"After a few years of relative calm with intermittent lawlessness, kidnappings and ransoms stemming from independent Chechnya, the second Chechen War was unleashed by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev as an unsuccessful attempt to declare the neighboring Republic of Daghestan an Islamic State, one unfolding alongside Vladimir Putin's ascension to power as the new authoritarian leader of Russia.

After an autumn of relentless bombing and pounding air raids of unprecedented intensity conducted by the Russian military on the rebel-held Chechen capital, Grozny, thousands lay dead and the central...