On June 8, The Chechen Committee of the National Salvation (CCNS), a Chechen human rights organization, reported that, according to their information, people in Chechnya are anticipating a serious increase in the number of rebel attacks in the near future. The CCNS stated that people... MORE

Foreign policy generally plays a secondary – perhaps even a tertiary – role in French electoral campaigns. The new head of state is determined by the competition between rival visions of the domestic social program. Thus, it was extremely unexpected to hear presidential candidate Nicholas... MORE

Stavropol prosecutors announced on June 7 that they had detained a suspect in the murder of two ethnic Russian students who were stabbed to death on June 2. The Moscow Times reported on June 8 that the identity of the suspect was not made public... MORE

“Ramzan,” an official youth group along the lines of the pro-Putin youth group "Nashi," has been set up in Chechnya. Kommersant reported on June 9 that the group had held its founding conference at Grozny’s House of Youth, with around 400 people attending. The newspaper... MORE

The federal Prosecutor-General’s Office stated in an item posted on its website on June 13 that there is a growing problem in Chechnya with the republic's law-enforcement officers joining “illegal armed groups” – that is, rebel groups. “The number of illegal armed groups that include... MORE

On June 14, a military court in Rostov-on-Don found Captain Eduard Ulman and three subordinates guilty of the 2002 killing of six civilians, including a woman and a teenager, Reuters reported. Ulman and two other servicemen failed to show up in court but were sentenced... MORE

The second Chechen campaign dramatically altered the attitude of authorities toward those considered radicals. In practice, the local authorities began the total persecution of all who even slightly criticized the actions by the official Muftiyat. No one dared to proselytize Salafi ideas because FSB agents... MORE

The Moscow prosecutor’s office suspended its investigation into the seizure of hostages by Chechen militants at Moscow’s Dubrovka theater in October 2002, Interfax reported on June 1. “We have received a resolution from the investigator for cases of special importance at the Moscow prosecutor's office... MORE

Relatives of missing residents of Chechnya issued an appeal calling on the federal authorities to work out an efficient mechanism for clarifying their fate, Interfax reported on June 1. “In the years that we have spent looking for our sons, we have gone through the... MORE

The Caucasus Times reported on May 31 that two demonstrations had been held in Makhachkala—one to protest abductions of innocent civilians by police, the other to protest the lack of progress in an investigation into the violent dispersal by police of an earlier protest. According... MORE