Moscow
The Kremlin has released a movie about a bloody Russian defeat in the second Chechen war that portrays the battle as a noble sacrifice by brave troops. The 2000 clash was one of the first after President Vladimir Putin, then freshly elected president, ordered troops back into the breakaway republic. Ninety Russian paratroopers without proper equipment or support were ordered to defend a hill against 2,000 Chechen fighters, and all but five of the Russians were massacred. The film, Breakthrough, shows the outnumbered Russians luring the slavering, drug-addled Chechens toward them, and then heroically calling in an air attack. It is part of a general push to boost military morale.
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