According to most Western and Russian experts, the Russian army’s “performances” in the second Chechnyan
war are an improvement from those in 1994-96. Visibly prepared for the prospect of another conflict in the region, the Russian army devoted a part of its military reform efforts to its units based in the North Caucasus over the past three years. The federal forces in Chechnya were helped a great deal by the psychological and political context of the war which had been greatly improved since 1996, and which took the form of an efficient war of information and a massive use of air and artillery power. However, these improvements should not allow us to ignore the gaps in Russian military reform which this war also clearly displayed.
