Russian Conflicts After 1991 - Part Two

Today, we end our two-part series on the numerous conflicts that Russia has participated after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. If you'd like to support the podcast with a small monthly donation, click this link - https://www.buzzsprout.com/385372/support

Transcript

Episode 282 – Russian Conflicts After 1991 – Part Two

Last time, we covered the first nine of eighteen conflicts Russia has been involved in after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Today, we will cover the last eight, ending with the current war with Ukraine.

Our first fight is known as the Second Chechen War, which began on August 26, 1999. It started in response to the last conflict we discussed last episode, the War of Dagestan. This war would be a long-lasting one, one that would continue for almost ten years. It would have two stages, a significant combat phase that lasted almost nine months and an insurgency that would continue for nearly nine years.

After the First Chechen War ended, the country was in shambles, especially the capital Grozny. The countryside was filled with armed insurgents hell-bent on raising havoc in Chechnya. The newly minted warlords would kidnap people, making about $200 million during the three-year independence of Chechnya. It is estimated that over 1,300 people were abducted during that time.

On top of it, Chechen terrorists planted bombs within Russia, killing hundreds. This continued for a while, but it eventually died down.

All of a sudden, on September 4, 1999, 62 people died in an apartment building housing members of families of Russian soldiers. Over the next two weeks, the bombs targeted three other apartment buildings and a mall; in total, over 350 people were killed. Putin quickly blamed the attacks on Chechen militants and, despite no evidence linking the bombings to Chechens, ordered the bombing campaign of Chechnya. American Secretary of State Madeline Albright concurred that she saw no evidence of Chechen involvement. Achemez Gochiyayev has been implicated in the largest apartment bombing, which killed 307 people in three cities. There were no known links between Gochiyayev and Chechen rebels.

These bombings were used by Putin as justification for Russian involvement in beginning the Second Chechen War, which commenced on August 26, 1999. Previously, the Russian Air Force had resumed bombing aimed at wiping out militants who invaded Dagestan earlier in the same month. The ferocious air assault caused over 100,000 Chechens to flee their homes. 

The Chechen conflict entered a new phase on October 1, 1999, when Russia's new Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared the authority of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and his parliament illegitimate. This would lead to a new phase in the war, a ground assault. Putin and his military advisors claimed they would only advance to the Terek River, which cuts the northern third of Chechnya off from the rest of the republic. This was accomplished by October 5th. The stated idea was that they wanted to cordon off the warlords and the insurgents, but that was utterly ridiculous, as the Russian army crossed the Terek only seven days after they reached it.

By December 1999, the capital city of Grozny was entirely surrounded by Russian troops. Vladimir Putin established the direct rule of Chechnya in May 2000. The following month, Putin appointed Akhmad Kadyrov as interim head of the pro-Moscow government. This would take the war into its next phase, the insurgency. 

Between June 2000 and September 2004, Chechen insurgents added suicide attacks to their tactics. During this period, there were 23 Chechen-related suicide attacks in and outside Chechnya, notably the hostage-taking at an elementary school in Beslan, where at least 334 people died. The insurgent phase of the Second Chechen War would continue until 2009. There is currently very little activity as the Russians have controlled the area and quelled any insurgent activity.

Our next conflict is known as the War in Ingushetia. The beginning was on July 21, 2007, with an assassination attempt on President Murat Zyazikov. Five days later, the Russians began to send in troops to crush any insurgent movement. The adversaries were the Russians and the Republic of Ingushetia versus the Caucasus Emirate and the Ingush Opposition.

By 2009, Ingushetia had surpassed Chechnya as having the most violent insurgency. President Murat Zyazikov was the center of much of the anger toward the government in 2007 and 2008. Zyazikov was a former KGB general criticized by human rights groups and even by some in the Russian government. The violence in response to Zyazikov got so bad that the Russians were forced to take action. On October 30, 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree to remove Zyazikov from office and replace him with Lieutenant Colonel Yunus-bek Yevkurov. While many in the Ingush community hailed the announcement, it did not stop the insurgency. 

Assassinations and attempted assassinations of high-profile figures continued. On June 10, 2009, Aza Gazgireeva, the Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, was gunned down, and on June 13th former Deputy Prime Minister Bashir Aushev was shot dead outside his home. Ingush President Yevkurov was seriously wounded in a suicide bomb attack on June 22nd, and Construction Minister Ruslan Amerkhanov was shot dead in his office in August. Over 400 police officers lost their lives in the sporadic fighting.

After 2010, things began to cool down in Ingushetia. The reason is that people were getting tired of all of the killings and the reduction in insurgency throughout the North Caucasus. While that was occurring, the South Caucasus began to rumble.

