Compared to the First Chechen War, the Second Chechen War was covered by the media much worse. This was facilitated by the ideological control of journalistic materials devoted to the Chechen events. Simply put, Russian citizens only learned about the biggest events in Chechnya, which could not be hidden.
Where is the truth?
Only in the autumn of 2001, a representative of the authorities named the data on the losses of Russian soldiers over the period of two years of the Chechen conflict: irretrievable - 3,438; 11 661 - wounded. However, there were other data about what the Second Chechen War cost Russia. They said that the real losses were 2-2.5 times more than the losses published in the official version. New official data was published almost a year and a half later. According to them, the total losses of all Russian "siloviki" for the period from October 1, 1999 to December 23, 2002 amounted to 4,572 killed, 15,549 wounded.
Biggest losses
Besides active hostilities, the Secondthe Chechen war, the years of which were marked by a number of terrorist attacks, inflicted serious losses on the federal forces. Below are examples of the largest ones.
Four helicopters were lost by the "feds" during the period end of January - beginning of February 2002. The most significant loss was the Mi-8 helicopter, on board of which there were two generals - deputy. Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation M. Rudchenko, as well as the commander of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chechnya N. Goridov. The Turntable was shot down on January 27, 2002. On August 19, 2002, Chechen separatists shot down a Mi-26 helicopter carrying 119 Russian troops.
Terrorist attack on Dubrovka
Years of the Second Chechen War echoed to Moscow on October 23, 2002. During the demonstration of the musical "Nord-Ost", the building of the House of Culture on Dubrovka was seized by a detachment of Chechen fighters numbering about 50 people. The main demand of the militants led by Movsar Baraev was the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya. Two days later, after the meeting, the authorities made a statement according to which they were ready to save the lives of the terrorists, provided that the hostages were released. However, the terrorists put forward an ultimatum: either their demand is met, or they begin to kill the hostages. If the government had made concessions, then the Second Chechen War would have finally ended in the fall of 2002. But that did not happen. Because of the fear that the militants would blow up the building, the authorities decided to put sleeping gas into the auditorium. This happened on the night of October 26, after which a special forces detachment that entered the building eliminated the terrorists. resultThis special operation was the destruction of militants and the avoidance of a possible explosion. But due to the action of the gas, 129 people died from the hostages, and about 40 more died in the next six months.
Who is to blame?
The government later blamed international terrorism for the incident. And the deputy Director of the FSB - V. Pronichev and the chemist who remained unknown, who let gas into the Nord-Ost hall, received awards - the star of the Hero of Russia. However, no one was punished for the penetration of a group of militants into the capital. This is probably why the Second Chechen War later reminded of itself more than once in the form of terrorist attacks throughout the country.
