This did not go off well with most Chechens, who came to view him as a national embarrassment at times if still a patriot at others , but it did not, by any means, dismantle the determination for independence, as most Western commentators note.
Some former hostages and relatives of the victims claim that the from the chemical agent is being kept secret.
After Chechnya made its initial declaration of sovereignty, the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic split in two in June 1992 amidst the Ingush armed conflict against another Russian republic, North Ossetia.
Moscow's Chechens rose in numbers from about 20,000 in the Soviet period to an estimated 80,000 in 2002.