The Chechen Times, citing the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, reported on November 26 that security forces detained two men during a zachistka in the Avtorkhan district of the capital, Grozny, on November 22. Earlier, on November 18, security forces had detained two young people during a... MORE

The pattern of kidnappings is not, unfortunately, restricted to Chechnya. The Chechen National Salvation Committee's website reported on November 26 that "unknown armed members of Russian power structures in masks and camouflage uniforms" had the previous day broken into a house being rented by the... MORE

The Chechen Times reported on November 26 that a mass grave containing the bodies of eleven unidentified young people, aged 12 to 20, was discovered near the Gudermes district village of Jalka on November 20. On November 19, a charred body was found near town... MORE

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov on November 26 delivered a report to a conference on "problems of the state's national policy in the Chechen Republic." He characterized the situation in Chechnya as "complicated but stable," Novye izvestia reported on November 29. In one part of his... MORE

Mixed messages have been coming from some of those charged with investigating the Beslan school seizure concerning possible foreign involvement in the tragedy. Federation Council Vice-speaker Aleksandr Torshin, who heads the parliamentary commission investigating the circumstances surrounding the Beslan terrorist act, told Interfax on November... MORE

On November 12, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov triumphantly announced that all units of the 76th Airborne Division located in Chechnya will be withdrawn from the Republic by January 2005, the Yufo.ru website reported. However, on November 26, RIA Novosti quoted Nikolai Rogozhkin, commander of... MORE

--REBEL WEBSITE REAPPEARS IN LITHUANIA Kavkaz Center, the Chechen separatist website, resumed operations in Lithuania on November 29. Interfax quoted a statement from the website's administration as saying that operations resumed as soon as the Second District Court in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, ruled that all... MORE

Valentina Melnikova, head of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees, told Interfax on November 22 that a meeting between a delegation from her group and Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov's London-based emissary, Akhmed Zakaev, would not take place in Brussels the following day as planned... MORE

Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov told reporters on November 19 that more than 200,000 people have been killed in Chechnya since 1994. He added that more than 20,000 children were killed during that same period, with tens of thousands more children made orphans, Interfax... MORE

The question of the number of Russian troops killed in Chechnya also continues to be a matter of dispute. Vyacheslav Izmailov, military correspondent for Novaya gazeta, wrote in the bi-weekly's November 22 edition that more than 15,000 Russian servicemen have been killed in Chechnya over... MORE