in the campaign “First Russian-Chechen War (1994–1996)”
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 killed the leaders of Ichkeria, put them on wanted lists and arrested the republic's representatives in Moscow.
Russian President Yeltsin, by Decree No. 1226 of 14 June 1994, allowed anyone suspected of ties to criminal groups to be held without charge for up to 30 days[1]. Under this decree, the FSB and the Russian police detained representatives of Ichkeria in Moscow[2][3].
On 1 February 1995, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia put Dzhokhar Dudayev, the elected president of Ichkeria, on the wanted list in order to arrest and try him (see: "Manufacturing Criminals")[4].
On 17 June 1995, officers of the FSB and the Moscow police arrested Khamad Kurbanov, the representative of the president of Ichkeria in Russia, and two days later Ramzan Muzaev, secretary of the Chechen news agency Chechen-Press[2]. The FSB and police officers held both without charge, released the agency's secretary by 26 July, and the president's representative a month after his arrest[1][5][6]. On 8 October 1995, during the "ceasefire", Russian pilots bombed Roshni-Chu, a village southwest of Grozny, and killed 28 people, among them Magomed Khachuev, head of security of the delegation of Ichkeria at the talks. Human rights defenders of Memorial write that the target of the strike was Dzhokhar Dudayev, the president of Ichkeria, who at times lived in the village and was unharmed[4].
On 21 April 1996, Dzhokhar Dudayev, with his wife Alla Dudayeva, his associates and his guards, drove out of Gekhi-Chu, a village southwest of Grozny, to a clearing in the mountains. The president put a satellite phone on the hood of the car and called Konstantin Borovoy, a deputy of the Russian parliament and a mediator in the peace talks. Russian servicemen struck the clearing with missiles[7]. The occupiers killed the president of Ichkeria, Prosecutor General Magomet Zhaniev and Khamad Kurbanov, the republic's former representative in Moscow. Alla Dudayeva was standing twenty meters from the car. In her memoirs, the president's wife wrote: "Suddenly, from the left, came the sharp whistle of an incoming missile. The explosion behind my back and the yellow flame that flared up made me jump down into the ravine... but suddenly the whistle came again"[8].
On 21 and 22 April 1996, Russian troops struck six or seven headquarters of the leadership of Ichkeria in the mountains with missiles and bombs[4]. Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer, wrote in 2002 that the killing of the president had been prepared by an FSB group under the command of Khokholkov, created "to eliminate Dudayev", in Khankala, the main base of the occupation troops on the eastern outskirts of Grozny. According to him, aircraft of Russian military intelligence guided the missile to a beacon in the president's substituted phone[9].
On 7 May 1996, Russian police officers secretly detained Vagap Tutakov, Ichkeria's representative in Moscow, as he was leaving Kaluga, a city southwest of Moscow[4]. The police officers claimed that they had found weapons in his car[10], and on 8 June they released Ichkeria's representative from custody[4]. On 10 July 1996, Tikhomirov, the commander of the occupation troops, ordered a search for and the detention of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the acting president of Ichkeria[4][11]. That same day, Russian pilots and artillerymen struck Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev's headquarters in Makhkety, a mountain village in the southeast of Ichkeria[4]. On 15 July, the occupiers captured Makhkety but did not find the acting president there[11]. That day, the crews of seven Russian helicopters destroyed his mother's house in Starye Atagi, a village south of Grozny, with missiles; the mother and the neighbors survived (see: "Collective Punishment")[11][12].
In August 1996, the Armed Forces of Ichkeria liberated Grozny from the occupiers, forcing Russia to the negotiating table[11]. On 31 August 1996, peace agreements were signed in Khasavyurt (see: "Sham Treaties")[13]. On 31 December 1996, the last Russian troops left the republic[4].