It was April 2000. Together with several colleagues I stood in the middle of Grozny. This was the second of nine visits I was to make to the Chechen Republic in the years 2000–3; the first had been in January, when the fighting made access to the capital impossible. Our group fell totally silent. In all directions the devastation of the city was terrible and total. Of those buildings still standing most would have to be demolished before effective reconstruction could begin. The streets through the rubble were deserted except for the Russian military and a handful of courageous citizens, mainly women, struggling to survive in the ruins of their homes. And this was at the beginning of the new millennium in a member state of the Council of Europe with all its commitment to peace, human rights and accountable democratic government. It would have been easy to despair.

By contrast, four years later, in July 2004, I was at Covent Garden in London. The stage of the Linbury Studio Theatre had been taken by storm by a group of incredible youth dancers from Grozny, who had travelled across Europe by bus. The audience was gripped. Their skill, style, vigour, vitality and enthusiasm were exhilarating. Not for the first or last time, I reflected on the extraordinary resilience and spirit of the oppressed. Back at home their conditions were still grim. The humanitarian situation remained bad and the economy was in tatters.