RUSSIA: CHECHNYA :RUSSIAN ARMY CLAIM

(19 Jan 1995) Russian/Nat

The Russian army today claimed it had finally captured the Presidential Palace in the Chechen capital Grozny and raised the Russian flag.

But what they told President Yeltsin would be done in two days has taken almost six weeks during which time they have been repeatedly humiliated by a Chechen force which was vastly outnumbered and out-gunned.

President Yeltsin has already started a purge of the Russian army demoting three generals who have criticised publicly the catastrophic campaign.

APTV investigates why the Russian army, feared by the West for almost half a century, has suffered so many set backs in Chechnya.

This is the Russian army of the 1990's.

Young and fit but hopelessly under trained and inexperienced.

They are part of a force of some 40-thousand soldiers which has taken almost six weeks to take control of the Presidential Palace in Grozny, a task its commanders thought would only take days.

The army that once instilled fear into the Western world has been humiliated by the Chechen irregulars and made to look incompetent.

Crippled by the breakup of the Soviet Union and the near collapse of the Russian economy, the Russian army is a mere shadow of the
powerful fighting force of the Cold War era.

Military analysts blame the succession of blunders in Chechnya on the series of cutbacks imposed by the President and parliament over the past two years.

These, they say, have produced an army that is underfinanced, undermanned and not ready for battle.

SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH)

So the soldiers who serve right now 18 months, 18 or 19 year old boys were never in any real manoeuvres in their life and they were just sent into battle and now the Russian
army there in Chechnya is learning how to fight while fighting and that's of course a bloody way to get military experience.
SUPER CAPTION: Pavel Felgenhauer, Defence Editor of 'Sevodnya" Newspaper.

Russian soldiers back from the war in Chechnya echo these
sentiments.

Yuri Potapov was captured in the assault on the capital Grozny on New Year's Eve.

The attack was a disaster and the Russians lost many men and over half of their hardware.

It was also badly-planned.

SOUNDBITE: (RUSSIAN)

There was no planning at all. There was just a decision or an order to go into the city.
If it had been planned, there would have been some advance work or reconnaissance, plans or tasks should have been worked out and defined, and only after that a
decision to occupy the city. Part of the forces should have been
sent to the outskirts but the order was given to go into the city
without any preparations. That led to almost 70% of our hardware was
destroyed.
SUPER CAPTION: Yuri Potapov, Released Russian POW.

It has also become quite clear that the Russians badly underestimated the strength, determination and effectiveness of the Chechen fighters.

SOUNDBITE: (RUSSIAN)

No one would have imagined it. We thought that we would have just local skirmishes but no one thought that the whole city would rise up, that they would all be armed and that every third window would have a rocket launcher.
SUPER CAPTION: Yuri Potapov, Released Russian.

The catalogue of blunders started almost as soon as the Russians
invaded.

They started slowly giving the Chechens time to organise and arm. The barrage of air strikes succeeded only in horrifying the world and stiffening the resolve of the Chechens.
And then instead of sending in crack troops, the Kremlin sent young conscripts who had never before seen battle.
SOUNDBITE: (ENGLISH)
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