The chechen resistance of russian is to be commended, I was watching a documentary on the chechen war and these rebel are as tough as they get.
Here's some info:
After capturing Groznyi in February 2000, Moscow claimed victory in the war against Chechnya. Generals and officials anticipated the war's end by the presidential election of 26 March 2000, and Moscow announced its "final offensive" to destroy the Chechen forces by 26 February.1 Nevertheless, Russian armed forces in Groznyi remain vulnerable to the approximately five hundred Chechens there. Because estimates of Chechen strength vary on a daily basis, Russian intelligence evidently knows neither the number nor location of the enemy forces it faces. By June 2000, Chechen terror attacks against Russians in and around Chechnya had already begun to seriously demoralize Russian troops, forcing the General Staff to admit that it had underestimated the size of Chechen forces.
Thus, Russian and foreign observers increasingly admit that no end to the war is in sight, although Russian troops will remain as long as it takes to destroy the Chechen forces.2 It is equally difficult to define what would constitute a Russian victory other than Chechnya's utter devastation. In this sense Chechnya, like Northern Ireland, appears to be an internal war that will last for years. And as with "the troubles," the home government is (or was until the Blair government took power in Great Britain) pledged to win to preserve the state's unity.
