Kavkazcenter reported on March 10 that some 100 members of the pro-Moscow Chechen police force loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov had defected to the rebels in early March. Citing unnamed sources in Chechnya, the separatist website reported that most of the police officers who, along with... MORE

Kavkazky Uzel reported on March 14 that the widow of Rustam Nafedsev, one of the rebels killed in the attack on Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, last October 13, had filed suit in the Nalchik District Court against the republic’s Pension Fund for refusing to grant her social... MORE

--BABITSKY DETAINED Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky was questioned for six hours by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office in connection with his interview last year with Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev (see Chechnya Weekly, August 3, 2005), as well as his relation with “leaders of... MORE

Ramzan Kadyrov, the newly appointed prime minister of the pro-Moscow Chechen government, is continuing to introduce Islamic ethics to government practices (see Chechnya Weekly, March 6). After criticizing the local media for broadcasting “immoral programs” and implementing censorship, Kadyrov has now declared that lessons in... MORE

Chechnya’s parliament unanimously confirmed Ramzan Kadyrov as the republic’s prime minister on March 4, two days after Chechen President Alu Alkhanov nominated him to replace Sergei Abramov, who resigned in late February. Kadyrov had been serving as acting prime minister since Abramov was in a... MORE

March 8 also marked the first anniversary of the killing of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, which was the subject of commentary in both the Russian media and on separatist websites. In a statement posted March 8 on the separatist Chechenpress news agency’s website, separatist... MORE

Following the condemnation by Movladi Udugov, the Chechen separatist official from the movement’s radical wing, of Hamas’ decision to accept President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to visit Moscow, Akhmed Zakaev, who represents the separatist movement’s moderate wing, also weighed in on the issue. Udugov, who heads... MORE

--FEDERAL SERVICEMEN KILLED IN REBEL ATTACKS Agence France-Presse, citing a source inside Chechnya’s pro-Moscow administration, reported that one Russian serviceman and two Chechen policemen were killed on March 2 in 11 rebel attacks carried out across Chechnya that day. The Russian serviceman was killed and... MORE

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said on March 1 that he had accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Sergei Abramov and would name his successor later in the week, the Associated Press reported. Alkhanov first announced Abramov's resignation in a Moscow press conference on February 28,... MORE

Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles said on February 25 following a meeting with Chechen President Alu Alkhanov in Grozny that the war in Chechnya has ended and the human rights situation in the republic has improved, RIA Novosti reported. "Whereas in 1999... MORE