Deprivation of Agency

In the autumn of 1994, Russia attacked the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria under the name of a puppet opposition, and on 11 December 1994 the Russian army openly invaded the republic. Russia did not recognize Ichkeria as an independent state, nor its elected president and government as a party to the war and to negotiations.

On 9 December 1994, two days before the open invasion, Chernomyrdin, chairman of the Russian government, by Resolution No. 1360 ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense to disarm the "illegal armed formations" (as Russia called the Armed Forces of Ichkeria)^[1]. On 17 December, Russian President Yeltsin, by Decree No. 2200, created a Russian administration for Ichkeria. On 20 December, the Russian government, by Resolution No. 1411, obliged all enterprises, organizations and institutions of the republic to carry out the decisions of this administration (see: "Installation of a New System of Governance")^[2].

Throughout the war, the president, ministers and generals of Russia refused to negotiate with the leadership of Ichkeria or demanded that it first surrender its weapons and disband its army^[2].

On 1 February 1995, Ilyushenko, acting Prosecutor General of Russia, charged Dzhokhar Dudayev, the elected president of Ichkeria, with high treason, calls for terrorism, violation of national and racial equality and violation of the law on referendums^[3]. The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia issued a warrant for the arrest of the Chechen president and put him on the all-Russian wanted list^[2].

On 30 July 1995, Russia signed an agreement with Ichkeria on the cessation of hostilities. The Russian delegation added to its first line that Ichkeria was not recognized by the legislation of Russia^[4][5].

On 12 December 1994, the day after the open invasion, the Russian delegation at the negotiations in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, demanded that the representatives of Ichkeria recognize the republic as part of Russia^[2].

On 17 December 1994, Dzhokhar Dudayev, the president of Ichkeria, informed Yeltsin by telegram that he had ordered a ceasefire against the Russian troops and proposed to begin negotiations without preconditions, which he would lead himself^[6]. On 18 December, Yeltsin by telegram ordered the president of Ichkeria to appear that same day in Mozdok, a town in Russian-controlled North Ossetia, at the headquarters of the occupation troops and to sign a document on the surrender of weapons and a ceasefire^[6][2]. The press service of the Russian president told the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS that further telegrams from the Chechen president would not be answered^[7]. On 23 December, Dzhokhar Dudayev conveyed through Sergei Kovalyov, the Russian human rights commissioner, to Russian Foreign Minister Kozyrev that he was ready to cease fire immediately and to negotiate on everything, including the disarmament of the army of Ichkeria, but received no answer from Moscow^[2]. On 27 December, Yeltsin, in a televised address to the citizens of Russia, declared: "the regime in Grozny [as the Russian president called the government of Ichkeria] is illegal", and of negotiations he said: "The subject of negotiations is a ceasefire and the surrender of weapons"^[8][2]. On 31 December, the Russian army began the storming of Grozny, the capital of Ichkeria (see: "Military Intervention")^[2].

On 18 January 1995, Russian President Yeltsin said on Russian television that he would not talk to Dzhokhar Dudayev^[2]. From February to June 1995, Russian Defense Minister Grachev and Kulikov, the commander of the occupation troops, replied to the proposals of a ceasefire from Aslan Maskhadov, the chief of the Main Staff of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria, that they would talk only about the surrender of weapons and the disbanding of the army of Ichkeria^[9][2][10]. On 19 May 1995, Yeltsin rejected the law by which, on 12 April, Russian deputies had instructed the Russian government to begin direct negotiations with the leadership of Ichkeria immediately and without preconditions^[2][11]. On 5 July 1995, two weeks after negotiations with Ichkeria began in Grozny, Chernomyrdin, chairman of the Russian government, and the Russian negotiators declared that they would not discuss its status^[2].

On 10 January 1996, Chernomyrdin, chairman of the Russian government, said: "Chechnya is Russia"^[12]. On 11 January, the Russian government, in a letter to the UN Secretary-General, named the government of Ichkeria as the cause of the war, declaring it illegal and Ichkeria itself part of Russia^[13]. On 7 April, Mikhailov, Russian minister for nationalities, said that the parties to the negotiations should be the commanders of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria. On 17 April, Russian Justice Minister Kovalyov declared that direct negotiations with Dzhokhar Dudayev, "a subject of criminal proceedings", were impossible, and invited him to come to a Russian court. On 21 April, the Russian military killed the president of Ichkeria (see: "Neutralization of the Opposition"). On 25 April, Justice Minister Kovalyov announced that negotiations with the commanders of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria would be conducted by the puppet government in Grozny^[2].

On 27 May 1996, Russian President Yeltsin received in the Kremlin, for negotiations on a ceasefire, a delegation of Ichkeria headed by Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, acting president of Ichkeria. The Russian organizers of the meeting assigned the representatives of Ichkeria seats at the side of the table, while Yeltsin sat at its head. Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev demanded to sit opposite the Russian president, as at negotiations between two states, and to Yeltsin's "Sit down" he replied across the negotiating table: "I will not sit down to that tone". The Russian president moved to the middle of the table^[14]. The Russian delegation did not write the names of the parties into the ceasefire agreement, and Chernomyrdin, chairman of the Russian government, and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev signed it with their surnames and no titles. Mikhailov, Russian minister for nationalities, explained this to journalists at a press conference at the Russian news agency Interfax: "If we had written 'Ichkeria', that would practically mean recognizing the existence of a republic that does not exist..."^[14]. On 28 May, the Russian organizers of the meeting did not let the delegation of Ichkeria meet with Moscow journalists, and in the evening the delegation flew to Russian-controlled Ingushetia^[2].

On 25 July 1996, General Pulikovsky, acting commander of the occupation troops, told journalists that with the commanders of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria he would discuss only the place and time of the surrender of weapons^[15]. On 28 July, Pulikovsky replied on air on the Russian television channel RTR to Aslan Maskhadov's proposal to discuss ending the war that he did not know where to look for the leadership of Ichkeria^[16][2].

Human rights defenders of Memorial write that the president and government of Russia called the war their internal affair^[2].

On 31 August 1996, General Lebed, secretary of the Security Council of Russia, and Aslan Maskhadov, the chief of the Main Staff of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria, signed in Khasavyurt, a town in Russian-controlled Dagestan, the agreements on the withdrawal of the occupation troops (see: "Sham Treaties"). Russia and Ichkeria postponed the decision on the independence of Ichkeria for five years, until 31 December 2001^[17][2]. The word "Ichkeria" does not appear in the agreements: the republic is called the Chechen Republic^[17]. In September 1999, the Russian army invaded Ichkeria for the second time since 1994^[2].