Is the Russian bear learning? an operational and tactical analysis of the second Chechen war, 1999–2002

Abstract

In recent years, writers have too quickly dismissed the Russian military as incompetent. Its performance in the Second Chechen War should give them pause. The Russian military has learned valuable lessons from the disaster of the first war and is applying those lessons to its conduct of the second. While improvements have come on the tactical and operational level, one should not conclude, however, that the Russians are winning the war. The Second Chechen War is proving once again that modern warfare is a messy business and that only a political solution can bring an end to a political problem.