Formally, the war in question lasted from December 11, 1994 (according to other sources - from November 31) to August 31, 1996. But the events that led to it developed for 4 years, from the public statement of Boris Yeltsin in Kazan on August 6, 1990: "Take as much sovereignty as you can swallow!" In August 1991, the United Congress of the Chechen People (UCNC) headed by Dzhokhar Dudayev sided with Boris Yeltsin. Russia became an independent state in December 1991.
Losses before the war
Yeltsin did not forget the good and for a long time endured Dudayev's arbitrariness. Despite the fact that the federal center began to bear the costs long before the hostilities.
For example, in 1992, leaving Ichkeria, as the separatists began to call the territory, Russian troops left a lot of equipment and property. So, the Ichkerian Air Force was estimated at 265 aircraft, not counting the An-2 and two helicopters
In 1991-1994, Dudaev's militants commanded: tanks - 42; BMP, BTR - 66; guns and mortars - 123; air defense means - 40; almost 42 thousand units of small arms. As of 1995, the cost of military equipment was estimated: BMP-1 - at $ 108,287; BMP-2 - $ 228641; T-64 tank, depending on the modification - $ 230,880 - $ 536,028; T-72 cost $ 337,247 - $ 421,200; tank T-80 - $ 936,000. The dollar exchange rate for 1995, on average - 4640 rubles. It is unlikely that in the early 90s the prices were radically different. You can calculate the amount yourself, but it needs to be at least doubled - this is the cost of military infrastructure, including three airbases, which ended up in the hands of the separatists.
And this is not all of Russia's costs. In particular, the entire ruble mass exported from the Baltic states was sent to Chechnya, which announced its withdrawal from the ruble zone (it was not possible to find an estimate of the amount of this money). Chechnya received oil free of charge from Western Siberia and sold oil products abroad under a quota signed by the Russian government. In addition, Chechnya was full - full of illegal tie-ins into federal oil pipelines and small factories for distilling it into gasoline.
A wave of "Chechen advice notes" swept across the country - forged bank documents, according to which tens of millions of rubles were withdrawn.
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And the fight broke out
According to military analysts, the greatest losses of equipment of the federal troops occurred in 1994 - early 1995, when the battles for Grozny were going on and the city passed from hand to hand. Combat operations in the field brought less damage to equipment. What can not be said about the cost of clashes. For the Russian Ministry of Defense, a local military operation cost $ 1 million, of which about $ 200 thousand was accounted for by aviation. The cost of the departure of one SU-25 attack aircraft is $ 20 thousand, the front-line bomber SU-24 from $ 24 thousand to $ 40 thousand, 1 hour of combat operation of the MI-24 helicopter is $ 10 thousand. Using the tank for a day cost $ 5,000. Even shooting has its cost: a tank shot cost $ 200, one artillery shell costs $ 150, 1,000 rounds “pulls” $ 30, 1 Smerch rocket costs $ 2,000, a grenade costs $ 8, a volumetric explosion charge costs $ 3,000. One refueling of a helicopter - 2.5 million rubles, an airplane - 9 million rubles.
During the First Chechen Federal Aviation it lost every tenth, every fourth helicopter from those in Chechnya was damaged. MI-8 costs 550 million rubles, MI-24 - 840 million rubles.
Irrecoverable losses of armored vehicles - 225 vehicles, of which 69 are tanks. The prices are indicated above, despite the fact that Russian troops used mainly T-80s.
In Chechnya, the destruction is estimated at $ 5.5 billion and the burden of reconstruction fell on Russia.
Macroeconomics not happy
The total costs and losses of Russia are estimated at $ 100 billion, despite the fact that the economy was already not in the best condition. Inflation for 1994 was 214.77%, which is 625.26% less than in the previous 1993 and 83.16% more than in the next 1995. In 1994, GDP was $ 395.1 billion, in 1993 - $ 435.1 billion. Brent oil in 1994 fluctuated in the range of $ 13- $ 17 per barrel. There were practically no taxes in the budget. The IMF was in no hurry to grant loans. Moreover, on October 11, 1994, the country experienced "Black Tuesday" - a landslide fall of the ruble against the dollar. In just one day on the MICEX, the dollar has risen in price by more than 27% - from 3,081 rubles to 3,926 rubles per dollar.
Konstantin Baranovsky