Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov announced on July 4 that the "Phoenix: Return to Life" rock concert that had been scheduled to take place the following day in Gudermes, the republic's second-biggest city, would be postponed until September because the concert's organizers said military officials... MORE

-- GUARDS REMOVED AT DISPLACED PERSONS' CAMPS Kavkazky Uzel reported on July 5 that guards had been removed from around temporary settlements for displaced people in Chechnya because of a lack of funds. Residents of the settlements are concerned about this. "We had serious problems... MORE

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov announced on June 26 that he would personally take over responsibility for the situation in the Shelkovskoi district village Borozdinovskaya, from which several hundred villagers fled after a June 4 zachistka, or cleansing operation, in which several homes were burned and... MORE

The Memorial human rights group reconstructed what happened on June 4 in a report that was posted on the Prava cheloveka v Rossii (Human Rights in Russia) website, Hro.org, on June 22. In sum, the report describes what appears to have been an act of... MORE

Not surprisingly, Vostok battalion commander Suliman Yamadaev denied that his subordinates were directly or indirectly involved in the June 4 raid. In an interview with Kommersant published on June 28, Yamadaev said that members of his unit had been in Borozdinovskaya on June 3 for... MORE

Apparently hoping to take advantage of the Borozdinovskaya situation, Dagestan's opposition plans to hold a protest rally in Makhachkala on July 5. Nezavisimaya gazeta on June 27 quoted Khadzhimurad Kamalov, chief editor of the Dagestani newspaper Chernovik, as saying that the Borozdinovskaya refugees and their... MORE

On June 25, Chechnya officially celebrated the conferring of the Hero of Russia award on the republic's first deputy prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, Nezavisimaya gazeta reported on June 27. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree conferring the title on Kadyrov last December 30. According to... MORE

The head of the commission set up by the North Ossetian parliament to investigate last September's Beslan hostage tragedy, Stanislav Kesaev, suggested in an interview with Vremya novostei published on June 28 that it was possible the Russian authorities provoked a violent denouement to the... MORE

On May 25, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Russian Cossack leaders in Rostov-on-Don, the political center of southern Russia. During the meeting, the Cossacks expressed to the president their concern about the current situation in the North Caucasus, especially the continuing violence in... MORE

--REBELS AND FEDS EXCHANGE FIRE Citing the Chechen Interior Ministry, Interfax on June 26 reported that rebels had attacked policemen across the republic. According to the news agency, armed men broke into the home of police officer Aslanbek Asuev in Shatoi district village of Yukerch-Keloi,... MORE