The official commission charged with investigating the Beslan affair seems to be laying the groundwork to achieve two goals: a cover-up of what really happened, and a slander campaign against the only Russian political leader who behaved decently during the tragedy. According to an article... MORE

The Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, which for years has worked to protect Russian draftees from abuses by their own superiors, announced on October 13 that it will try to mediate between the Russian government and Chechnya's separatists. In a written appeal to the separatists, the... MORE

If Alu Alkhanov, the new president of Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration, plans gradually to squeeze Ramzan Kadyrov out of power, that is not evident from his recent personnel appointments. Alkhanov has now appointed his predecessor's son as first deputy prime minister, according to an October 16... MORE

--INTERNET CAFES SHUT DOWN IN INGUSHETIA The pro-Moscow administration in Ingushetia has now shut down the last surviving Internet cafes in that republic, Radio Liberty reported on October 18. The website ingushetiya.ru quoted an official as charging that the Internet had been used to spread... MORE

Further confirmation that the Beslan terrorists killed schoolboys, not just grown men, in cold blood came in an October 4 article in Novaya gazeta by Kseniya Leonova, who interviewed 14-year-old ex-hostage Andrei Kuznetsov and his mother. Andrei is convinced that his short height saved his... MORE

Pavel Felgenhauer, the well-known independent military analyst, cited further evidence last week suggesting that the assault on the school was consciously planned in advance by the Russian authorities "not as a special operation for the purpose of rescuing the hostages, but as a military operation... MORE

Russia won a partial victory last week in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which passed a resolution calling for a political settlement of the conflict in the North Caucasus. At the Russian delegation's insistence, the final text included a provision accepting that... MORE

Yet another reporter was prevented by the Russian authorities from covering the hostage crisis in Beslan, according to an October 11 article in the English-language Moscow Times. Yuri Bagrov, an indigenous journalist who has covered the Caucasus for the Associated Press and Radio Liberty, had... MORE

Interviews in Gazeta last week provided further indications that elements in the security agencies are helping the terrorist warlord Shamil Basaev avoid arrest—in spite of repeated announcements that the Russian authorities consider him their most wanted fugitive. Recently the authorities offered a $10 million bounty... MORE

Since the tragic events in Beslan, much has changed in Russia. At first there was shock. The authorities seemed disoriented; instead of working effectively to rescue the hostages, they issued shameless lies about how many hostages there were. They even failed to visit the scene... MORE