the Kremlin, which put it there – are indeed tirelessly working in favour of the resistance movement, by multiplying with each passing day the injustices in the country and thus driving young people to armed struggle as the only means for protecting their dignity.


The Wolf Of The Caucasus

Chechen War Poem - The Chechen Wolf

This mountain I sit on with my AK47 by my side is the philosophy to my rebel led life

I sit under a star lit sky of this most serene night reminiscing about being out in the wilds. I am nothing but a survivor of too many battles fought all across this land I have called my Chechen home, I am nothing but a young man whose future is a gun I hold in my battle hardened hands, I am nothing other than a pauper of a youth whose only wealth is the bravery bestowed upon me by being born into such a proud people who only know the bullets of the gun and the dream of everlasting peace

I am all alone on this mountain top, I am listening out for the Russian gunship that will soon come down from behind the darkened clouds to erase and bury me under the dirt of this remote place on Earth, this remote place on Earth where no choir of Angels dares goes to sing, this remote place on Earth where one day I will be sentenced and buried in bullet holes for having the courage to say NO

I say this with so much sincerity and with no such shame, for when times get hard all I do is pray I can do the Chechen wolves that have been and howled before me proud, the Chechen wolves who never asked for much, just to be like the Chechen wolves who never learnt to stop their growls

I am a speck of dust under the skies of this cold evening night whose never ending love for Chechnya will never leave no matter how cold I become, coldness never will suffocate me for my Chechen land warms up my fearless heart with love, I know in the history of this world this moment is but a passing second but for this one moment I am the lone soldier with the heart of a wolf who stands up to the merciless and stronger bear, I am the wolf who prevents the bear from extinguishing the Chechen flame

I am the wolf who wants nothing less than the freedom of my land, the freedom of this land to be liberated from the greed and corruption of all the exploitation and wickedness of a distant countries oppressive control

If I must spill my blood to make this happen I will bleed without a whimper or a complaint, let this wolf die alone and brave, let this wolf bleed for the sake of an end to the war and an end to all the mass graves of men, women and children whose only guilt is living in this sacred place

I did not ask to be a witness to all this death, I did not ask to be thrust into this mess, but I will never turn my back on what is being asked, so give me strength Chechnya and fill me with your conviction, let the soldiers of your message continue to rise up and let the soldiers of your message never stop the fight

I do not care for politics, I do not care for the rest of the world’s petty squabbles, I do not care for the greed and the terror of the bureaucrats who have sent these foreign soldiers out here to fight against me but I understand for Chechnya I must go on and for Chechnya I will never stop howling this rebel song

All I want is to roam on this mountain top and go into the night with my Chechen pack, to be free and proud, to live and die like a son of Chechnya so the sun can set on a free Chechnya.

The wolf I have become is a wolf made wild in the night, the wolf who will never be tamed by intimidation, the wolf who will never bow down to a superpowers boot or an oppressors dictatorial rage

I have been forced to become ferocious and alone. I have seen so much bloodshed, and I have spilled too much blood but as a true son of Chechnya I shall never ever give up

The youthful gift given unto me will be a youth that will roam and howl until this youth can howl no more

So give me a full moon is all I ask as I look up above to the cloud filled darkened sky, give me a full moon so I can show my solidarity for this cause, give me a full moon so I can see my shadow spread across the mountains behind me. Let the full moon reflect the silhouette of my shadow, let my silhouette be the flag of the cause and let the gun I hold in my battle hardened hands be the gun to fire the last shot

 I will now stand up on this mountain top and look all around me, I see Chechnya, I see the land of my birth, and I know this will be the land of my death, the land of the brave and the land of the blessed

Let me howl to the plants which one day will be washed away of all the spilled blood and let me howl so no Chechen daughter will be dishonoured or deflowered again

Now I will go out into the night to risk my life once again, and all I have to protect me from death is this wolf I have grown to call a friend. For my land and home I will lay down all I have ever known.

Let me pass this life with Chechen blood coursing through my veins and let me give all I have for this land I sincerely adore, all I have to give is defiance to the rest of the world who want to stop Chechnya from howling into a sovereign state

But little does the world know

As long as there are wolves in Chechnya no wolf will be silenced, as long as there are wolves in Chechnya then no Chechen wolf will ever stop howling for that longed  for sovereign Chechen state.

Originally Posted Here

The Wolf Of The Caucasus

Witness - Chechen Fighters

Al Jazeera Documentary on the Chechen rebels and their war against Russian Federal Forces in Chechnya: "The war in Chechnya might officially be over, but rebels are still prepared to die for their beliefs."

The First Chechen War, was the conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya but were set back by Chechen guerrilla warfare and raids on the flatlands in spite of Russia's overwhelming manpower, weaponry, and air support. The resulting widespread demoralization of federal forces, and the almost universal opposition of the Russian public to the conflict, led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later. 


The official figure for Russian military deaths is 5,500, while most estimates put the number between 3,500 and 7,500, or even as high as 14,000. Although there are no accurate figures for the number of Chechen militants killed, various estimates put the number at about 3,000 to over 15,000 deaths. Various figures estimate the number of civilian deaths at between 30,000 and 100,000 killed and possibly over 200,000 injured, while more than 500,000 people were displaced by the conflict, which left cities and villages across the republic in ruins.


