(Andrei Kozyrev - architect of Russian diplomatic success in the Caucasus)
The Georgian incursion into Abkhazia triggered a prompt Russian response. The Russian government, to protect pro-Russian Abkhazia and South Ossetia, issued an ultimatum to Georgia demanding immediate withdrawal from both Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Additionally, Russia began mobilizing its troops in the South Caucasus. The government of Eduard Shevardnadze was frightened of the Russian reaction and, influenced by Moscow's firmness, agreed to a ceasefire with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. With Russia's help, both breakaway republics de-facto secured their independence, though both states were diplomatically recognized only by a handful of states, including Russia. Furthermore, Georgia agreed to join the CIS and EEU. The second Russian diplomatic victory was
the Sochi Accords, which ended the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As the only country friendly to Armenia, Russia pressured Yerevan to end the war. The conditions of peace included the transfer of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan, though the Armenian population living there would have full autonomy in internal matters. Additionally, freedom of movement between the province and Armenia was guaranteed by Russia. To secure the peace and prevent any further military conflict, Russian troops would be stationed in the province. Russian diplomatic leverage over Armenia forced Yerevan to accept the Russian proposal. In exchange for successful mediation, Azerbaijan agreed to join the CSTO. Subsequently, not wanting to be alienated on the international stage by Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenia agreed to fully join the CIS, EEU and CSTO. Unfortunately, the Russian mediation proposal in Bosnia was completely ignored by Croatia and Bosnia, though Russia provided oil, food and other material to Serbia and Bosnian Serbs, drawing them closer to Moscow.
In the meantime,
Russian diaspora living in the Baltic States appealed to President Fyodorov for help, as govenments of the Baltic states used new laws to discriminate the Russian minority. After regaining independence in 1991, Latvia and Estonia restored the pre-1940 citizenship laws on the basis of the legal continuity of their statehood throughout 1940 – 1991, automatically recognising citizenship according to the principle of jus sanguinis for the persons who held citizenship before 16 June 1940 and their descendants. Most of those who had settled on the territory of these republics after their incorporation by the USSR of these states by the USSR in 1940 and their descendants received the right to obtain citizenship through naturalisation procedure, but were not granted citizenship automatically. This policy affected not only ethnic Russians, but also the descendants of those ethnic Estonians and Latvians who emigrated from these countries before independence was proclaimed in 1918. Dual citizenship was also not allowed, except for those who acquired citizenship by birth. As a result of this law, Russians in the Baltic States received non-citizen or alien status, which automatically meant limited rights. Furthermore, the Baltic States began to limit Russian language rights and blocked or limited formation of pro-Russian parties in their countries.
The East Prigorodny conflict, also referred to as the Ossetian–Ingush conflict, was an inter-ethnic conflict in the eastern part of the Prigorodny District in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, which started in 1989 and developed, in 1992, into a brief ethnic war between local Ingush and Ossetian paramilitary forces. In 1957, the repressed Ingush and Chechens were allowed to return to their native land and the Checheno-Ingush Republic was restored, with the Prigorodny district maintained as part of North Ossetia. Soviet authorities attempted to prevent Ingush from returning to their territory in Prigorodny district; however, Ingush families managed to move in, purchase houses back from the Ossetians and resettled the district in greater numbers. This gave rise to the idea of "restoring historical justice" and "returning native lands", among the Ingush population and intelligentsia, which contributed to the already existing tensions between ethnic Ossetians and Ingush. Between 1973 and 1980 the Ingush voiced their demands for the reunification of the Prigorodny district with Ingushetia by staging various protests and meetings in Grozny.
The tensions increased in early 1991, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the Ingush openly declared their rights to the Prigorodny district according to the Soviet law adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 26, 1991; in particular, the third and the sixth article on "territorial rehabilitation." The law gave the Ingush legal grounds for their demands, which caused serious turbulence in a region in which many people had free access to weapons, resulting in an armed conflict between ethnic Ingush population of the Prigorodny district and Ossetian armed militias from Vladikavkaz. Ethnic violence rose steadily in the area of the Prigorodny district, to the east of the Terek River, despite the introduction of 1,500 Soviet Internal Troops to the area.
