Original version

BBC World Service Australasia

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: Putin's war in Chechnya

Documentaries

Putin's war in Chechnya

01/03/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Putin's war in Chechnya

An eyewitness account of the Russian invasion of the breakaway republic in 1999

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)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

Putin's war in Chechnya

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

About BBC World Service