The next conflict was a violent but short one. It began on August 7, 2008, and ended five days later on the 12th. It would be known as the Russo-Georgian War. On one side, you had Russia, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia; on the other, you had Georgia. As we've covered before, the insurgency movement within Georgia began before the Soviet Union collapsed. 

Georgia had seceded from the Soviet Union in April 1991, eight months before the dissolution. This left a bad taste in the mouths of many Russians as it felt like a betrayal. The decade following their declaration of independence was wrought with corruption, economic depression, violent insurgencies, ethnic conflict, and political insecurity. In 2003, the government of Georgia began to take a pro-Western attitude. They introduced a series of democratic and economic reforms aimed at integration into the European Union and NATO. This led to a rapid deterioration of relations between Georgia and Russia. 

The crisis between the two countries began in April 2008 when NATO announced that it would start a process to admit Georgia. By early summer, the Russians began to increase the supply of arms to insurgents in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. By August 1st, South Ossetian forces began to shell Georgian villages. At first, the Georgian army hesitated in responding, but by August 7th, they began retaliating. 

This, in turn, caused Russia to launch a full-scale land, air, and sea invasion of Georgia on August 8th, including its undisputed territory, under the guise of a peace mission. At first, the Russians and Ossetians attacked Georgian positions in the north. Then the Russian Navy blockaded the Georgian ports in the Black Sea. This war would also be known as the first war in history in which cyber warfare coincided with military action.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, personally negotiated a ceasefire agreement on August 12th. This didn’t stop the Russians from occupying large swathes of Georgian territory. They temporarily occupied the Georgian cities of Zugdidi, Senaki, Poti, and Gori, holding on to these areas beyond the ceasefire. The South Ossetians destroyed most ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia and were responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Georgians. On August 26th, Russia formally recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. This would cause Georgia to sever all diplomatic relations with Russia. 

As would prove the case in other upcoming conflicts, the Russians had no problem bombing civilian targets along with military ones. In Gori, on August 12th, the Russian artillery aimed at the city's administrative offices. The air raids set the post office and the Gori University on fire. The Gori Military Hospital carrying a Red Cross flag, was struck by a rocket. The Russian army began to encircle Gori on August 13th in opposition to the signed peace treaty. It was then reported from Gori on August 18th that Russian troops had reportedly told Georgian civilians fleeing South Ossetia: "Putin has given us an order that everyone must be either shot or forced to leave".

This war, while being short, showed that, for the first time, the Russian military had been used against an independent state, demonstrating Russia's willingness to use military force to attain its political objectives. Russia felt emboldened because the West was slow to respond and weak in its reaction. We will see the effect in a number of coming clashes. 

The next area we will encounter is Eastern Europe. It would begin on February 20, 2014. It was the Invasion and Annexation of Crimea. Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted on February 11, 2014, which sparked pro-Russian demonstrations on February 23rd against the incoming new Ukrainian government. At the same time, Vladimir Putin was reported to have said, "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia". On February 27th, Russian troops captured strategic sites across Crimea, followed by the installation of the pro-Russian Aksyonov government in Crimea, the Crimean status referendum, and the declaration of Crimea's independence on March 16, 2014.

Many countries around the world, none louder than Ukraine, condemned the annexation and considered it a violation of international law and Russian agreements safeguarding the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The Budapest Memorandum, signed on December 5, 1994, guaranteed that in addition to providing security assurances by its signatories relating to the accession of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Russia would not violate those countries borders and territories. In exchange, Ukraine gave up all of its nuclear weapons. The promise from Russia was, as we know, hollow. 

After quickly taking over Crimea, Russia annexed the region, although Putin likes to think of it as the return of Russian lands to their proper place. Ukraine protested mightily and rejected Russia's claim. The United Nations General Assembly also rejected the referendum and annexation, adopting a resolution affirming the "territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders." 

In reality, Putin has a point regarding Crimea. On April 19, 1783, Catherine the Great formerly incorporated Crimea into the Russian Empire. The incorporation began when Ottoman Empire was defeated in 1774 by Russia with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, making the Tatars of Crimea politically independent. Nine years later, the independence ended. 

The transfer of the Crimean Oblast within the Soviet Union occurred in 1954. It was purely an administrative action of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, pushed by Nikita Khrushchev, that transferred the government of Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. For 171 years, Crimea was part of Russia, and the Ukraine SSR was given land within the Soviet Union. The Soviet authorities believed this transfer was a mere gesture and would likely not have done it had they thought that an independent Ukraine would arise just a few decades later.

Having said that, Putin was in the wrong by invading and annexing Crimea. It was legally Ukrainian territory, and the Budapest Memorandum guaranteed sovereign rights, regardless of historical context. 

