Putin's war in Chechnya

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Vladimir Putin was appointed prime minister in August 1999, he was a political unknown. He quickly made his name by ordering Russian Federation forces to re-take control of the breakaway republic of Chechnya, which just years earlier had fought and won autonomy from Moscow. It would herald the start of a brutal conflict known as the Second Chechen war. We hear an eyewitness account of the war and its brutal aftermath.

Photo: A Russian soldier walks through the streets of the destroyed Chechen capital Grozny, February 25, 2000. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	Hello and welcome to Witness History from the BBC World Service with me Alex Last.
0:46.0	Following the invasion of Ukraine this week we're looking at the rule of the Russian leader
0:50.4	Vladimir Putin and today we go back to 1999 and a war that was
0:55.3	central to his rise to power. When as Russia's new Prime Minister, he
1:00.0	oversaw the invasion of the breakaway Russian Republic of Chechnya, which just years earlier,
1:06.0	had fought and won autonomy from Moscow, and a warning this program does contain some disturbing
1:11.8	content.
1:13.0	We knew it for sure that they won't forgive us, you know.
1:18.0	And everyone was actually waiting for a second war.
1:21.0	And the question was just only when and how. In 1999 Sophia that's
1:28.7	not her real name was living in Grozny the capital of the breakaway Russian Republic of Chechnya.
1:34.6	The city still bore the scars of a devastating war fought by Chechen separatists against
1:39.1	Russia, which ran from 1994 to 96. That conflict killed tens of thousands of civilians and effectively
1:46.5	ended in defeat for Russian forces. But many in Moscow wanted to avenge that humiliation and bring Chechnya back under Russian control.
1:55.9	The justification was growing insecurity in the breakaway Republic and a major cross-border
2:01.0	raid by Chechen Islamists. And then there was a string of apartment
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.