The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the Counter-terrorist operation on Chechnya, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB).


During the initial campaign, Russian military and pro-Russian Chechen paramilitary forces faced Chechen separatists in open combat, and seized the Chechen capital Grozny after a winter siege that lasted from late 1999 to the following February 2000. Russia established direct rule of Chechnya in May 2000 and after the full-scale offensive, Chechen militant resistance throughout the North Caucasus region continued to inflict heavy Russian casualties and challenge Russian political control over Chechnya for several more years. Some Chechen separatists also carried out attacks against civilians in Russia. These attacks, as well as widespread human rights violations by Russian and separatist forces, drew international condemnation.

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Unreported World - Abkhazia, Valley of the Lost (31-10-2008)

On the Abkhazian-Russian conquest of the (Georgian held) Kodori Gorge, in the shadow of the 2008 South Ossetian conflict. Highlighting the displacement of (Georgian) civilians, and the contradictory stories of Abkhazian authorities. 

Channel4 wrote: "Fighting in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia grabbed the headlines in the summer of 2008. But Unreported World reveals that in Georgia's other breakaway republic, Abkhazia, a tragedy was secretly unfolding. 

Arriving in Abkhazia, reporter Aidan Hartley and director Alex Nott hear reports of fierce fighting taking place in the Kodori Gorge, high in the Caucasus mountains. After being forced back at checkpoints by militia commanders, the team talk their way onto a helicopter taking mainly Russian journalists on a government organised trip to the valley.

Full Documentary

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Ingushetia - A Second Chechnya?

Al Jazeera - People&Power investigates the increasingly desperate situation for the Ingush people in the republic of Ingushetia.

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The Georgia - Abkhazia War, The Forgotten Conflict

The Georgia-Abkhazia War, in which ethnic Abkhazians effectively extracted northwestern Georgia from Tbilisi’s control, is a conflict largely forgotten in the West, despite its high profile re-ignition in August 2008.  Historical arguments can be made both for Abkhazia’s unity and autonomy from Georgia, but the conflict cannot be solely blamed on Soviet ‘ethno-federalism’. It must, however, be understood within the context of Georgian independence. 


Ethnic tension between Abkhazians and Georgians was a necessary but not sufficient cause for the conflict.  It took an unstable transition in Moscow, and chaotic Russian involvement in the run-up to the conflict, to turn tension into violence.  Russia’s one-sided role in ending hostilities meant that the conflict’s causal issues were left frozen, only to be violently thawed fifteen years later.



The War in Abkhazia raged from August 1992 to September 1993 was waged between Georgian government forces on one side and Abkhaz separatist forces supporting independence of Abkhazia from Georgia, Russian armed forces and North Caucasian hired fighters on the other side.

Ethnic Georgians, who lived in Abkhazia fought largely on the side of Georgian government forces. Ethnic Armenians and Russians within Abkhazia's population, largely supported Abkhazians and many fought on their side. The separatists were supported by thousands of the North Caucasus and Cossack militants and by the Russian forces stationed in and near Abkhazia.

Handling of this conflict was aggravated by the civil strife in Georgia proper between the supporters of the ousted Georgian president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia and the post-coup government headed by Eduard Shevardnadze, as well as the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.

Significant human rights violations and atrocities were reported on all sides and peaked in the aftermath of the Abkhaz capture of Sukhumi on 27 September 1993, which was followed by a large-scale campaign of ethnic cleansing against ethnic Georgian population according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

 The UN SG’s fact-finding mission reported numerous and serious human rights violations committed by both Abkhazians and Georgians. From 13,000 to 20,000 ethnic Georgians and approximately 3,000 Abkhaz have been reported to be killed, more than 250,000 Georgians became internally displaced or refugees and 2,000 are considered missing.

Post-Soviet Georgia was heavily affected by the war and suffered considerable financial, human and psychological damage. Abkhazia has been devastated by the war and subsequent continued sporadic conflict.

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Chechnya Documentary - The Dirty War

A Dispatches documentary on the Chechen Conflict made in 2005. A must see for anybody requiring an insight into the Chechen wars. This documentary covers the Chechen wars that raged from 1994 - 1996 and 1999 - 2009, The Invasion on Dagestan in 1999 and the ongoing Islamic insurgency in the Caucasus from 2009 to present.

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Dutch Journalist Killed By Russian Forces In Georgia

2008: Stan Storimans, a 39-year-old Dutch cameraman who worked for the Hilversum-based television channel RTL Nieuws, was killed in an attack in the central Georgian city of Gori. His colleague, reporter Jeroen Akkermans, suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg and was hospitalized in a Tbilisi clinic, Jaspir Teijsse, a spokesman for RTL Nieuws, told CPJ.

Storimans and Akkermans had traveled from Tbilisi to Gori early on August 12 to report on overnight strikes by Russian forces, Teijsse said. The reporters were with five others in Gori's town square when they were struck by the blast at about 8:30 a.m.

A Dutch government probe found that a Russian cluster bomb was the source of the attack, prompting protests from that country's foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, according to international press reports. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs disputed the finding.

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