A mass brawl took place on August 6 in the village of Novoselskoe in Dagestan's Khasavyurt district between a group of young people from the village and another group of young people from the nearby village of Moksob. According to various reports, anywhere from six... MORE

--A STREET NAMED KADYROV Main streets in Chechnya's towns and villages will be renamed after the late Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov to celebrate his birthday on August 23, Russian news agencies reported on August 8. Interfax quoted Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Belkhis Baydaeva as saying... MORE

The airing by ABC News' "Nightline" of excerpts of journalist Andrei Babitsky's interview with Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev caused an uproar in Russia that has yet to subside. In the excerpts, which "Nightline" broadcast on July 28, Basaev refused to take responsibility for the... MORE

Both Andrei Babitsky's interview with Basaev and the fact that a leading American television network broadcast excerpts of it were widely denounced in Russia and elsewhere. Perhaps the most powerful denunciation came from Sussana Dudieva, head of the Committee of Beslan Mothers and the mother... MORE

Gazeta.ru ran a commentary on July 29 stating that the Russian authorities and Basaev find each other useful. "On the one hand, granting air time to the gangster Basaev – and he is undoubtedly a gangster, whatever your different semantic experiences in this area might... MORE

The trial before North Ossetia's Supreme Court of Nur-Pashi Kulaev, the sole participant in the Beslan school seizure to be taken alive, continues to yield details that contradict the official version of the tragedy. Among the more startling testimony involves the reported presence of at... MORE

Ekho Moskvy radio on July 28 cited reports that special forces had been sent into the republic's Elbrus district. According to the Kabardino-Balkaria branch of the For Human Rights movement, 15 trucks carrying special-purpose troops and OMON special police commandos arrived on the outskirts of... MORE

August 2 marked the sixth anniversary of the incursion by Islamic militants led by Shamil Basaev and Khattab into Dagestan, which was one of pretexts for Russia's second military intervention in Chechnya. President Vladimir Putin announced as early as April 2002 that "the military stage... MORE

--MORE VIOLENCE IN DAGESTAN Dagestan's Interior Ministry reported on July 28 that three militants were killed and two police officers wounded during a raid on an apartment in Makhachkala, Itar-Tass reported. The news agency reported that grenade explosions and sub-machinegun fire could be heard at... MORE

In March 2005 the Chechen rebel independence movement suffered both the loss of its leader and one of its primary military strategists. Aslan Maskhadov's successor was promptly named as Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev, a 38-year old Shaykh from the city of Argun. Sadulaev, who has limited operational... MORE