2001 Photo Contest, General News, 1st prize
Photographer

Vladimir Velengurin

Komsomolskaya Pravda

01 January, 2000

January-February. A Russian soldier stands guard over Chechen men arrested in Grozny for not carrying ID documents. Russian troops round up suspected rebels. The Russian campaign against the breakaway republic had been renewed in the autumn of 1999, and early in the new year the capital Grozny was taken. The Russians began clean-up operations known as 'zachistka'. Suspects, especially men without documents or with marks of fighting on their bodies, were arrested and taken to 'filtration camps' outside the towns. Here it was decided whether or not they belonged to rebel forces.

About the photographer

Vladimir Velengurin

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