Apparently choosing to ignore the controversy swirling around him, Ramzan Kadyrov on January 25 joined Ksenia Sobchak, the socialite daughter of the late St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, for the foundation-laying ceremony of a large water park in the Chechen town of Gudermes. The water... MORE

The Sub-Committee on Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights issued a statement last week expressing its concern over "the recent wave of new serious violations of human rights in the Chechen Republic."... MORE

Two graves with the bodies of six people were discovered on the outskirts of the village of Zamai-Yurt in Chechnya's Nozhai-Yurt district on January 29, Kavkazky Uzel reported on January 31. A law-enforcement source told the website that those buried in the two graves were... MORE

Two militants who were planning a "large-scale" terrorist attack in Grozny were killed on February 1, a source in the headquarters of the Russian military in Chechnya told RIA-Novosti. According to the source, the militants were under the command of the rebel field commander Doku... MORE

Mokhmad-Amir Mutsaev, a leader of a jamaat (armed underground Islamic group) in the Groznensky district, was killed after offering "armed resistance" to police who were attempting to capture him, Kavkazky Uzel reported on January 29, citing a Chechen Interior Ministry officer. According to the source,... MORE

Citing sources in Kabardino-Balkaria's Interior Ministry, Izvestia on January 31 identified all the gunmen involved in the January 27 shoot-out between security forces and members of the "Yarmuk" Jamaat in Nalchik, the republic's capital. The group's leader, Muslim Ataev, and two other members, Ilyas Bichekuev... MORE

A little known veteran jihadist, Abu Hafs al-Urdani, made a rather dramatic entrance onto the world stage on February 5, 2003, when U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell displayed his photo in a speech before the U.N.Security Council. Abu Hafs was identified as part of... MORE

"A striking picture: a black Hummer stops on dirty vacant lot. First, a fighter with a weapon climbs out of it, then Hero of Russia Ramzan Kadyrov with a weapon, then another fighter with a weapon, then suddenly Ksenia Sobchak wearing something airy. Kadyrov is... MORE

Makhmut Magomadov, a Chechen human rights activist who previously served as a deputy prosecutor during Aslan Maskhadov's presidency, was abducted in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district on January 20. Since 2000, he has worked as a legal expert for the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF),... MORE

Other kidnappings and extra-judicial killings in Chechnya and neighboring republics were reported last week. Radio Liberty reported on January 19 that Russian troops and Chechen OMON police commandos had detained eight young Grozny residents during so-called "targeted mopping-up" operations. According to a January 19 press... MORE