During the summer and early autumn of 1992, there was a steady increase in the militancy of Ingush nationalists. At the same time, there was a steady increase in incidents of organized harassment, kidnapping and rape against Ingush inhabitants of North Ossetia by their Ossetian neighbours, police, security forces and militia. Ingush fighters marched to take control over Prigorodny District and on the night of October 30, 1992, open warfare broke out, which lasted for a week. The first people killed were respectively Ossetian and Ingush militsiya staff (as they had basic weapons). While Ingush militias were fighting the Ossetians in the district and on the outskirts of the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz, Ingush from elsewhere in North Ossetia were forcibly evicted and expelled from their homes. Russian OMON forces actively participated in the fighting and sometimes led Ossetian fighters into battle.
On October 31, 1992, armed clashes broke out between Ingush militias and North Ossetian security forces and paramilitaries supported by Russian Interior Ministry (MVD) and Army troops in the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia. Although Russian troops often intervened to prevent some acts of violence by Ossetian police and republican guards, the stance of the Russian peacekeeping forces was strongly pro-Ossetian, not only objectively as a result of its deployment, but subjectively as well. The fighting, which lasted six days, had at its root a dispute between ethnic Ingush and Ossetians over the Prigorodnyi region, a sliver of land of about 978 square kilometers over which both sides lay claim. That dispute has not been resolved, nor has the conflict. Both sides have committed human rights violations. Thousands of homes have been wantonly destroyed, most of them Ingush. More than one thousand hostages were taken on both sides, and as of 1996 approximately 260 individuals-mostly Ingush-remain unaccounted for, according to the Procuracy of the Russian Federation. Nearly five hundred individuals were killed in the first six days of conflict. Hostage-taking, shootings, and attacks on life and property continued at least until 1996. President Fyodorov issued a decree that the Prigorodny district was to remain part of North Ossetia on November 2.
(Western jet over Iraq )
During January 1993, numerous coalition airstrikes occurred against Iraq in response to actions by the latter predominantly due to the No-Fly Zone in Southern Iraq. Just after the Gulf War ended, there were fears that Iraq might invade Kuwait again, especially after Iraqi media declared on August 2, 1992 (The 2nd Anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) that Kuwait was their 19th province and that they would invade again. This coupled with some incidents of Iraqi troops making incursions and exchanging fire with Kuwaiti troops led to the no-fly zone on the 32nd Parallel being enacted on August 26, 1992, with U.S. Navy F/A-18C Hornets of Carrier Air Wing Five from the aircraft carrier USS Independence being the first to fly into the zone. There were at least 70 fixed aircraft of the Iraqi Air Force assumed to be based in the No-Fly Zone at the time.
On December 27, 1992, at 10:42am, two Iraqi MiG-25PDS Foxbat-Es entered the No-Fly Zone. 65 seconds later, one of them was shot down by a United States Air Force (USAF) F-16DG Fighting Falcon (90-0778) of the 33rd FS (363rd FW) in what was also the first air-to-air kill for the AIM-120 AMRAAM and the first beyond-visual-range missile kill for the F-16 as well as the first air-to-air kill by an American F-16. As a result of the shoot down, the Kitty Hawk Battlegroup sailed from the coast of Somalia to the Persian Gulf. The Kitty Hawk also dispatched its 18 aircraft from its two F/A-18A squadrons to join USAF aircraft in Saudi Arabia. On the evening 13th of January, in response to the moving of surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites into Southern Iraq in the No-Fly Zone, 75 Coalition aircraft, protected by Type 42 Guided Missile Destroyer HMS Nottingham, along with 35 aircraft from CVW-15 on the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) took off to attack the sites, making a total of 115 aircraft in all. The USAF aircraft included six F-117A Nighthawks from the 49th FW, eight F-16C Block 42 aircraft from the 33rd FS (363rd FW), four F-111F Aardvarks, three EF-111A Ravens, six F-4G Phantoms, ten F-15E Strike Eagles from the 335th FS (4th FW) and eight F-15C Eagles from the 1st FW flying escort. They were joined by six Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR.1 aircraft (four had FLIR designators) as well as six French Mirage 2000 aircraft for combat air patrol and numerous support aircraft like AWACS.
