-- GUARDS REMOVED AT DISPLACED PERSONS' CAMPS Kavkazky Uzel reported on July 5 that guards had been removed from around temporary settlements for displaced people in Chechnya because of a lack of funds. Residents of the settlements are concerned about this. "We had serious problems... MORE

--FORMER BESLAN HOSTAGE SAYS THERE WERE 70+ TERRORISTS A former Beslan hostage testified at the trial of Nur-Pashi Kulaev, the sole participant in the Beslan school seizure to be apprehended by the authorities, that the number of terrorists involved was more than twice the official... MORE

--POLL SHOWS BROAD SUPPORT FOR NEGOTIATIONS A poll taken in June by the independent Levada Center found that only 23 of the respondents said they believe that a "peaceful life" is being restored in Chechnya while 68 percent believe that war is continuing there. Only... MORE

--NEARLY A HALF MILLION ARE UNEMPLOYED Kavkazky Uzel on July 26 quoted a source in Chechnya's Ministry of Labor and Social Development as saying that the overwhelming majority of Chechnya's workforce does not have regular work and that the number of unemployed continues to grow.... MORE

--MORE VIOLENCE IN DAGESTAN Dagestan's Interior Ministry reported on July 28 that three militants were killed and two police officers wounded during a raid on an apartment in Makhachkala, Itar-Tass reported. The news agency reported that grenade explosions and sub-machinegun fire could be heard at... MORE

--A STREET NAMED KADYROV Main streets in Chechnya's towns and villages will be renamed after the late Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov to celebrate his birthday on August 23, Russian news agencies reported on August 8. Interfax quoted Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Belkhis Baydaeva as saying... MORE

--NAZRAN POLICE CHIEF WOUNDED Nazran police chief Dzhabrail Kastoev and his driver were seriously wounded in a bombing on August 15. According to the Regnum news agency, an explosive device had been planted near the central city mosque in Nazran and was detonated as Kastoev's... MORE

--PUTIN DEFENDS HIS CHECHNYA POLICY President Putin rejected criticism over Chechnya during a meeting in the Kremlin with foreign political scientists and analysts on September 5. "We are coming under fire for our policy in Chechnya," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying. "Of course, we... MORE

--RUSSIA WANTS U.N. SANCTIONS AGAINST EXILED CHECHEN REBELS Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin told Interfax on September 9 that Russia views the UN Security Council's anti-terrorist list as incomplete and wants Chechen extremists who have committed crimes against Russian citizens to be added. "Unfortunately,... MORE

--TREPASHKIN BACK IN JAIL Mikhail Trepashkin, the former Federal Security Service officer who investigated the alleged role of the FSB in the 1999 apartment building bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities and was jailed in October 2003 on charges of revealing state secrets, was... MORE