Russian Federation: 30 years of existence and a number of wars
From Chechnya to Syria to Ukraine, Vladimir Putin's Russia has been involved in several wars since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. A bellicose policy whose military attack in Ukraine on Thursday morning seems to be continuity.
Georgia, Chechnya, Syria...Since the advent of the Russian Federation in 1991, the current Kremlin master has involved Russia in many conflicts, driven by one objective: to support favorable powers in Moscow, by crushing their opponents in blood. An expansionist thought, to which the decision taken by Vladimir Putin, Thursday February 24, at dawn, seems to echo: after months of tension, Russian president announced "military operation" in Ukraine to defend the self-proclaimed "republics" of the east of the country, whose independence he recognized. The Kremlin master had massed tens of thousands of soldiers on the Ukrainian borders.
Two bloody wars in Chechnya
At the end of 1994, after having tolerated for three years the de facto independence of Chechnya, Moscow called in its army to put this republic of the Russian Caucasus in step. Facing fierce resistance, federal troops withdrew in 1996.
But in October 1999, under the leadership of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, soon elected to the presidency, the Russian forces again entered Chechnya for an "anti-terrorist operation", after an attack by the Chechen separatists against the Russian Caucasian Republic of Dagestan and several deadly attacks in Russia, attributed to the Chechens by Moscow.
In February 2000, Russia took over the capital Grozny, razed by Russian artillery and aviation. But the guerrillas continue. In 2009, the Kremlin decreed the end of its operation, leaving tens of thousands of deaths on both sides after these two conflicts.
"Russian-Georgian "Willar"
In the summer of 2008, Georgia launched a deadly military operation against South Ossetia, a prorussian separatist territory which has escaped Tbilisi control since the fall of the USSR, and a war in the early 1990s.
Russia responds massively by sending its troops to Georgian territory and inflicts, within five days, a stinging defeat on the former Soviet Republic. The fighting killed several hundred people.
In the process, the Kremlin recognizes the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist province, and has maintained it since a strong military presence. Westerners denounce a de facto occupation.
Conflict in Ukraine
In the process, pro-Russian separatist movements emerged in eastern Ukraine, in Donetsk and Luhansk, regions of the Donbass bordering Russia. Two republics are self-proclaimed, causing intense armed conflict.
Kiev and Westerners accuse Russia of supporting the separatists by sending men and equipment. Moscow has always denied, recognizing the presence in Ukraine only of Russian "volunteers. The conflict has decreased in intensity from 2015 and the signing of the Minsk peace agreements.
From the end of 2021, Moscow carried out vast military land, air and sea maneuvers around Ukrainian territory, positioning at its borders up to more than 150,000 soldiers. After several months of tension, Vladimir Putin recognized independence on February 21 of the two secessionist republics and ordered its troops to deploy there, before announcing, three days later, a "military operation". The Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs talks about a "large-scale invasion".
Clashes in Ukraine have left more than 14,000 people dead since 2014.
Intervention in Syria
Since 2015, Russia has been deployed militarily in Syria in support of the president's forces Bashar al-Assad.
The intervention, with great reinforcement of deadly bombardments and massive destruction, changed the course of the war and allowed the Damascus regime to gain decisive victories, regaining the ground he had lost to rebels and jihadists.
Moscow has two military bases in Syria: Hmeimim aerodrome in the north-west of the country, and the port of Tartous, further south. More than 63,000 Russian soldiers served in the Syrian campaign.
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