--RAMZAN SAYS HE KNOWS WHO KILLED HIS FATHER Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov claimed on April 27 that the identities of both those who ordered and those who carried out the bombing which killed his father, the late Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, last... MORE

--SERVICEMEN GO ON TRIAL AGAIN FOR WAR CRIMES On May 3, the North Caucasus District Military Court began hearing the case of two Interior Ministry internal troops officers accused murdering Chechen civilians. Rossiiskaya gazeta reported on May 4 that Yevgeny Khudyakov and Sergei Arakcheyev were... MORE

--DAGESTAN VIOLENCE UNABATED A bomb apparently detonated by remote control blew up a police car in central Makhachkala on May 10, killing one police officer in the car and wounding a boy and a girl who were walking by, the Associated Press reported, quoting a... MORE

--SOLDIERS MOTHERS: 2,000 SERVICEMEN MISSING Valentina Melnikova, head of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees, believes that 2,000 of the Russian soldiers sent to Chechnya during the two wars remain unaccounted for, Novye izvestia reported on May 17. According the newspaper, the Russian government puts... MORE

--THE FIGHTING IN CHECHNYA GOES ON… Russian troops killed two rebel fighters guarding a rebel base in Chechnya's Vedeno district, Radio Liberty's Russian-language service reported on May 24. In Grozny that same day, police discovered and defused a large explosive device on the grounds of... MORE

--PUTIN CONCERNED ABOUT CAUCASUS EXODUS President Vladimir Putin expressed concern over the exodus of the Russian-speaking population from the North Caucasus during a May 25 meeting of Cossack leaders in Rostov Oblast. "As for the exodus of the Russian population from the North Caucasus, it... MORE

--IVANOV DEFENDS ULMAN VERDICT On June 6, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov defended last month's acquittal by a Rostov jury of GRU Captain Eduard Ulman and three subordinates on charges of murdering six Chechen civilians in January 2002. Ivanov also attacked Russia's chief military prosecutor, Colonel-General... MORE

--GANTAMIROV VERSUS THE CHECHEN GOVERNMENT On June 13, Chechnya's State Council and government sent a complaint to the Kremlin accusing former Chechen vice-premier Bislan Gantamirov of "trying to discredit the lawful authorities of the republic, and also the policy of the federal center." Kommersant reported... MORE

--KADYROV GETS ANOTHER MEDAL Chechen President Alu Alkhanov signed a decree conferring Chechnya's top award, the Order of Akhmad Kadyrov, on Ramzan Kadyrov, the late Chechen president's son and Chechnya's first deputy prime minister, Itar-Tass reported on June 18. The order, which is decorated with... MORE

--REBELS AND FEDS EXCHANGE FIRE Citing the Chechen Interior Ministry, Interfax on June 26 reported that rebels had attacked policemen across the republic. According to the news agency, armed men broke into the home of police officer Aslanbek Asuev in Shatoi district village of Yukerch-Keloi,... MORE