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 signed agreements with Ichkeria and its villages under which the defenders handed over their weapons while Russian troops stayed in the republic, and violated these agreements.
Russian delegations wrote into the agreements that Russian units would leave the republic as the Armed Forces of Ichkeria handed over their weapons[1][2]. While the talks were going on, Russian president Yeltsin kept troops in the republic on a permanent basis by decree[3][4].
On 14 June 1995, fighters of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria took hostages in Budyonnovsk, a Russian-controlled town northwest of the republic, and demanded an end to the war. On 19 June, Russia began talks with Ichkeria in Grozny[1]. On 20 and 21 June, the delegations signed protocols under which Russian troops would leave the republic district by district[5][6]. On 3 July, Russian president Yeltsin signed decree No. 663: "To permit the stationing [placing] on a permanent basis on the territory of the Chechen Republic… of military units… of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"[3]. On 27 July, the head of the Russian delegation, Minister for Nationalities Mikhailov, stated at the talks in Grozny that Russia "no longer links the signing of the agreement on military questions to a political agreement and the status of Chechnya"[1]. On 30 July, the delegations signed an agreement on the cessation of hostilities. In it, the army of Ichkeria was called "illegal armed formations", and it was written that first the army would hand over its weapons, then the Chechens who guarded their villages with arms, then everyone else[7][8]. Under the agreement, Russian troops would leave "simultaneously with disarmament", while a brigade of the Internal Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (predecessors of today's Rosgvardia) and a brigade of the Russian army would stay in the republic. The Russian delegation added a note to the text that the legislation of Russia does not recognize Ichkeria (see: "Deprivation of Agency")[7][8].
After the agreement, fighters of the army of Ichkeria began handing over their weapons and returned to their villages, while the Russian units did not leave the republic[1][2]. On 9 October 1995, ten weeks after the agreement, Russia blamed supporters of Dzhokhar Dudayev, the president of Ichkeria, for an attempt on the life of Romanov, the commander of the occupation troops, suspended the talks and ordered the troops to resume the offensive (see: "Aggressor Claiming Victim Status")[1].
In the spring of 1996, the command of the occupation troops and the puppet government in Grozny signed "Protocols on Peace and Accord" with the villages of Ichkeria, under which a village undertook not to let fighters of the army of Ichkeria in, and Russia promised to spare it from fighting[1][9]. By 28 March 1996, according to the French news agency AFP, more than 120 villages had signed such protocols[10]. Before the signing, Russian troops surrounded the village and shelled it (see: "Collective Punishment")[11]. Russian pilots bombed villages that had signed the protocols (see: "False Guarantees of Safety")[1].
On 27 May 1996, Chernomyrdin, the chairman of the Russian government, and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the acting president of Ichkeria, signed a ceasefire agreement in Moscow[1]. On 10 June, in Nazran, a town in Russian-controlled Ingushetia, the delegations of Russia and Ichkeria supplemented it with a protocol in which Russia undertook to withdraw its troops from the republic by the end of August 1996[12]. On 25 June, Russian president Yeltsin, by decree No. 985, ordered that only the units of four military districts be withdrawn by 1 September, while the formations stationed in the republic permanently were to be provided with facilities[4]. On 9 July, six days after Yeltsin won the Russian presidential election, the occupiers began a new offensive (see: "Sham Ceasefire")[1]. On 22 August, when the Armed Forces of Ichkeria had surrounded the occupiers in Grozny, General Lebed, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, and Aslan Maskhadov, the chief of the Main Staff of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria, signed a ceasefire agreement in Novye Atagi, a village south of Grozny. In it, Russia undertook to withdraw its troops from Grozny by 26 August and from the whole republic by the end of August, but began leaving the city on 28 August[13][14][2].
The human rights defenders of "Memorial" write that Russia did not take the talks with Ichkeria seriously[1].
On 31 August 1996, after the Armed Forces of Ichkeria had liberated Grozny from the occupiers[2], General Lebed and Aslan Maskhadov signed the peace agreements in Khasavyurt, a town in Russian-controlled Dagestan. In them, Russia and Ichkeria wrote down the renunciation of force and the threat of force in resolving disputed questions. The sides agreed to conclude an agreement on the foundations of their relations by 31 December 2001[15]. The last Russian troops left the republic on 31 December 1996, four months after the deadline in the agreement of Novye Atagi[1]. Three years after the agreements in Khasavyurt, Russia attacked Ichkeria again. On 21 September 1999, Russian pilots began bombing Grozny, and on 29 September the Russian army invaded the republic[1].