According to statistics from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), 26,000 people were killed in armed conflict from 1994-1995, including 2,000 Russian servicemen (Izvestia 1995). Although such numbers are significant, they are a mere fraction of the death rate at the height of the war. In 2014, there were 525 victims of armed conflict in the North Caucasus-341 killed and 184 wounded, while ‘the figures for 2015 are likely to be around 260 victims-about 200 killed and 50 wounded’(Vatchagaev 2016). A great deal has been written about the terrible atrocities and human rights violations committed by both sides during the First and Second Chechen Wars but considerably less attention has been devoted to the study of Chechnya as an example of success in counterinsurgency. The two most recent wars should be viewed in part as chapters in a historical narrative which stretches back more than two centuries. Russian rule of Chechnya has been contested since before Pushkin’s time. The Other Side of the COIN: The Russians in Chechnya
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