Downtown Grozny, April 2001. Since the death of her child Zelina often stares at something far away, elusive. She says she is already dead herself, if only time would hurry up.

IRAQ 2004, ONE YEAR AFTER ROAD SIDE EXPLOSION, NORTHERN IRAQ Stanley Greene / NOOR

Grozny. January 1995. Food and water supplies stopped within days of the assault. Men and women searched for sustenance among exploding shells. Gaining control of Grozny did not take the Russians hours, but weeks. The Chechens were difficult to beat because they did not engage in conventional warfare. During the siege the bulk of the rebels were training south of the city; General Maskhadov knew that a large, poorly armed force could have been ring-fenced and trapped with relative ease. Most importantly, previous city surveyors and town planners were now fighters, giving the Chechen command intimate knowledge of the hidden arteries and conduits of the city?s gas and water systems. Day and night they infiltrated Russian lines with hundreds of three-man hit teams popping out of nowhere, typically two riflemen protecting a fighter with anti-tank rockets. Countless Russian armoured personnel carriers were destroyed at intersections and strategic points with huge casualties.

Prospekt Pobedy, Grozny. November 1995. Rebels were hanged here from telephone wires by the Russian infantry. "Welcome to Hell. You?re lost now. You will die a slow and painful death. We will teach you to respect Russian officers." -Spoken by a Russian soldier.

Ingushetia, June 2000. Sleptovsk-Sputnik refugee camp.

Narcotics division police officers in New Orleans felt that the lower 9th ward was a hotbed of crime, gambling, racketeering, graft, shootings, pimps, drugs and prostitution. New Orleans, Louisiana, 2006.

Putin's Russia - The Darkness of Russia 1996 Moscow, Russia On Staary Arbat street. A popular fashion to ride horses in Moscow.

November 1989 "Kisses to all, the Berlin Wall"

Putin's Russia - The Darkness of Russia 2001 St Petersburg, Russia Cadets from St Petersburg military school are former juvenile delinquents, street children, orphans and sons of Russian military men killed in action. These children seen here laughing are happy and hoping for a better future. A better future for them means a better future for Russia. Most attendees have gone on to chose military careers. -Vladimir Volkov Newsweek, Moscow bureau

Putin's Russia - The Darkness of Russia 2002 Sakhalin, Russia A typical Banya in Sakhalin, Russia. A popular tradition in the Russian culture is the bathhouse or banya. It involves steam, high heat, cold, and an invigorating beating with birch leaves and branches.

France, Paris, 1990s Rue Bleu Stanley Greene / NOOR

Coffee and cigarettes with my friend, the photographer, Colette Valli, in 1979 in North Beach. Stanley Greene © Noorimages