Another source of controversy last week was the Russian Defense Ministry's official statistics for the number of servicemen killed in Chechnya. RIA Novosti reported on August 10 that according to statistics posted on the ministry's website, 3,549 servicemen had been killed since 1999 while serving... MORE

Chechen rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, who is president of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), issued three decrees, which were published by the Kavkazcenter and Chechenpress websites on August 14. Decree No. 13 named Idris Khasanov head of the ChRI presidential administration and gave... MORE

A 12-year-old boy and a woman were killed and at least 11 other people wounded in Grozny on August 15 when a powerful car bomb detonated just feet from the entrance of Hollywood, a popular restaurant located near a heavily fortified compound of government buildings,... MORE

--NAZRAN POLICE CHIEF WOUNDED Nazran police chief Dzhabrail Kastoev and his driver were seriously wounded in a bombing on August 15. According to the Regnum news agency, an explosive device had been planted near the central city mosque in Nazran and was detonated as Kastoev's... MORE

The security situation in Chechnya continues to deteriorate. Last week rebels attacked two villagers in the south of the republic, killing two senior Russian officers. Days earlier, separatists continued to expand the war beyond the Republic's borders, with rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev meeting with field... MORE

The Council of Muftis of the Chechen Republic on August 4 officially declared a jihad against "Wahhabism." Interfax quoted Chechen Mufti Sultan Mirzaev as telling journalists that the decision had been announced during a meeting between representatives of the clergy and law-enforcement agencies in the... MORE

The Chechen Muslim clerics' declaration of an anti-Wahhabi jihad was by no means welcomed unanimously by their fellow Russian Muslim leaders. Gazeta on August 5 quoted Shaykh Nafigulla Ashirov, supreme mufti of the Asian part of Russia, as saying that given the lack of a... MORE

Ingushetia, meanwhile, might follow its neighbor in banning gambling. Moskovsky komsomolets on August 10 quoted Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov as saying he had received a request from the republic's clergy and social organizations to close down gaming establishments. "If things go much further, there will... MORE

Chechen authorities tightened security around the republic on August 6, the ninth anniversary of the seizure of Grozny by rebel forces, Russian news agencies reported. Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov had the previous day dismissed concerns about possible rebel attack on the capital... MORE

In a series of three articles about the June zachistka in the Chechen village of Borozdinovskaya, Moskovsky komsomlets correspondent Vadim Rechkalov confirmed earlier reports that the early June operation – in which homes were burned, at least one resident killed and eleven abducted – was... MORE