Neo-Stalinist concepts of collective responsibility for individual crimes are still thriving in Russia's security agencies. According to an October 29 article by Maria Tsvetkova and Yelena Rudnieva on the Gazeta.ru website, some of the siloviki are proposing to formalize by law the practice of punishing... MORE

FSB head Nikolai Patrushev reluctantly admitted to the Duma last week that one of the Kremlin's least favorite political figures deserves praise rather than blame for his activities during the Beslan tragedy, according to Gazeta.ru. In response to a Duma deputy who suggested that former... MORE

Bribery and extortion continue to be common abuses in the process by which Chechens seek financial compensation from the federal government for their homes damaged or destroyed during the war, according to an October 28 report by Chechen journalists Kazbek Tsuraev and Aslanbek Badilaev for... MORE

Russia supposedly has military conscription for all healthy young males, but the Novosti news agency reported on October 28 that Chechens are not being drafted this year—even though the federal armed services are facing a personnel shortfall of some 20,000 men. Nezavisimaya gazeta quoted Yevgeny... MORE

Disregard of the Geneva Convention and other rules of civilized warfare has long since become routine on both sides in Chechnya, as was shown again on October 31 by a deliberate attack by separatist guerrillas on wounded servicemen of the republic's pro-Moscow administration who were... MORE

A rare glimpse at the activities of the pro-Moscow forces commanded by Chechen warlord Sulim Yamadaev came in an article published by Le Monde on October 27. The Paris daily's correspondent Natalie Nougayrède managed to interview a young soldier identified only as "Aslan," a member... MORE

A disagreement within Chechnya's underground separatist government became public over the weekend as one aide to its president Aslan Maskhadov rebuked another for stating that Maskhadov's resignation could be part of a peace agreement. Umar Khambiev, health minister in the separatist government, was that government's... MORE

--NO SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE FOR CHECHNYA? The latest version of a draft treaty on future relations between the federal government and the pro-Moscow administration in Chechnya does not include provisions for creating a special economic zone in the republic, the Interfax news agency reported on... MORE

Viktor Alksnis, one of the Russian parliament's most strident ultra-nationalists, harshly assailed the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers last week for its recent offer to help promote peace negotiations in Chechnya. Alksnis, a member of the pro-Kremlin Rodina (Motherland) party, called on the federal... MORE

In what appears to be another case of his impulsively talking before thinking, Ramzan Kadyrov announced last week that the president of Chechnya's underground separatist government was about to surrender. Though other pro-Kremlin leaders either remained silent about the young Kadyrov's claims or took pains... MORE