Police officers in Dagestan's Levashi district on November 10 discovered five large explosive devices in a house in the village of Okhli. Citing the press office of the local Interior Ministry department, the Regnum news agency reported that the devices were found in the house... MORE

--FSB OFFICER ASSASSINATED IN INGUSHETIA An FSB officer, Adam Gorzhkhanov, was shot to death on November 4 as he was driving on the Nazran-Karabulak highway in Ingushetia. Ingushetiya.ru reported that Gorzhkhanov's car was fired on with automatic weapons from another vehicle that had overtaken it.... MORE

Ever since the September 11 attacks, the Kremlin leadership has been going out of its way to cast Russia as a frontline state that, in its North Caucasus region, valiantly defends Europe and the world from the lethal threat of global terror. Yet most international... MORE

During a televised joint press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in The Hague on November 2, President Vladimir Putin likened Russia's problems in Chechnya to attacks by Islamic militants in Europe, such as the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by... MORE

Kavkazcenter, citing Russian non-governmental human rights organizations, reported on November 2 that 116 people had been kidnapped in Chechnya over the previous month. Among those abducted, the Chechen separatist website claimed, were ten women, three police officers, two children aged seven and twelve, five teenagers... MORE

Police in Moscow briefly detained a group of protesters picketing the Prosecutor General's Office building in central Moscow on October 27. Among those detained was Ella Kesaeva, a former co-Chairwoman of the Beslan Mothers' Committee who heads the Voice of Beslan, which, as Kommersant reported... MORE

A man who was detained by Kabardino-Balkaria's anti-organized crime directorate (UBOP) on suspicion that he participated in the October 13 raid on police stations and other targets in Nalchik described to Kavkazky Uzel how he was tortured while in custody. "I was detained on the... MORE

Interfax reported on October 31 that when President Putin was asked during an interview with the Netherlands' Nederland 1 television and NRC Handlesblatt newspaper why Russian troops cannot find Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev, he responded: "Why hasn't [Osama] bin Laden been found yet? [He has... MORE

--FEDERAL TROOPS KILLED IN CHECHNYA An improvised explosive device killed an Interior Ministry serviceman who was on patrol in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district, a Chechen law enforcement source told Interfax on November 3. The source also reported that a rebel fighter had been captured in a... MORE

The official parliamentary election campaign started in Chechnya on October 29. On November 27, 18 deputies of the Council of the Republic and 40 deputies of the People's Assembly will be elected. These elections are important for the Russian authorities. The Kremlin wants to demonstrate... MORE