In a statement posted on the separatist Kavkaz-Center website on February 23, the 63rd anniversary of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people in 1944, Chechen rebel leader Dokku Umarov, who is president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) and... MORE

- RAMZAN PROPOSES TO MRS. KENYA The Daily Telegraph reported on February 28 that during a visit to Chechnya by participants in the 2007 Mrs. World pageant, Chechnya’s acting president, Ramzan Kadyrov, offered Caroline Varkaik, Kenya’s contender in the contest, the opportunity to become one... MORE

“It’s a beautiful girl who should be praised – for her beauty and her figure. As for fear, if you’re a leader, people should fear you. Why? They should not be afraid of being beaten, but they should fear letting down the people who have... MORE

Early in the morning of February 24, Russian Special Forces supported by military troops started to move slowly around the village of Pervy Kizlyarsky, a settlement located in the Kizlyar District of Dagestan. According to the NTV television channel, armored personnel carriers and mobile military... MORE

In an official statement posted February 16 on the Chechen Republic’s president and government website (Chechnya.gov.ru), Ramzan Kadyrov said his appointment as the republic’s acting president the previous day was a “huge responsibility before God and the Chechen people.” “As before, huge tasks in restoring... MORE

The reaction of Akhmed Zakaev, the London-based foreign minister of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), to Ramzan Kadyrov’s accession as acting president of the pro-Moscow Chechen Republic raised some eyebrows. Referring to the fact that Kadyrov had fought on the separatist side during... MORE

A number of Russian observers suggested that Kadyrov’s long-predicted accession to the Chechen presidency would eventually turn into a Pyrrhic victory for the Kremlin’s “Chechenization” policy. Novaya gazeta military correspondent Vyacheslav Izmailov, a retired army major who had arranged for the release of dozens of... MORE

Newsru.com reported on February 21 that a poll conducted in February by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) found that 56 percent of the Russian public believes that the situation in Chechnya has improved lately, while 33 percent believe it has... MORE

On February 21, Newsru.com reported that the representatives of leading Russian human rights groups will boycott the human rights conference organized by the Chechen government that is scheduled to take place in Grozny on March 1. “We consider it impossible to participate in the work... MORE

- BUDANOV DENIED PAROLE Andrei Koshkin, the head of the Volga River region Penitentiary Department, said at a news conference on February 20 that a court in the town of Dmitrovgrad had denied a parole request from Yuri Budanov, the Russian colonel who is serving... MORE