The second Chechen war began more calmly and casually than the First. Formally, the reason for the military actions was the appeal of deputies of the Chechen parliament of the convocation of 1996, who were gathered in the Kremlin on October 1, 1999 to meet with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. During the meeting, Chechen parliamentarians stated that the so-called president of the "Republic of Ichkeria" Aslan Maskhadov was no longer the legitimate leader of the republic. And we appealed to the people of Russia to protect the people of Chechnya from bandits and international terrorists. On the same day, October 1, 1999, three groups of federal forces – "West", "North" and "East" – entered the border of the rebel republic. Already on October 2, units of the internal troops occupied the first settlement on the territory of Chechnya – the village of Borozdinovskaya in the Shelkovsky district, located just three kilometers from the administrative border with Dagestan.
Gradually, over half a century, the Avars pushed the native Cossack population back 100 years ago, Borozdinovskaya was a Cossack village, but in 1957, when Chechens were allowed to return home from Stalin's exile, the lands of the village were given to several Chechen families. Gradually, over half a century, the Avars displaced the native Cossack population. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Dzhokhar Dudaev and his criminal associates came to power in Chechnya, the Dudaevites expelled all Russians from the village, seizing houses and killing everyone who resisted lawlessness.In the middle of the dashing 90s, the actual "master" of the village was the criminal authority Shapi Mikatov, who turned Borozdinovskaya into a real capital of the slave trade. Using the advantageous border position of the village on the administrative border with Dagestan, the bandits organized a channel for the transfer of abducted people from Dagestan and other regions of Russia to Chechnya. The "branded goods" of the Mikatov gang were Russian policemen and military men – soldiers and officers abducted from military units of Buinaksk. Every criminal leader in Grozny knew that if one of his men was captured by federal forces, then it was necessary to buy prisoners from Mikatov and organize a prisoner exchange with the feds. The slave business in the mid-90s turned out to be so profitable that the Mikatov gang organized the transfer of more than 300 foreign mercenaries to Dagestan, who were supposed to capture new prisoners for sale. However, on the eve of the war, the village of Borozdinovskaya turned out to be without its "master": Mikatov himself was accidentally shot during a criminal showdown at customs. And the bandits, left without a leader, chose to flee to Chechnya, surrendering Borozdinovskaya without a fight. However, already during the "cleansing" of the village, the feds discovered that the bandits, during their retreat, executed more than 300 hostages languishing in underground "zindans" for the sake of future ransom. Russians and Chechens were among the dead. By October 4, Russian troops reached the Terek and began to clear the villages of the northern shore. As Radio Liberty reported, federal forces also began bombing the southern regions of Chechnya: "The forests of Vedensky and Urus-Martanovsky districts are being subjected to air attacks. There are also bombings in the Itumkalinsky district in the south of Chechnya. Last night, stormtroopers launched a series of missile strikes and dropped up to ten bombs on the highway linking Grozny with the Georgian border. Traffic is completely suspended here. Bridges were destroyed, rubble formed on the road. Russian long-range artillery is firing at the settlements of Nozhai-Yurtovsky and Vedensky districts within its reach. Explosions can be heard even in the district center of Shali.
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