The Second Chechen War, a timeline
The 1999 Moscow apartment bombings as a casus belli for the 2nd Chechen War, a retro-causal argument.
Nearly every time tragedy strikes, the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings rear their head, along with the conspiracy theory that is how it was a “false flag” to manufacture a casus belli for the Second Chechen War.
This is a flawed argument, as the motivation is retrocausal, and requires breaking linear time for it to work. The proposed Casus Belli occurs after, not before, the fighting begins.
Here is a brief, non-exhaustive timeline of the leadup to the Second Chechen War:
16 November 1996. A bomb goes off in a housing complex for Russian border guards in Kaspiysk, Dagestan Republic, Russia. 68 dead.
23 April 1997, a Bomb goes off in Armavir, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, at a train station, killing 3.
28 May 1997, another bombing at a train station in Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Krai, Russia.
22 December 1997, Dagestani militants along with Chechen warlord, Ibn al-Khattab raid the base of the 136th Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian Army in Buynaksk, Dagestan Republic, Russia.
1997, Chechen elections bring separatist Aslan Mashadov to power.
March 1999, General Gennady Shpigun, Moscow's envoy to Chechnya is kidnapped at the Grozny airport (found dead the following year).
7 March Interior Minister Stepashin calls for the invasion of Chechnya, overridden by Prime Minister Primakov. The decision was made that day, however. We'll come back to Stepashin in a bit.
May 1999, Russia closes its borders with Chechnya.
18 June 1999, 7 Russian servicemen were killed in an attack on a Russian border guard post in Dagestan.
29 July 1999, Russian Interior Ministry troops destroy a Chechen border post and capture a strategic road.
In the summer of 1999, Chechen government official Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev allegedly alerted FSB director Vladimir Putin of an imminent invasion of Dagestan.
4 August 1999, Russian MVD servicemen were killed in a border clash with a group of fighters led by Kebedov.
7 August 1999, Shamil Basayev and Ibn al-Khattab lead two detachments of roughly 2,000 Chechen, Dagestani, Arab, and other Mujahideen and Wahhabi militants from Chechnya into the Republic of Dagestan (in Russia).
It warrants spelling out here, that this is an act of war, of course, and marks the beginning of the Second Chechen War.
Around this time, Stepashin, now Prime Minister, actively called for a military campaign against Chechen Separatists.
9 August 1999, 6 servicemen were kidnapped in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, Russia. Putin replaces Stepashin as Prime Minister.
22 August 1999, 10 Russian policemen were killed by an anti-tank mine in North Ossetia, Russia. At this point, the Russian Armed Forces are engaged in relieving the Dagestani resistance (civilian militias mainly).
23 August 1999, First combat deployment of T-90 main battle tanks.
4 September 1999, Russian Federal forces took out the last Chechen holdouts in the Kadar region. A car bomb destroys military housing in Buynaksk, Dagestan killing 68.
5 September 1999 Chechens launch a second invasion of the Novolakskoye region of Dagestan. Several Russian and Dagestani troops are executed during the capture of Tukhchar. Intense fighting until...
9 September 1999, the first Moscow apartment bombing.
Despite a little over a month of heavy fighting, including two invasions of the Russian Federation, this, we are expected to believe, is the purported Casus Belli.
On 12 September 1999, federal and volunteer forces force the Islamists back to Chechnya.
On 13 September 1999, the last of the captured villages were liberated, and RuAF conducted air strikes inside the Chechen Republic.
13 September 1999, second Moscow apartment bombing,
This, we are led to believe is the Casus Belli, despite a month and a half of intense fighting, including two repelled invasions of the Russian Federation’s Dagestan Republic, incursions into the Chechen Republic, air strikes within the territory of the Chechen Republic, and 3 years of terror bombings.
While the circumstances of the Apartment bombings were indeed murky, that isn’t the subject of discussion here, rather the apartment bombings as a false flag aimed at manufacturing a Casus Beli for a war that had begun a month prior.
The argument is fundamentally one of 3 years of terror bombings and two invasion attempts that clearly, obviously, and empirically were used to justify a military response were insufficient grounds to justify the military response that they were used to justify. Instead, a false flag was required a month after the war had already started. If that sounds absurd, it’s because it is. If your motive requires time travel or breaks causality, it’s a bad argument, plain and simple.
Accurate. Thank you.