VLADIMIR PUTIN is potentially facing a new civil war in the Caucasus after Chechen rebels said they were preparing for further hostilities in the region. Russia was involved in two bitter wars in Chechnya during the 1990s and early 2000s after Chechen separatists pursued independence from Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The First Chechen War took place between 1994-1996 under President Boris Yeltsin and resulted in a humiliating defeat for Russia. Then in 1999, Putin once again sent in the troops to crush Chechen rebels in a brutal campaign which saw Chechnya's capital Grozny raised to the...
