Some 145 members of the European parliament--that is, nearly one-fourth of the body's total membership--have signed a statement supporting a temporary administration of Chechnya by the United Nations. The UN administration would serve as a transition to a full-fledged peace, as proposed by the foreign... MORE

The phenomenon of women suicide bombers is one of the most poorly understood of the current Chechen war--mainly because it is such a genuine novelty. Male Chechen guerrillas stand in a long tradition of armed resistance and rebellion in the Caucasus, a tradition that the... MORE

--SECURITY SWEEP LEADS TO BLOODSHED Police of the Kadyrov administration came under rebel gunfire last weekend as they conducted a "zachistka" security sweep in eastern Chechnya's Kurchaloy district. An administration official told the Associated Press that one policeman was killed and two wounded in the... MORE

Is the United States government providing reconnaissance and intelligence support to Moscow in its war in Chechnya? According to an article by Thomas Omestad in the just-published February 9 issue of U.S. News and World Report, that weekly has been told that "U.S. intelligence used... MORE

On January 28 the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) took another step back toward the tactics of the Brezhnev era by summoning Aleksandr Podrabinek, editor in chief of the human rights news agency Prima, for interrogation. Podrabinek's offense, according to a January 29 article by... MORE

In another escalation of pressure against independent-minded journalists, Russia has denied a visa to a Danish reporter. The international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders issued a statement declaring its suspicion that the refusal was motivated at least in part by Vibeke Sperling's articles about... MORE

In a stunning diplomatic and political stroke, parliamentary members from Germany's ruling party last week gave Akhmed Zakaev a high visibility platform for presenting the views of the underground Maskhadov government at a semi-official forum in Berlin. The Chechen diplomat not only met with members... MORE

The Putin administration's policies of "Chechenization" are not only failing to pacify the republic, but actually seem to be causing an intensification of violence. Last weekend a daring raid by rebel guerrillas targeted a key commander in Akhmad Kadyrov's personal army in his own home.... MORE

Jan Egeland, the United Nations undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, was in Moscow and Chechnya last week. According to a report aired on January 26 by the radio station Ekho Moskvy, he met with the Putin administration's minister for Chechen affairs, Stanislav Ilyasov. He was... MORE

In a significant escalation of the charges against the dissident ex-FSB officer Mikhail Trepashkin, the Russian authorities are now accusing him of espionage. An article by Igor Korolkov in last week's issue of the weekly Moskovskie novosti relayed some of Trepashkin's own observations about his... MORE