Reports of Russian military losses in Chechnya, though varied and difficult to confirm, indicate the ongoing struggle within Russia's army to realign its Soviet thinking, doctrine and tactics to deal adequately with terrorism and counter-insurgency. For instance, The Chechen Times on November 4 cited Chechen... MORE

--SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ACQUITAL OF RUSSIAN TROOPS Russia's Supreme Court on November 11 overturned the North Caucasus Military District Court's June 29 acquittal of two officers of the Interior Ministry's Internal Troops, Yevgeny Khudyakov and Sergei Arakcheyev, who were accused of murdering three civilians in... MORE

The Prosecutor General's Office announced on November 5 that it will check the claims made in a leading Russian newspaper that more terrorists were involved in the Beslan hostage seizure than previously admitted officially. "Even though the investigation team had solid evidence that there were... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry last week accused a Canadian newspaper of giving a platform "to murderers and terrorists whose hands are stained with the blood of Russian people, including Beslan children," for publishing an article based on an e-mail interview with Shamil Basaev. The Globe and... MORE

Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's first deputy prime minister and son of the republic's slain pro-Moscow president, once again raised eyebrows with several comments over the last week. On November 8, he told journalists that a rebel fighter, who had claimed responsibility for the May 9 bombing... MORE

A report released on November 5 by the leading international body monitoring internal displacement worldwide has accused Russia of pressuring Chechen refugees to return home. The report, "Trapped in Displacement: Internally Displaced People in the OSCE Area," was prepared by the Geneva-based Global IDP Project,... MORE

On November 3, Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov announced during a meeting in Grozny that the number of terrorist acts had decreased so far this year by 36 percent across Chechnya and by 43 percent in Grozny, compared with same period last year. Kavkaz.strana.ru quoted... MORE

"Today in Chechnya there is no one with whom to hold negotiations. There is no opposite side in the sense of something organized from the political or juridical-legal point of view. It is simply a rabble! There is already not a conflict there. All of... MORE

Akhmed Zakaev, the London-based representative of the underground government of Aslan Maskhadov, released a statement on November 1 condemning the terrorist warlord Shamil Basaev. As reported by the Newsru.com website, Zakaev sharply rejected a recent statement purportedly from Basaev claiming that the separatist guerrillas have... MORE

Though now overshadowed by the greater tragedy of Beslan, the October 2002 hostage episode at Moscow's Dubrovka theater continues to raise questions. Some two years later, the federal authorities have still failed to make clear just what was the chemical composition of the powerful narcotic... MORE