The battle for control of Chechnya has been going on for over 150 years, as it’s swung between independence and Russian control, but it was the wars in the past two decades that forced thousands of refugees to flee to countries like Austria.
Chechnya declared independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, with armed groups gaining an increasing hold.
Russian troops invaded in December 1994 to quash the independence movement, starting a bloody 20 month war that saw up to 100,000 people killed and the capital Grozny in ruins.
A 1996 ceasefire gave Chechnya some autonomy, but not complete independence, and by 1999 Chechen fighters were once again rising in defiance.
Vladimir Putin, who was by now Russian Prime Minister, sent in troops once again. They captured Grozny in 2000, but the city was badly damaged for a second time.
The smoking ruins of Chechnya's Presidential Palace in Grozny in January 1995.
The wars left 160,000 dead and Chechen refugees spread across the world, including around 25,000 Chechens now in Austria, whose story is featured on this week's Dateline.
The deaths in the two wars included much of the male population, leaving the youngest generation without fathers.
Chechnya may have been under Russian control since 2000, but sporadic violence has continued.
Chechen refugees queue for humanitarian aid in freezing conditions in November 1999.
As recently as December, fighting between heavily-armed Islamists and police in the centre of the capital Grozny left 19 dead and many injured.
President Putin vowed in the same month that he would bring an end to violence in the region.
But much has also been made of Grozny’s regeneration with the Akhmad Haji Kadyrov Central Mosque, named after Chechnya's first Moscow-backed president, the centrepiece of a rebuilt city centre.
The Akhmad Kadyrov Mosque is a prominent part of the rebuilding of Grozny in recent years.
