Viktor Chernomyrdin and the 1995 Price of a Moscow Parade
While Russian federal troops conducted "mop-up" operations in Samashki, Washington spent April 10, 1995, ensuring the diplomatic weather was clear for a WWII anniversary.
By Constance Bell ·
Chechnya
Vladimir Putin and the 2% Approval Rating That Built an Empire
Kept secret for years, a 2000 diplomatic cable shows how a sudden surge of state-backed strength masked the installation of a former intelligence officer
By Constance Bell ·
Vladimir and the Price of a 'Historic Milestone'
The White House consciously ignored the manipulation of the 2000 Russian transition to secure a partner who offered a token human rights gesture in Chechnya—a deal kept secret for decades.
By Constance Bell ·
Yeltsin Asked Clinton for $2.5 Billion Loan for 1996 Election
Russian pensions and wages hung in the balance as Boris Yeltsin pleaded for a massive American infusion of cash to secure his grip on power before the 1996 vote.
By Marcus Boone ·
Yeltsin's own council saw 1996 victory "nullified" by Chechnya
Boris Yeltsin's security apparatus monitored his own advisors as they weighed "constitutional" ways to remove him following the December 1994 invasion of Chechnya.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Russian OMON tortured Samashki villagers over 264 rifles
Men in the Chechen village of Samashki were beaten with electric wires and blocked from medical care in April 1995, according to a report by the rights group Memorial.
By Marcus Boone ·
Vladimir Putin dismissed Georgian unity while waging war in Chechnya
Civilians perished in Chechnya while the Russian Prime Minister played a geopolitical game with Bill Clinton in Oslo, a meeting captured in a 1999 memorandum of conversation.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Putin praised Soviet nuclear efficiency where failures were shot
A 2000 Kremlin dinner showed the early courtship of a leader who admired Stalinist executions, while the official government record of the talk remains classified.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Russian Forces Burned Samashki Homes While Yeltsin Promised Peace
Young men were snatched from their families and civilian homes burned in a campaign of terror that U.S. diplomats knew contradicted Boris Yeltsin's public promises.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Bill Clinton Urged Vladimir Putin to Join NATO in 2000
Vladimir Putin secured American approval for Chechen operations by citing a 'Terrorist International' as Bill Clinton pushed for Russia to join NATO.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Putin praised U.S. air strikes as "giving them what they deserved"
For years, a private Kremlin exchange remained hidden in which Vladimir Putin cheered U.S. air strikes as deserved retribution and called Georgian authorities "idiots and chickens."
By Harlan Pryce ·