Since Russia’s re-invasion of her rebellious Chechen province in 1999, officially 5,362 Russian military personnel have been killed on operations there. Unofficially this figure is estimated at being nearer 11,000 with 25,000 wounded (Russian Union of Soldiers’ Mothers). The number of civilians killed is conservatively believed to be approximately 20,000 dead with many more displaced and made homeless. These figures stand as a damning indictment of the failure of Russia’s “Counter-terrorist” operations and attempts to restore order to this small satellite state. By comparison to the above casualty figures, the cost of the unpopular Coalition operation in Iraq appears almost light–around 2,600 Coalition soldiers. There have in fact been two “Chechen wars” in the last two decades (one in 1994 and another from 1999) and Russia’s policies and the performance of her security forces reveal much of the change and continuity in post-soviet Russia.

On 15 December 2005 the last United Nations peacekeepers (largely made up of Pakistani troops) symbolically handed over to the newly trained Republic of Sierra Leone Army in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown. This marked the end of a turbulent UN intervention in what has been one of Africa’s most war ravaged states and subsequently the country with one of the world’s lowest life expectancies at only 34. This war is unfortunately a far from unique story in recent African history.