When the annexation occurred, Russia felt they were no longer allies with the West. Putin, by that time, had solidified his position as controller of Russia. Opposition was severely curtailed, which allowed him to pursue his goal of reinventing the Russian Empire. Many in the media have claimed that he wanted to recreate the Soviet Union, but I am more of the opinion that it is the Russian Empire he is focused on due to his nationalist attitude. Regardless of intent, he intended to destabilize the eastern part of Ukraine with our next conflict, the Pro-Russian Unrest in Ukraine.

Beginning on February 22, 2014, right after the Russian invasion of Crimea, this was a Russian attempt to counteract both the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the ousting of Russian-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych. 

The Euromaidan was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on November 21, 2013, with large protests in Independence Square in Kyiv. This was in response to Yanukovych's refusal to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. The Ukrainian Parliament had overwhelmingly approved the EU agreement, so it directly opposed the people's will. 

The Revolution of Dignity was the violent response to the Euromaidan. Estimates of the number of protestors in Kyiv alone run between 400 to 800,000 people. All over Ukraine, outrage was followed by clashes with police and pro-Russian, anti-EU protestors. 

Yanukovych was firmly in the pocket of Putin during the protests and used heavy-handed tactics, much like his Russian counterpart. One hundred and eight protestors were killed, as were 13 police officers in the violence. In the end, Yanukovych was removed from office by a unanimous vote of the Ukrainian parliament. Yanukovych was forced to flee Ukraine as he was accused of crimes against humanity for his handling of the peaceful protests. 

Russia, for its part, refused to recognize Yanukovych's ouster, calling it illegal. On March 1, 2014, Russia's parliament approved a request from President Vladimir Putin to deploy Russian troops to Ukraine. As is typical Putin, on March 24th, he was quoted as saying, "We will respect the choice of the Ukrainian people and will be working with the authorities formed on the basis of this election.” His rhetoric would not match his actions.

The coming unrest in eastern Ukraine was part of the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War and has been referred to in Russia as the "Russian Spring." This would begin in early March 2014 but would be quickly quelled by Ukrainian forces. In April, a concerted effort was unleashed by Russia-backed insurgents to seize government buildings across Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, together known as the Donbas. It launched a separatist insurgency in the region. This presented Putin with the foothold into Ukraine that he so desired.

One of the reasons the Russian government wanted to gain a base in Ukraine was because, in early 2013, they decided to work towards fulfilling the requirements for joining the European Union, including legislative reform, protecting human rights, and releasing political prisoners. This infuriated Russia as they viewed Ukraine's admission into the EU as a stepping stone to joining NATO. In my humble opinion, this was unacceptable and not an unreasonable position to take. With all of the invasions that Russia has suffered over the centuries, having an unfriendly force on your doorstep is not something you want to have to happen. 

Still, according to a poll taken in February 2014, the Ukrainian people showed that a scant 12% wanted a union with Russia. Some regions were far more supportive of this idea, but none with a majority of the people, despite propaganda to the contrary coming out of Russia. In Crimea, 41% were for the union, followed by 33.2% in Donetsk and 24.1% in Luhansk.

Amid all of the fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-supplied separatists, Referendums were voted on, supposedly of free will. Of course, no outside groups were allowed to verify the voting as being free of coercion. According to representatives of the Donetsk People's Republic, 89% voted in favor of self-rule, and 10% voted against it, with a participation rate of 75%. 

The War in Donbas followed the beginning of the Pro-Russian Unrest in Ukraine. This began on April 6, 2014, and continues to this day under the overall invasion of Ukraine. It started when armed Russian-backed separatists seized government buildings, and the Ukrainian military launched an operation against them. Fighting has been going on for the last 9 years with no end in sight.

Two other conflicts would return to the South Caucasus, beginning with the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, which started on September 27, 2020, and the Armenia-Azerbaijan Border Crisis, which began on May 12, 2021. 

The region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories have been under dispute since before the breakup of the Soviet Union. This second war was a significant escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region involving Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the self-declared Armenian breakaway state of Artsakh. The battles lasted for 44 days and resulted in an Azerbaijani victory, with the defeat igniting anti-government protests in Armenia. It would lead to a continuation of the border crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which began on May 12, 2021, and continues to this day.

Our last conflict is the one going on in Ukraine. It began with the Russian Invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. It was supposed to be a quick victory for the Russians, but as we all know, it was anything but. Because this represents current events and is being discussed on many different platforms, I will end our two-part series here.

Well, I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Join me next time when I go in a completely different direction. This topic was recommended by a listener a while back. It is the story of Sports in the Soviet Union. 

So, until next time, Dasvidania eh Spasiba za Vinyamineya.