Today in Chechnya, the city of Grozny – formerly the home of almost half a million people - lies inruins: utterly devastated. The fate of Grozny thus stands as a testament to the brutal and terrible cost ofmodern urban warfare. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, separatist ambitions previouslyrepressed in the overwhelmingly Muslim republic once again bubbled to the surface to provide the greatestcrisis faced by the Russian Federation since that fateful (some would say disastrous) moment.