Question
During this conflict, the work of a kidnapped Radio Liberty journalist was called “more dangerous than firing a machine gun.” A general in the first stage of this conflict boasted that one airborne division could win it in two hours before drunkenly launching a New Year’s Eve assault that lasted for two months. Journalists who covered this conflict included Ann Nivat and a woman who was shot in her apartment elevator after being detained during it. This conflict included the first use of “filtration point” (*) camps, as well the first “mopping-up” operations called zachistka. During this conflict, one side deployed “black widow” suicide bombers. During the guerilla stage of this conflict, a school in Beslan was seized by forces of Shamil Basayev, an ally of Aslan Maskhadov. For 10 points, name this pair of wars in which Russian troops destroyed the capital of the breakaway state of Ichkeria, Grozny. ■END■
ANSWER: Chechen Wars [accept descriptions of the Chechen–Russian conflict or Chechnya Conflict; accept Second Chechen War or First Chechen War; accept Chechenskiy konflikt, Pervaya chechenskaya voyna, or Vtoraya chechenskaya voyna] (The general is Pavel Grachev. The reporters are Andrei Babitsky and Anna Politkovskaya.)
<AE, European History>
= Average correct buzz position
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