Aleksandr Torshin, a Federation Council senator who is also a member of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK), said on September 6 that 224 people had surrendered since July 15, when Federal Security Service (FSB) Chairman Nikolai Patrushev, who also heads the NAK, announced an amnesty... MORE

On September 5, the separatist Chechenpress website posted a statement by Dokku Umarov, president of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), marking the 15th anniversary of the republic’s declaration of independence. In his statement, the rebel leader vowed that the fight for independence would... MORE

Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 6 that in a poll carried out among residents of North Ossetia by the Caucasus Times information agency on the eve of the second anniversary of the Beslan tragedy, 88 percent of the respondents indicated they were unhappy with the... MORE

--RELATIVES OF DISAPPEARED GATHER IN GROZNY Kavkazky Uzel reported on August 30 that more than 200 mothers and other relatives of disappeared people gathered in central Grozny. According to the website, the demonstrators held photographs of relatives who had disappeared or were being held against... MORE

Moscow is attempting to once more tightly control the spread of Islamic ideology in the problematic region of the North Caucasus. Events in Chechnya and the spread of armed conflict across the whole area confront the Russian government with the same problems that were present... MORE

Many observers have been predicting that Ramzan Kadyrov will assume the Chechen Republic’s presidency soon, after he reaches the constitutionally-mandated minimum age of 30 on October 5. On August 10, for example, Kommersant quoted Frants Klintsevich, deputy chairman of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party’s faction... MORE

According to some observers, the strains and splits inside Chechnya’s pro-Moscow administration raise doubts not only about whether Ramzan Kadyrov will assume the republic’s presidency, but about whether he will remain on the political scene in any capacity. In an interview with Radio Liberty’s Chechen-language... MORE

The Caucasus Times reported on August 16 that two Russian air force aircraft had carried out a missile and bomb strike on a forest area in Chechnya’s Nozhai-Yurt district that morning. The website quoted a source in the district’s Interior Ministry directorate as saying that... MORE

--CHECHEN RIGHTS LAWYER BEATEN UP Usam Baisaev of Memorial told Ekho Moskvy on August 16 that a Chechen police officer had beaten up a lawyer, Dzhabrail Abubakarov, who had been hired by the human rights group to provide legal assistance to Chechen citizens complaining about... MORE

“Just think about it for a minute: If you’re sitting in the forest with a machine gun and have two-dozen relatives of a police colonel you wasted looking to avenge his blood, and your own desire for revenge against two dozen relatives of the cop... MORE