Victory Day over the “World’s Second Army”: 30 Years Ago, Russia and Ichkeria Signed the Khasavyurt Accords
On August 31, 1996, in the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt, near the border with Chechnya, Russian Security Council Secretary General Alexander Lebed and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria General Aslan Maskhadov signed an agreement that brought the first Russian-Chechen war to an end. The accords were reached with the mediation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), represented by Tim Guldimann, a Swiss diplomat and head of the OSCE Assistance Group in Chechnya.