The roots of the current conflict go back to 1991, when Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev declared the area's independence. Russian troops invaded to oust Dudayev in December 1994, setting off 20-month war that killed up to 30,000, including Dudayev. Afterward, Chechnya was de facto independent and plunged into lawlessness. Fighting resumed in 1999, when Russian troops reinvaded following raids by Chechen rebels into neighboring region and bombings that killed some 300 at apartment buildings in Russian cities. Russian leaders blamed bombings on Chechens. Akhmad Kadyrov, a former separatist, was elected president in October 2003 in an election that was widely criticized. He was killed at age 52 in a bomb blast at a Victory Day parade in the heart of Grozny on May 9, 2004.