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Interesting, because they even didn't entered Chechnya.

The war zone includes more than Chechnya. When we were there in Volgograd in November and December of 2003 a train was blown up killing 48 between Volgograd and Rostov-on-Don, which is further north than this from the Caucasus. We sent e-mails back asking our church and friends to pray that we have a safe journey home. After we arrived at the train station in Moscow we took a taxi to the airport, and on the way we passed the National Hotel. I noticed two Mercedes parked back to back in front of the hotel. We missed our connection in New York, and had to spend the night in Cincinnati. I got up the next morning and wandered down for breakfast and to read the paper. I picked up a copy of USA Today, and there was a picture of the two Mercedes in front of the National Hotel. In front of one of the Mercedes was a dead terrorist who had blown herself up minutes after we had passed the previous day.
On the trip over we stayed in a Moscow hotel. Rather than take a taxi to the train station we took the subway to the train station. At the time I thought this would make an excellent place for a terrorist to blow himself up. I believe it was two months later a bomb went off on the same route killing 49 people.

The point I am making is that Russia is a country at war with terrorists, and they still have considerable freedom considering the circumstances.