Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Nikolai Patrushev accused "some countries" of a policy of "double standards" in the fight against international terrorism, and took the United States specifically to task over the fact that a Chechen rebel "ideologist," whom he called "Vychigaev," had been in... MORE

--INGUSH LAW-ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL ATTACKED Unknown gunmen men in Nazran shot up a car carrying a group of Nazran border guards on June 7, RIA-Novosti reported. A law-enforcement source told the news agency that one of the servicemen was seriously wounded. The attackers escaped in a... MORE

Early this year Chechen separatists began to discuss holding a major meeting among North Caucasian rebel commanders and underground Muslim religious leaders to transform the Caucasian insurgency into a unified political force. In an interview posted on the Kavkazcenter website on January 9, Chechen warlord... MORE

The separatist Chechenpress and Kavkazcenter websites on May 30 quoted a source in the Military Committee of the GKO [State Defense Committee] Majlis-ul-Shura as saying that “the first vice premier of the ChRI [Chechen Republic of Ichkeria] government, military emir of the mujahideen Abdallakh Shamil... MORE

In an interview with Komsomolskaya pravda published on May 30, Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said it was necessary to mount a large-scale campaign to drive militants out of the republics neighboring Chechnya. Asked whether it was Shamil Basaev’s dream “to set the whole North... MORE

The separatist Chechenpress news agency on May 27 published several decrees issued by rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, one of which named London-based rebel emissary Akhmed Zakaev as the rebel government’s minister of foreign affairs. Zakaev replaces Usman Ferzauli, who will now serve as Zakaev’s deputy.... MORE

A Chechen government delegation headed by Chechen President Alu Alkhanov and including the speaker of the lower house of Chechnya’s parliament, Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, was set to take part in a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) roundtable meeting in Strasbourg, France, on June... MORE

The separatist Chechenpress news agency on May 29 published an appeal by the chairman of the board of the Society of Concentration (Filtration) Camp Prisoners in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Vakha Banzhaev, which claimed that over the last 12 years more than 250,000 Chechens... MORE

--ALKHANOV DENOUNCES “CLAN-BASED POLITICS” In his first “state of the nation” address to the Chechen people and parliament on May 29, President Alu Alkhanov said that the North Caucasus needs to modernize its political system, Itar-Tass reported. “Not only the Chechen Republic but also other... MORE

During the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a ready market developed for the seizure and sale of foreign individuals to U.S. forces as suspected Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters. Typically these captives were transferred to the special U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo... MORE