On August 7, Mikhail Sturshe, a Finnish human rights activist and a supporter of Chechen independence, told Kavkaz-Center that a Chechen vocal group, Zhovkhar, which means “pearl” in Chechen, had sought political asylum in Finland. The report posted on the rebel website said the reason... MORE

On July 5, the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, voted in favor of letting Gazprom and Transneft, the two state-owned companies that control natural gas and oil pipelines in the country, create private paramilitary groups to protect the pipelines. The law... MORE

Chechen government officials told representatives of more than 20 non-governmental organizations on August 2 that they had two weeks to move their regional headquarters to Grozny. According to Reuters, nearly 30 NGOs – among them international charities such as Medecins Sans Frontieres and World Vision... MORE

On August 6, a policeman was killed in the Ingush city of Malgobek. According to Gazeta.ru, an unknown assailant shot Alikhan Albakov twice in the head after he parked his car in his garage and was heading toward his apartment. Meanwhile, a resident of the... MORE

RIA Novosti reported on August 4 that units of the Dagestani Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) special-purpose troops came across a criminal group in the Dagestani village of Kadyrkent on August 2, and killed four militants in a shoot-out. An officer of... MORE

It has become fairly common for the Nogai jamaat to be overlooked, even by the leaders of the Caucasus resistance movement. It is never listed as one of the “fronts” or “sectors” of the resistance, making some believe that the Nogai battalion is finished forever.... MORE

On July 21, the rebel Kavkaz-Center website posted a new decree of Dokka Umarov, the leader of the Chechen and North Caucasian rebels and the president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. According to the decree, Akhmed Yevloev, a.k.a. Magas, became the top military commander... MORE

In covering the guerilla war in Chechnya, few journalists have tried to analyze the tactics of the rebels. Generally, the journalists who observe the situation in Chechnya simply indicate that the attacks are increasing or decreasing without saying anything about the possible military goals of... MORE

- Dagestan’s Deputy Mufti Murdered Dagestan’s deputy mufti Kuramagomed-hajji Ramzanov and his brother were killed in the capital of Makhachkala on July 27 when the Toyota car in which they were traveling exploded, apparently the result of a bomb. The armed Islamist group operating in... MORE

An interview given Tanya Lokshina, head of the Demos human rights center, to Kavkazky Uzel, calls into question a number of the assumptions held by observers from various camps regarding the actual situation in Chechnya. In the interview, which the website posted on July 26,... MORE