I still struggle to understand the reasoning behind the Russian tactics in The First Battle of Grozny. They were being ambushed all the way to the city by guerilla fighters (in methods reminiscint of the Finish attacks on Soviet columns in the northern theater of the Winter War). Once they got into the city itself did they really expect the guerillas to not take advantage of the buildings to attack them? It's not like the Russians had a lack of experience in urban fighting.

The only 3 reasons I could possibly think of as to why the Russians decided to not deploy their infantry as a supporting arm of the armor are (1) Russian arrogance in believing the Chechens would just surrender the moment the Russian armor rolled into the city, (2) extremely poor training standards for troops as a result of the collapse of the USSR, or (3) poor doctrinal decisions either started by the Russian Federation or carried over from the USSR.

Is there something fundamentally wrong about my understanding of what happened in Grozny? Did the Soviets really fight in the city without having their infantry dismount their BMPs (at least in the opening stages of the battle)? Or was it a failure of situational awareness or command and control?