Denial of Quarter

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. Russian leaders and the command of the occupation troops declared that fighters of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria would be shot on the spot and destroyed.

The top leaders of Russia declared to journalists in Moscow that the fighters of Ichkeria had to be destroyed^[1][2], and the command of the occupation troops declared it in ultimatums and orders to the troops^[3].

In February 1995, Kolesnikov, the Chief of the General Staff of Russia, said of the Chechens captured by Russian troops: "Prisoners are treated well, although we don't have to, because by law one could shoot them on the spot as bandits" (this is what Russia called fighters of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria)^[1][4].

On 10 January 1996, Russian pilots in helicopters fired missiles at the head of a column of buses that had crossed from Russian-controlled Dagestan into Ichkeria^[3]. In the buses were fighters of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria under the command of Salman Raduyev and the hostages they had seized in Kizlyar, a town in Dagestan. Human rights defenders of Memorial write, citing Valery Yakov, a correspondent of the Moscow newspaper Izvestia who spoke with the special forces soldiers: "The special forces landing party set down nearby had orders to destroy the terrorists [this is what the Russians called fighters of the Armed Forces of Ichkeria] who remained alive after the strike"^[3]. With the first missiles the pilots destroyed the Russian police car that was escorting the column, and ceased fire. The landing party did not attack the buses. The fighters of the army of Ichkeria with the hostages returned to Dagestan and dug in at Pervomayskoye, a village near the border of Ichkeria^[3].

On 15 January 1996, Russian troops under the direction of FSB director Barsukov and Minister of Internal Affairs Kulikov began to storm Pervomayskoye^[3]. Human rights defenders of Memorial write: "During the blockade, the attempted assault and the shelling of the village of Pervomayskoye, the main task of the federal side [the Russian troops] was not to free the hostages but to destroy the terrorists. This criminal approach led to the death and wounding of some of the hostages." On 18 January, most of the fighters of the army of Ichkeria broke out of the encirclement and returned to Ichkeria, taking hostages with them. According to a memorandum of the security committee of the Russian parliament, 16 hostages died in Pervomayskoye^[3]. On 20 January, Minister of Internal Affairs Kulikov said in an interview with the newspaper Rossiyskiye Vesti that Russian troops had killed 153 fighters of the army of Ichkeria in Pervomayskoye and captured about 40. The occupiers sent all the prisoners to a filtration camp^[5]. Russia exchanged the prisoners for the police officers whom Salman Raduyev's fighters had taken with them from Pervomayskoye, and the bodies of the killed fighters for the civilian hostages taken to Ichkeria^[3].

On 15 January 1996, the day of the assault on Pervomayskoye, Yeltsin said of Salman Raduyev's fighters: "We still want these terrorists to be punished. And, in general, uprooted from the Chechen land"^[2]. On 16 January, Yegorov, head of the Russian president's administration, said that he was "in favor… of all the bandit formations [this is what Russia called the Armed Forces of Ichkeria]… being destroyed"^[2]. On 19 August 1996, Pulikovsky, the commander of the occupation troops, demanded that the Armed Forces of Ichkeria leave Grozny, gave Chechen civilians 48 hours to leave the city and announced that he would then strike "at the locations of the militants" with aircraft, artillery and multiple rocket launchers, which cannot fire with precision. On the night of 20 August, without waiting for the deadline to expire, Russian troops again began shelling and bombing Grozny (see: "Indiscriminate Attacks")^[3].

In August 1996, the Armed Forces of Ichkeria liberated Grozny from the occupiers, forcing Russia to the negotiating table^[6]. On 31 August 1996, peace agreements were signed in Khasavyurt (see: "Sham Treaties")^[7]. On 31 December 1996, the last Russian troops left the republic^[3].