In the wake of the Moscow hostage crises, the 80,000 Russian troops in Chechnya became much more active. The army believes there are some 400 rebels operating in the largest city, Grozny, and searches were made to try and flush some of these rebels out.

Despite a shortage of money for the task, the government expects to destroy about one percent of its 40,000 ton chemical weapons stockpile in the next six months. Russia has an incentive to get on with this, because as the munitions age, they become unstable and more likely to leak into the atmosphere.