Simultaneously, Dudayev’s regime actively recruited mercenaries from
the Baltic states, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Afghanistan,
Turkey, and other countries, selecting, as a rule, fighters with
experience in guerrilla and terrorist warfare in mountains and urban
areas. Many of the Chechen militants had been tested in armed
conflicts in the territory of the former Soviet Union, including
Karabakh and Abkhaziya.
Dudayev’s
regime used psychological and physical terror against the Russian
military personnel stationed in the province to provide his army
units with modern weapons and military equipment. In 1991-92 Moscow
was compelled to withdraw its troops from the province to avoid
major bloodshed. However, substantial munitions stores were left
behind, including 42 tanks, 270 planes, 139 artillery systems, and
loads of other military equipment. All this weaponry was
illegally appropriated by Dudayev’s clique and distributed to the
Chechen armed units.
In hindsight,
the biggest mistake of the political and military leadership of the
Soviet Union and Russia was that it failed to prevent the seizure of
huge stocks of modern weapons and military equipment of the Soviet
army by Dudayev’s detachments. The rebels’ military units led by the
former commander of a Soviet strategic air force division were
equipped on a par with the armed forces of some smaller western
European countries.