Isn't the Russian Federation theoretically composed of different autonomous republics that before had the right to leave the Federation?(At least by the law, which really doesn't mean much there)
The Russian Federation is theoretically composed of autonomous republics that have virtually no real power. Before Putin changed all that in the early 2000s some of them had constitutions that made them sound like semi-independent countries. Tuva is an example of that. The right to secede was never really in their power though - Yeltsin said "go, you can leave" to the former SSRs like Lithuania and Latvia and Uzbekistan, but the ASSRs within the RSFSR (e.g. Chechen-Ingush ASSR) did not have that right.
didn't yeltsin originally go "well, you can leave" and then chechens started to fuck around conducting terrorism against russians because fuck you soviet union even though you're a russia now and then the entire fuckstorm began
If Yeltsin said "you can leave", he certainly didn't follow through on that; all they did was isolate Chechnya internationally and refused to recognise their independence. The Chechen government, due to lack of international support, could not adequately police the nation and disarm the various rebel groups and warlords that now ruled the country (see Libya for modern-day reference) and the most hardline warlords formed a paramilitary group and actually invaded Dagestan in an attempt to "liberate it" from its status as a Russian colony. The invasion was put down and Russia used it as an excuse to invade Chechnya. Then came the apartment bombings which no Chechen group claimed responsibility for (even the worst of them condemned it) and that only strengthened the resolve of Russia to crush the Chechens and also the international community distanced themselves even further from them.
By 2010 every single decent and moderate leader the Chechens had had been surgically killed in either Spetsnaz assaults or missile strikes, including President Aslan Maskhadov whose death is a tragedy for the world. The only guys left are the nutjobs fighting there now; the last one was Doku Umarov, formerly President-in-exile or whatever of the Chechen Republic of Ingushetia who declared himself Emir of a new Islamic Emirate in the Caucasus. Russia only killed him after the Olympics in Sochi were over and he was no longer useful.
The only moderate leader left is also the only former field commander still alive from the First Chechen War; Akhmed Zakayev, Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, currently in exile in England and under 24/7 protection from MI5 due to Russian attempts to assassinate him.