In the wake of the devastating Second Chechen War, Russia implemented a systemic campaign to suppress the memory and narrative of the conflict. Under President Vladimir Putin, the atrocities committed by Russian forces were systematically erased from the public record. Historians were censored, survivors silenced, and memorials vandalized. The war was sanitized in the official narrative, portrayed as a counter-terrorism operation against separatist rebels. Putin's regime sought to erase the collective memory of the conflict, effectively erasing the suffering and trauma inflicted upon the Chechen people. This systematic denial of history has left a deep scar on the Chechen identity and undermines the possibility of reconciliation and healing.
