2003

Mass graves are discovered in Chechnya with thousands of Russian Army killed Chechens bodies

• 60 people die in a bomb attack on Russians in Chechnya

• Sergei Yushenkov, a member of parliament who is investigating the 1999 apartement bombings, is killed

• Yury Shchekochikhin, a member of parliament who is investigating the Three Whales scandal, dies of poisoning with thallium (a poison commonly used by the KGB, at first suspected in the Litvinenko killing).

• The Kovalev Commission’s lawyer, Mikhail Trepashkin jailed after a secret trial on espionage charges. Today, virtually none of the members of the Commission are left whole and it is silent.

• The Putin government acquires all national tv stations

• Kyrgyzstan grants Russia first military base abroad in 13 years to counter Islamist terrorism.

• Assaults on the enemies of the Kremlin reach fever pitch as the election cycle begins. Within one week at the end of the month, two major opposition figures are in prison. Khodorkovsky and Mikhail Trepashkin

• 2003-2013 Yukos oil boss and prominent liberal Mikhail Khodorkovsky arrested on charges of tax evasion and fraud, an early casualty of President Putin's campaign to drive Yeltsin-era 'oligarchs' out of politics. In 2005 he is sentenced to nine years imprisonment, and is pardoned and goes into exile in 2013.

• 2002-2004 Pankisi Gorge crisis

• 1999-2009 Second Chechen War, Hundreds of civilians are killed and tens of thousands are left homeless as civilian targets are attacked.

• 2000- Chechen Insurgency

• 1948- Involvement to Arab-Israeli Conflict

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