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The Russians have succeeded in installing a pro-Moscow Chechen regime, and eliminating most of the more prominent Chechen separatist leaders, including former president Aslan Maskhadov and leading warlord Shamil Basayev; the war bolstered the domestic popularity of Vladimir Putin, who launched the military campaign one month after becoming Russian prime minister.
By now, large-scale fighting has been replaced by low-level skirmishing, hit and run attacks and bombings targeting federal troops and forces of the regional government, with the violence often spilling over into adjacent regions.
Village Sadikurt, Chechnya. Taken: February, 2000