There were also around 35 aircraft from the Kitty Hawk including eight A-6E SWIP Intruder aircraft from VA-52 (which employed GBU-10 laser guided bombs), eight F/A-18As from VFA-27 and VFA-97 (including CDR. Kevin J. Thomas, Commanding Officer of VFA-97 who led the air strike as well as two of the F/A-18As for escort and four providing SAM suppression), four F-14A Tomcats from VF-51 and VF-111, three EA-6B Prowlers from VAQ-134, an S-3B Viking from VS-37 for electronic support, and two E-2C Hawkeyes from VAW-114. Targets included radar stations and integrated air operations centers at Tallil Air Base (known to house MiG-29s), Al Amara, Najaf, Samawah and four mobile anti-aircraft SAM/anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) sites. At around 6:45PM, the air strikes began when the Kitty Hawk launched her strike package. During the transit to the target area, the F-14As from CVW-15's strike package had to travel more than 644 km (400 miles) to reach a tanker aircraft to avoid alerting Iraqi Air Defence commanders. Despite this, they were able to support the Carrier strike aircraft during mission as well as 40 minutes after the last bomb.
The air strikes only lasted 30 minutes and only light AAA was encountered. The results of the strike were considered poor with many targets being missed. The Aerospace Daily claimed that of four mobile missile batteries, only one was destroyed. Of the six F-117As, two lost laser lock, one failed to get a positive identification of the target, and one F-117 hit the wrong target. An F-15E also returned to base with its ordnance due to cloud cover preventing a laser-guided drop. An Iraqi news agency soon reported that an Iraqi soldier as well as three civilians were killed as well as 7 civilians wounded. A cruise missile strike was launched by the Kitty Hawk Battlegroup on the 17th on the Zafraniyah Nuclear Fabrication Facility, 8 miles or 13 km southwest of Baghdad. Around 44 to 45 Tomahawk missiles were launched from four vessels with 37 of them hitting their intended targets. One Tomahawk was hit by AAA and crashed into the Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad, killing two civilians. The US Navy stated that the single loss to AAA was due to the Tomahawks flying the same routes over Baghdad they had used during the Gulf War. They also reported that the warhead didn't explode and rather that it was the impact that caused the civilian casualties.
On that same day, a formation of F-16Cs along with F-4Gs were to conduct reconnaissance operations, provide SAM suppression for RAF Jaguars investigating a newly discovered SA-6 SAM site, combat air patrol operations until being relieved by another F-4/F-16 Wild Weasel hunter/killer team and return to base. Total sortie length was scheduled for just under five hours. During the phase that required the taking out of SAM sites, an F-16C Block 30 of the 23rd FS (52nd FW) piloted by 1st Lt. Craig Stevenson saw what was described as the "unmistakable radar return" of an enemy aircraft rolling down the runway, heading in his direction, about 30 nm away. With the help of AWACS, he shot down the enemy aircraft with an AIM-120 AMRAAM (the second air-to-air kill for the AMRAAM and the F-16) which was originally believed to be a MiG-29B Fulcrum-A (later confirmed to be a MiG-23 Flogger). Originally, the first AMRAAM did not fire and stayed on the left wing requiring Stevenson to fire his second one. The live missile on the left wing was a concern for him, posing a risk when he was required to refuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker. On the 19th, an F-4G fired an AGM-88 HARM at an Iraqi SAM site after a 14 nm lock-on east of Mosul. An hour later, an F-16C was fired upon by AAA but not hit. Two hours later a section of F-16C's were fired upon and dropped cluster bombs on guns north of Mosul. Iraq then later called a cease fire to celebrate Clinton's inauguration which took place on the 20th of January.
Around 17 hours after President Bill Clinton took office, a hunter/killer team of two F-4Gs and two F-16Cs struck an Iraqi SAM site at on the 21st of January 1993 at 5:09AM EST (January 22, 1993 - 1:09AM). The two Wild Weasel (F-4G) aircraft were escorting French Air Force Mirage F1 aircraft configured for reconnaissance. These Mirages were on a "routine monitoring mission" north of the 36th Parallel near Mosul when the aircraft were attacked by ground fire. The aircraft were then painted by an Iraqi SAM radar and in return, one of the F-4Gs launched an AGM-88 HARM missile 12 miles or 19 km north of Mosul. On January 23, 1993, Iraqi AAA allegedly (flashes were reported from the air) fired at an A-6E SWIP Intruder from VA-52 as well as at two F/A-18As (all from the Kitty Hawk). In retaliation, the Intruder dropped a GBU-16 Paveway II laser guided bomb, destroying it. This was the last time the A-6 Intruder was used in combat.
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. The 1,336 lb (606 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to send the North Tower crashing into its twin, the South Tower, taking down both skyscrapers and killing tens of thousands of people. While it failed to do so, it killed six people, including a pregnant woman, and caused over a thousand injuries.About 50,000 people were evacuated from the buildings that day.
The attack was planned by a group of terrorists including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad A. Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin, and Ahmed Ajaj. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad, and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property, and interstate transportation of explosives. In November 1997, two more were convicted: Ramzi Yousef, the organizer behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the van carrying the bomb. Emad Salem, an FBI informant and a key witness in the trial of Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, and Wali Khan Amin Shah, stated that the bomb itself was built under supervision from the FBI. During his time as an FBI informant, Salem recorded hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers. In tapes made after the bombing, Salem alleged that an unnamed FBI supervisor declined to move forward on a plan that would have used a "phony powder" to fool the conspirators into believing that they were working with genuine explosives.
The South Tower did not reopen for tenants until March 18, 1993 (the World Trade Center Observation Deck reopened on April 17, 1993) while the North Tower remained closed until April 1, 1993. The cost to repair both buildings was estimated at $250 million, according to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The Vista International Hotel at 3 World Trade Center remained closed until November 1, 1994, after extensive repairs and renovations that amounted to $65 million. The concourse level was reopened on March 27, 1993, while the parking garage reopened on September 1, 1993, for some government employee's vehicles. Commercial tenants' employees were not allowed until spring 1994. Also, new security measures were introduced including identification tags for approved cars and drivers, surveillance cameras and a barrier rising out of the roadway to stop rogue vehicles. Even though the Windows on the World at the North Tower's 107th floor wasn't damaged, the explosion damaged receiving areas, air-conditioning system, storage, and parking spots used by the restaurant complex. As a result, the restaurant was forced to shut down. As the Port Authority decided to hire Joseph Baum, the restaurant's original designer, to renovate the space at a cost of $25 million reopening was delayed until June 26, 1996. Cellar in the Sky reopened after Labor Day of that same year.
In the course of the trial, it was revealed that the FBI had an informant, a former Egyptian army officer named Emad Salem. Salem claimed FBI involvement in building of the bomb. He secretly recorded hundreds of hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers. Federal authorities denied Salem's view of events and the New York Times concluded that the tapes "do not make clear the extent to which Federal authorities knew that there was a plan to bomb the World Trade Center, merely that they knew that a bombing of some sort was being discussed." But for the recordings, Emad would have been charged as a co-conspirator. It was recordings that were never provided to the New York Times that prevented the FBI from charging Emad. Although the FBI received the credit, Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) special agents actually found and arrested Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Special Agents Bill Miller and Jeff Riner were given a tip by an associate of Ramzi Yousef about his location. In coordination with the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), DSS arrested Ramzi Yousef. After his arrest, Ramzi Yousef is alleged to have said to investigators
"this is only the beginning."
(Anatoly Sobchak with then largely unknown Vladimir Putin)
In the meantime, the United Russia Coalition found a new political ally in
Anatoly Sobchak, who quickly rose in power and influence as mayor of Saint Petersburg and was also closely connected to Russian business circles. Russian richest business entrepreneurs, which emerged under Mikhail Gorbachev during his period of market liberalization and as a result of Fyodorov and Yavlinsky's economic policies, were able to quickly profit off Russia's entry into the world market. Nevertheless, under President Fyodorov
Russian oligarchs had a very limited influence on the political situation, which frustrated some of them. The oligarchs were split between supporters of Boris Yeltsin, who, in exchange for financial support, promised them increased political roles, and those who were willing to ally with President Fyodorov, who was willing to seek an understanding with oligarchs, but only on his strict terms.
On 13 April 1993, the first parliamentary elections were held in Russia. Results:
Registered voters/turnout – 106,170,835/83.34%
Total votes : 88,482,357
United Russia (Grigory Yavlinsky) – 45.56% (40,312,561)
Democratic Alliance for Russia (Boris Yeltsin) – 30.24% (26,757,064)
Communist Party of RF (Gennady Zyuganov) – 10.11% (8,945,566)
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (Vladimir Zhirinovsky) – 7.02% (6,211,461)
Agrarian Party of Russia (Mikhail Lapshin) – 5.75% (5,087,735)
Other parties – 1.32% (1,167,967)
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
