On January 10, the day after it published its interview with Shamil Basaev, Kavkazcenter posted an interview with the man who it said led the October 13 raid in Nalchik—Anzor Astemirov (a.k.a. Emir Seifulla) head of the Kabardino-Balkarian sector of the Caucasian Front. Echoing Basaev,... MORE

Kavkazky Uzel reported that relatives of rebels killed during the October 13 operation in Nalchik had expressed indignation over the Kavkazcenter interviews with rebel leaders Shamil Basaev and Anzor Astemirov. "A young woman calling herself Fatima, whose husband died in the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria and... MORE

Kavkazky Uzel reported on January 10 that Aleksandra Zakharova, the London-based lawyer for Rasul Kudaev, the former detainee at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo, Cuba, who was later detained by Russian authorities for allegedly participating in the October 13 rebel raid on Nalchik, had... MORE

The separatist Chechenpress news agency's website posted a statement on January 11 from the Sharia Jamaat, the armed Dagestani Islamic militant group. In it, the group claimed that its "Dzhundulla" sub-unit had killed three members of an Interior Ministry unit in the village of Novolakskoe... MORE

Testifying on January 12 at the trial of Nurpashi Kulaev, the sole Beslan hostage-taker to be put on trial, former North Ossetian President Aleksandr Dzasokhov told the republic's Supreme Court that during the hostage crisis he tried to contact Aslan Maskhadov through his emissary, Akhmed... MORE

--KADYROV OFFERS SACRIFICES Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, who is currently serving as the republic's acting prime minister, marked the Muslim festival of Id al-Adha by sacrificing six camels and more than 300 sheep in his native village of Tsentoroi. Radio Mayak reported on... MORE

The year 2006 in the North Caucasus has started with a new fierce battle in Dagestan's mountains. On January 2, a special police unit that was combing a gorge between the villages of Gimri and Shamil-Khala ran into an ambush and had to retreat. Additional... MORE

At daybreak on January 5 federal forces began a third day of attacks on what was thought to be a group of eight militants blockaded in a wooded gorge located near the villages of Gimry and Shamilkala in Dagestan's Untsukulsky district, newsru.com reported. Dagestani Interior... MORE

Citing the Swiss newspaper Schaffhauser Nachrichten, Kavkazky Uzel reported on December 30 that around 200 complaints from Chechens concerning crimes committed by Russian troops, including torture, kidnapping, extra-judicial arrests and murders, have been filed with the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg. According to... MORE

Testifying in the trial of Nurpashi Kulayev, officially the only surviving terrorist involved in the Beslan school seizure, Izrail Totoonti, secretary for the North Ossetian parliament's vice-speaker, told the North Ossetian Supreme Court on December 22 that Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov was ready to... MORE