play videoplay video

Video duration 02 minutes 25 seconds 02:25

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991, Russia has become an independent state recognized by the international community, and inherited most of the components of the collapsed union. However, since then, it has gone through complex political and security stages, especially in the 1990s, the most important of which is related to policy towards nationalities. Within Russia and the relationship of these nationalities among themselves.

The largest country in the world by area was subjected to dozens of attacks, sometimes linked to political demands, and other times in protest against internal or foreign policies, as expressed at the time by the parties that claimed responsibility for these operations.

Below are the most prominent attacks and bombings that Russia was exposed to from the mid-1990s until the attack on the Crocus complex near the capital, Moscow, on March 22, 2024.

Russian forces intervene during an attack by gunmen on a school in Beslan in 2004 (Reuters)

Attack on Beslan Hospital

On June 14, 1995, a group of 195 militants under the command of the Chechen field commander, Shamil Basayev, attacked the city of Budennovsk in the Stavropol region, after they arrived there in 3 military trucks and a police car, crossing the border between Chechnya and the Stavropol region.

The militants were dressed as security officers, and when they were stopped at a checkpoint, they said that they were bringing the bodies of Chechen soldiers and asked to be allowed to pass.

The militants managed to reach Budyonnovsk and attacked administrative and residential buildings and the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior, before they took about 1,600 people to the city hospital and detained them for 6 days, demanding the withdrawal of federal forces from Chechnya and an end to the disarmament of armed groups that the central authorities considered illegal.

In this attack, 129 people were killed and 317 were injured, and as a result, Intelligence Director Sergei Stepashin, Interior Minister Viktor Eren, Stavropol Region Governor Yevgeny Kuznetsov, and Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Egorov submitted their resignations.

Bombing of a residential building in Kaspiysk

On November 16, 1996, a residential building in the city of Kaspiysk in the Republic of Dagestan inhabited by families of Russian border guards from the Caspian detachment was bombed. The bombing killed 68 people, including 20 children.

No party claimed responsibility for the incident, but two accounts emerged: the first talked about a “Chechen fingerprint,” and the second suggested that the smugglers took revenge on the border guards for tightening security and preventing the transfer of weapons, drugs, and black caviar.

Truck bombing in Buinaksk

On September 4, 1999, a truck bomb carrying about 2,700 kilograms of a mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder exploded near a five-story apartment building in the city of Buinaksk, Dagestan, where the families of officers of the 136th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces were staying.

The attack killed 64 people, including 23 children, and injured or maimed about 150 others.

Bombing two buildings on Goryanov Street in Moscow

On September 9, 1999, an explosion occurred in a 9-story residential building on Goryanov Street in Moscow, with an explosive force of about 350 kilograms of TNT.

The attack killed 106 people and injured about 200 others to varying degrees of severity.

Bombing a residential building on Kashira Highway

On September 13, 1999, an explosion occurred in the basement of an 8-storey apartment building on Kashira Highway in Moscow.

About 300 kilograms of TNT were used in the bombing, killing 124 people and wounding about 100 others.

Russian security forces at the site of the attack that targeted a theater in Moscow in 2002 (Getty)

Volgodonsk attack

On the morning of September 16, 1999, an explosive device was loaded into a car parked near a residential building on one of the highways in the city of Volgodonsk, Rostov Province, killing 19 people and wounding about 90 others.

Leaders of the Caucasus Islamic Institute group, led by Amir bin al-Khattab (known as Khattab) and Israel Akhmedanbiyev (known as Abu Omar Sasitlinsky), were convicted of organizing and financing a series of attacks from September 4 to 16, 1999.

Khattab was killed in 2002, while Sasetlinsky currently lives outside Russia, before Interpol in 2023 excluded him from the international wanted list.

Hostage taking in Dubrovka

On October 23, 2002, during a theatrical performance at the Dubrovka Center in Moscow, 40 Chechen militants - led by Movsar Barayev - took 916 people hostage.

Within two days of the start of the operation, and thanks to the efforts of the negotiators, 60 hostages were released. But on the third day, special forces of the Russian Federal Security Service carried out a coercive operation to free civilians.

In total, 130 hostages were killed after the gunmen shot 5 of them before the start of the federal forces attack, while the rest were killed during the special operation, or later in the hospital, and all members of the group were eliminated.

Beslan massacre

During a ceremony held at a school in Beslan on September 1, 2004, gunmen led by Ruslan Khoshbarov (known as the Colonel) detained more than 1,100 students along with their relatives and teachers.

Thanks to negotiations with former Ingushetia President Ruslan Aushev - the only person whom the militants agreed to allow into the building - 26 women and children were released. On the second day, the bodies of the hostages who had been shot by the gunmen were removed.

When ambulances arrived at the school at noon on September 3 to pick up bodies, explosions occurred in the building, after special forces launched an unplanned attack. Some hostages managed to escape through windows, while clashes continued until late into the night.

The attack led to the death of 334 people, including 186 children, 17 teachers and school employees, and 10 officers from the Russian Federal Security Service, in addition to the killing of all the gunmen except for one who was sentenced to life imprisonment.

2004 Moscow metro bombing

On February 6, 2004, a “suicide bomber” detonated a bomb he was carrying in a backpack on a metro locomotive. The force of the explosion was so great that many of the dead were identified only after genetic examination.

The accident killed 41 people and injured 250 others.

According to investigations, the organizers and perpetrators of the attack are members of the “Karachay-Cherkessia Mujahideen Group.”

2010 Moscow metro bombing

On March 29, 2010, two “suicide bombers” blew themselves up in two metro stations in Moscow about an hour apart. 24 people were killed in the first bombing, while 22 were killed in the second attack and 88 were injured in the two attacks together.

Domodedovo Airport attack

On January 24, 2011, a “suicide bomber” blew himself up in a crowd of people in the passenger waiting hall at Domodedovo Airport, Russia’s second largest airport. The bombing killed 37 people and injured more than 170 others.

Chechen Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the metro bombings in 2004 and 2010, and in 2013 he was liquidated.

A Russian plane was blown up over Sinai

On October 31, 2015, an Airbus belonging to the Russian airline crashed in the northern Sinai Peninsula, 100 kilometers from the Egyptian city of Al-Arish, during a flight from Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg.

The disaster resulted in the death of all 224 people on board. According to the Russian Federal Security Service, the explosion was caused by an explosive device placed inside the plane.

The Sinai branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Crocus attack

On March 22, 2024, gunmen wearing camouflage clothing opened fire on a crowd of people while they were in the concert hall of the Crocus complex near Moscow and threw firebombs.

As a result of the operation, 133 people were killed, most of them as a result of smoke inhalation caused by the throwing of incendiary bombs. The head of the Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, announced the arrest of 11 people involved in the attack, including its perpetrators.

The Russian Foreign Ministry questioned US assertions that ISIS was behind the operation, and Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on ISIS-Khorasan Province’s claim of responsibility for the attack.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies