On 12 May 1997 President of Russia Boris Yeltsin and President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov signed a peace treaty that brought to an end what has become known as the First Chechen War. In a report on the anniversary, Caucasian Knot quotes Oleg Orlov of Memorial Human Rights Centre as saying the treaty was at the time "perceived as a kind of positive event, the end of the war, and the possibility for new prospects." However, subsequently "the situation began to develop under a different scenario and all hopes for peace appeared to be unjustified. This is the fault of politicians and society, both in Russia and in Chechnya. The fact is that in Moscow and Chechnya supporters of the 'war party' gathered strength. Revanchist moods among Boris Yeltsin's subordinates began to prevail almost immediately after the treaty had been signed. The treaty with Chechnya was viewed only as a cover to prepare a revenge, for a new war. Members of the 'war party' in Moscow, among other things, supported the extremist forces in Chechnya. [...] Law enforcers, including the FSB and its chief Vladimir Putin quite frankly showed their unwillingness to follow the peaceful development of relations between the two parties to the treaty." Orlov also stated that Russian society "also faced growing opposition to agreements and treaties with Ichkeria. [...]Deputies of the State Duma and members of the Federation Council used the treaty to criticize Boris Yeltsin. A lot of politicians began to develop their PR based on such criticism. Society turned out to be submissive to such a position, stating that 'a great country had been humiliated,' that 'the victory had been stolen,' and so on." Oleg Orlov believes that the consequence of this "was a new war, new destruction, crimes and victims." [translation of comments by Oleg Orlov by Caucasian Knot]

"The Katyn massacre, a series of mass executions of Polish nationals carried out by the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) in April and May 1940, was prompted by NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all captive members of the Polish officer corps, dated 5 March 1940, approved by the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, including its leader, Joseph Stalin. The number of victims is estimated at about 22,000. The victims were executed in the Katyn Forest in Russia, the Kalinin and Kharkiv prisons, and elsewhere. Of the total killed, about 8,000 were officers imprisoned during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, another 6,000 were police officers, with rest Polish intelligentsia that the Soviets deemed to be 'intelligence agents, gendarmes, landowners, saboteurs, factory owners, lawyers, officials, and priests'."

On 27 February 2015 Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on the Moskvoretsky Bridge near the Kremlin in Moscow. 

From the entry in Wikipedia, 'Assassination of Boris Nemtsov': 

"The assassination of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian statesman and politician opposed to the government of Vladimir Putin, happened in central Moscow on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge at 23:31 local time on 27 February 2015. An unknown assailant fired seven or eight shots from a Makarov pistol; four of them hit Boris Nemtsov in the head, heart, liver and stomach, killing him almost instantly. He died hours after appealing to the public to support a march against Russia's war in Ukraine. The assassination was met with widespread international condemnation and concern for the situation of the Russian opposition. Russian authorities also condemned the murder and vowed a thorough investigation. On 8 March 2015, Russian authorities charged Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadaev, both originating from Northern Caucasus, with involvement in the crime. Dadaev confessed to involvement in the murder according to Russian authorities, but, according to Russian media, later retracted his confession. Three more suspects were arrested around the same time and according to Russian media another suspect blew himself up in Grozny when Russian police forces surrounded his apartment block.

On 23 February, 1944, the Chechen and Ingush peoples were deported to Siberia and the northern regions of Kazakhstan by order of Joseph Stalin. The operation, conducted on the spurious grounds that the Chechen and Ingush people had collaborated with the Nazis, was carried out by the NKVD, then headed by Lavrenty Beria. An estimated 500,000 people were deported and the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was abolished. Tens of thousands of Chechens and Ingush died or were killed during deportation and in the first years in exile. Survivors were only allowed to return home in 1957. On 26 February 2004 the European Parliament voted to recognize the deportation as an act of genocide.

Map: Wikipedia


Sources:
'Russia's Ingushetia Commemorates 1944 Deportation Victims,' RFE/RL, 23 February 2017

On 5 February 2000, Russian soldiers summarily executed dozens of civilians in the Chechen village of Aldy. Survivors of the massacre have no hope of finding justice, with the authorities doing everything in their power to whitewash this and other tragedies. [Source: Open Democracy]Photo via Open Democracy: 'A still from documentary ’Aldy: No statute of limitations’ showing Russian journalist Natalya Estemirova before her murder in 2009. Source: YouTube.'