Many of the Chechens who have disappeared in "zachistki" security sweeps are still alive in Russian captivity, in the view of human rights activist Kheda Saratova. The head of the Vozvrashchenie ("Return") foundation told correspondent Aleksandr Kolesnichenko of Novye izvestia that the organization has assembled... MORE

Sanobar Shermatova of Moskovskie novosti told Chechnya Weekly in an October 20 telephone interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin may decide to launch negotiations with the rebels even before Russia's presidential elections scheduled for next spring. Such negotiations, in which federal officials would probably not... MORE

What role did Arman Menkeev, a retired officer from a GRU spetsnaz commando unit, play in last year's hostage episode at Moscow's Dubrovka theater? Was the explosives expert a co-conspirator of the Chechen terrorists--or a double agent who helped lure them into a trap set... MORE

Just as mysterious as Menkeev--and perhaps even more crucial to understanding the tragedy at the Dubrovka theater--is the figure of Ruslan Elmurzaev, alias "Abubakar." Indeed, several eyewitnesses believe that he was the real leader of the hostage takers (see Chechnya Weekly, May 29). John Dunlop... MORE

How many hostages did the Russian special services finally kill with the powerful gas that they used while storming the theater last October? Some independent estimates made toward the end of 2002 found that, if one includes those who died of related effects days or... MORE

In an October 27 analysis for Novaya gazeta, the prominent military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer accused the authorities of having failed "to clarify even one of the crucial questions" connected with the Dubrovka tragedy. "Why did the authorities order the storming of the building on October... MORE

A coalition of Russian human rights organizations, led by well-known activist Lev Ponomarev, has announced that it intends to file charges with the European Court of Human Rights against the Russian authorities for their gross neglect of the lives of the hostages seized in the... MORE

Official announcements about the reduction of federal troop strength in Chechnya have repeatedly turned out to be exaggerated, and apparently that pattern is continuing. Col. Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman attached to the Russian military headquarters for the northern Caucasus, said recently that Russian troops would... MORE

The city of Grozny, founded as a Russian fortress nearly two centuries ago, now has only a tiny minority of ethnic Russian civilians. Unlike their Chechen neighbors, most of these Russians have no extended family networks and no ancestral villages to take refuge in; nearly... MORE

In addition to those already mentioned in Chechnya Weekly (see the October 23 issue), Akhmad Kadyrov's October 19 inauguration included yet another blow to his prestige. Our contributor Zaindi Choltaev notes a striking scarcity of high ranking guests: "Only one of the heads of neighboring... MORE