ABSTRACT
Throughout 1994 the involvement of the federal authorities in the Chechen conflict had become increasingly high-level. There were several indications of a dramatic shift in the official Russian attitude towards the Chechen problem during 1994, notably government statements, Yeltsin’s speeches and his behaviour on the world stage. Russian officials had frequently declared that Chechnya was an indispensable constituent part of the Russian Federation, stressing the illegal nature of the Dudayev regime, as well as the futility of conducting negotiations with the Chechen leader. Sergei Shakhrai, a deputy Prime Minister and former Nationalities Minister, insisted that ‘the Chechen republic is a subject of the Russian Federation and no matter how singular the development inside the … republic may be, the whole set of methods provided for by the … Federation for administering its territory are applicable to it, including crisis methods’.1
