Russia’s Syria Intervention Part 1-Russia’s Bloody Nose

President Obama’s amateur approach to foreign policy has begun bearing rotten fruit. Vladimir Putin has now committed Russian military forces to help prop up the Assad regime. This is a direct result of Obama’s lack of a response to 1) force Assad to step aside & 2) his unwillingness to combat ISIS effectively. His failure to assert American power has created a vacuum that was inevitably going to be filled by someone who didn’t have America’s best interests at heart.

What the end result of Russia’s intervention will be is hard to say with precision. However, by looking at the Russian Federation’s recent military adventures, it is a safe assumption that a lot of people are going to die. Three years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the embryonic Russian Federation had its first military test in the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

In 1994 the Russian military numbered 2 million men but was a shell of the former Soviet Army. At that time, it was receiving only 30-40% of the budget it needed to maintain combat readiness. Every single unit in the Russian arsenal was understrength. There was no professional NCO corps to speak of. Morale was at an all-time low. Most of the combat troops were formed into mechanized infantry units. Armored units were made up mostly of T-72 & &-80 tanks, which were very difficult to operate within a city. Also, most were not fitted with the reactive armor that would defeat a shoulder fired anti-tank rocket.

The confrontation between Chechnya and Russia was a long time coming. However, this conflict came about due to Chechnya’s desire to extricate itself out of Russia’s Federation. Russian President-Boris Yeltsin-feared other Republics would jump on the independence band wagon. The majority of his advisors pushed for military action, believing the Russian military would easily eliminate the rag-tag Chechen armed forces.

On November 30, 1994 Yeltsin signed order 2131. The multi-pronged Russian assault immediately ran into problems. The assault plan was poorly planned. Many units did not have maps of Chechnya and were forced to steal maps from local shops. Also, the Chechens were putting up much stronger opposition than expected. The Russian military’s solution was to resort to indiscriminate artillery and airstrikes. This resulted in horrible casualties on the civilian population, which in turn, led to more joining the rebels.

After bloody fighting, Russian forces eventually took the Capital of Grozny-by this point, it was nothing more than ruins. For the next couple of years the war settled down to mostly small sniping and bombing events. By day the Russian forces patrolled the cities while MI-24 helicopter gunships tracked along roads and pipelines. The Russian military showed little enthusiasm for the idea of rooting out the terrorists located in the highlands and villages. By night, the Russians would return back to their bases, and control would revert back to the rebels. During this period, Russia was humiliated by brazen acts of hostage taking perpetrated by the rebels. Public opinion in Russia began to turn against the war. On August 6, 1996 Chechen rebels that had infiltrated Grozny began coordinated assaults on key positions in the city. The Russian forces were thrown into disarray. After repeated unsuccessful assaults, the Russians resulted to using artillery, and airstrikes on the city.

At this point, the Russian people and most of the government had grown disillusioned with the war. The fact that the Russian forces had lost control of the capital city was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Yeltsin was forced to sign a ceasefire, which in actuality was a retreat. Russian forces were withdrawn, and Chechnya was left to the rebels. This is how the first Chechen war ended. The Russian Federations first war resulted in a bloody nose, delivered by Muslim extremists. This should have been the end of the story, but a new Russian leader would emerge, whose sole intention was to erase the dishonor of the past.