President Vladimir Putin on July 20 presented awards to security operatives involved in anti-terrorist operations, including those who carried out the operation to eliminate Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev. The ceremony was held behind closed doors, and the New York Times on July 21 quoted... MORE

Kommersant reported on July 26 that the Russian government’s commission for Chechen reconstruction, headed by Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, was in Grozny on July 25 to examine the Chechen government’s use of federal reconstruction funds. President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Southern... MORE

--KADYROV AND ALKHANOV CALL FOR A THIRD TERM FOR PUTIN The political council of the Chechen branch of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party is going to introduce in Russia’s parliament an initiative to amend the Russian constitution to allow President Vladimir Putin to serve more... MORE

Seven full years into the latest Russian/Chechen war, the death of the leading Chechen warlord, Shamil Basaev, has created new conditions that the Kremlin is eager to exploit. This month’s Moscow-hosted G8 conference made it clear that the Western world has no interest in the... MORE

Federal Security Service Director Nikolai Patrushev put forward an offer of amnesty to Chechnya’s separatist rebels on July 15. “We urge the members of illegal armed groups to ... acknowledge the truth,” Western news agencies quoted Patrushev as saying. “We offer [them] to start talks... MORE

The rebel leadership, for its part, unequivocally rejected the amnesty offer. In a statement posted on the separatist Chechenpress.com, Chechenpress and Daymohk websites on July 19, the administration of the president of the ChRI (Chechen Republic of Ichkeria) said, “The Administration of the President of... MORE

With the plethora of contradictory versions of Shamil Basaev’s death in the press, and with some observers even questioning whether he was really killed (Chechnya Weekly, July 14), separatist Foreign Minister Akhmed Zakaev confirmed the rebel warlord’s death in an interview with Profil-Ukraina published on... MORE

A poll conducted by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), the results of which were released on July 19 and posted on the center’s website, Wciom.ru, found that following Shamil Basaev’s death, 72 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement... MORE

There was contradictory information about a shootout that reportedly took place in the Chechen capital on the afternoon of July 17. The Kavkazky Uzel website reported that a shootout between “representatives of Chechen power structures” in Grozny had killed one person and wounded two, one... MORE

--OSSETIAN MILITANTS ATTACK INGUSH POLICEMEN Two Ingush policemen were seriously wounded when a GIBDD traffic police post near Ingushetia’s administrative border with North Ossetia was shot up, Kavkazky Uzel reported on July 19, citing RIA Novosti. The incident took place on the outskirts of the... MORE