News agencies reported on April 26 that one man was killed and four civilians and 12 policemen injured when police clashed with protesters in Dagestan’s Dokuzparinsky district. “One of demonstrators, 34-year-old Makhachkala resident Murad Lagmetov, got a lethal bullet wound, another four civilians got bullet... MORE

“Chechens who live in Moscow are less afraid of the skinheads than they are afraid of [Ramzan] Kadyrov when they disagree with him. I have said this many times. In Moscow, we live in 2006, but the Caucasus simply lives in 1937. The only difference... MORE

Despite the claims made by high-ranking Russian military and local authorities, the Chechen resistance has not yet been broken. With the arrival of spring, Chechen fighters have again stepped up their activity. The start of the spring-summer period was marked by new armed clashes in... MORE

The Financial Times reported on April 19 that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak had lodged a formal protest with the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, William Burns, the previous day over The Jamestown Foundation-sponsored conference held in Washington on April 14 entitled “Sadullaev’s Caucasian Front:... MORE

The Civil Support Committee released information on April 19 concerning new abductions in Chechnya. According to Kavkazky Uzel, the committee reported that on April 18 in the Nozhai-Yurt district settlement of Sayasan, fighters from a unit called “Groza” (the unit’s affiliation was not identified) abducted... MORE

During a meeting of the Chechen branch of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party held in Gudermes on April 15, Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov accused members of the operational investigation bureau (ORB-2) of the federal Interior Ministry’s Main Administration for the Southern Federal District stationed... MORE

In a videotaped message posted on the separatist Daymohk, Kavkazcenter and Chechenpress websites on April 19, Shamil Basaev declared: “Today, by the grace of Allah, our jihad intensively continues!” The tape was apparently several months old: on it, Basaev said that the date is February... MORE

--KADYROV WANTS TEMPORARY SHELTERS CLOSED DOWN Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov has called for all the temporary accommodation centers in Chechnya to be closed down as soon as possible, claiming that they are “breeding grounds” for crime, drug use and prostitution. Ekho Moskvy radio on... MORE

The constant stream of “small bad news” from Chechnya and the North Caucasus creates the impression of a stagnant local war and a region-wide condition of “stable instability,” with smoldering tensions only occasionally bursting into open hostilities—as in Nalchik in October 2005. This impression underpins... MORE

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said on April 10 that 14 people have been abducted since the beginning of the year, Interfax reported. “Unfortunately, the problem of kidnappings has not been fully resolved but the rate of registered abductions has shrunk,” Alkhanov said at a meeting... MORE