--SAVELYEV: AS MANY AS 78 GUNMEN CARRIED OUT BESLAN RAID Yuri Savelyev, the State Duma deputy who is conducting an independent investigation into the Beslan school raid, claimed on October 12 that at least 56 and possibly as many as 78 attackers were involved in... MORE

The situation in the republic of Adygeya became very tense at the end of 2004, following several statements by the governor of Krasnodarskii krai and his staff regarding the inevitability of Adygeya's annexation into the krai as part of the current drive to enlarge Russia's... MORE

As was the case with the dozens of other murders of journalists in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, the murder of Anna Politkovskaya on October 7 has been followed by much speculation about the identity of those who ordered the investigative journalist’s... MORE

Regardless of one’s feeling about Chechnya’s prime minister and his human rights record, an argument can be made that it was not in Kadyrov’s interest to kill Anna Politkovskaya—at least not by means of an apparent contract murder carried out by a gunman in broad... MORE

President Vladimir Putin’s first reaction to the murder of Anna Politkovskaya came on October 9, when he was quoted as telling President George W. Bush in a telephone conversation that everything possible would be done to solve the murder. “Putin stressed that the Russian law... MORE

Novaya gazeta, in its October 10 issue, published sections of the unfinished articles that Anna Politkovskaya was working on at the time of her murder, which focused on people who had been jailed and tortured in Chechnya after they were accused of being terrorists. In... MORE

--HOUSE OF POLITKOVSKAYA ASSOCIATE REPORTEDLY SHELLED The Nazran-based Council of Non-Governmental Organizations (SNO) reported on October 10 that Russian troops the previous day had shelled the village of Selmentauzen in Chechnya’s Vedeno district. According to a report posted on the council’s website, Livechechnya.org, two shells... MORE

Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov turned 30, the minimum age under the republic’s constitution for the post of president, on October 5. Kadyrov gave several interviews that covered a wide variety of subjects. Perhaps most significantly, Kadyrov once again insisted in one of the interviews... MORE

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced on October 3 that two guard platoons comprised of soldiers from the Vostok (East) and Zapad (West) battalions of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the General Staff of the Russian Army will guard Russian engineers who have been... MORE

Chechenpress on September 30 published a series of decrees by Chechen rebel leader Dokku Umarov “on the reorganization of the fronts the ChRI VS [Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Armed Forces] and on new appointments of commanders.” The 13 decrees—the texts of which, according to the... MORE