FILE – A Russian soldier aims his rifle in the outskirts of Grozny, March 19, 1996. By that time, at least 30,000 people had been reported killed in the fighting after Moscow sent its troops into Chechnya in December 1994 to halt independence moves.
On the 30th anniversary of the first Chechen war that became a turning point in Russia\’s modern history, VOA Russian interviewed Abubakar Yangulbayev, the 32-year-old outspoken exiled Chechen activist and personal enemy of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Yangulbayev says Russia\’s storming of Grozny in December 1994 was a war against democracy in Chechnya that then developed into Putin\’s war against democracy in Russia as a whole.
Click here for the full story in Russian.
By：VOA
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