In an interview published on October 23, the former president of Ingushetia sharply questioned Akhmad Kadyrov's legitimacy. "Nothing has been changed" by Chechnya's recent presidential election, Ruslan Aushev told Andrei Riskin of Nezavisimaya gazeta. "The republic has already gone through all this sort of thing.... MORE

The average Russian may be weary of the Chechen war, but that does not mean that he likes Chechens. On the contrary, a recent poll suggests that Russians now have overwhelmingly negative attitudes toward Chechens. As reported on October 24 by the website Stringer-agency.ru, the... MORE

Like so many judicial and quasi-judicial bodies in today's Russia, the Kadyrov administration's new commission to investigate the Chechen conflicts of the last decade will know in advance what conclusions are expected of it. Izvestia correspondent Ilya Maksakov reported on October 22 that Taus Dzhabrailov,... MORE

The purging from Chechnya's government structures of supporters of the main opposition candidates in the recent election has apparently intensified since October 5. Marina Perevozkina of Moskovsky komsomolets reported in an October 21 article on her conversation with Salavat Gebertaev. He is the mayor of... MORE

The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies has found that there were more Russian casualties in the past year in Chechnya than there had been in the previous year. Nevertheless, a spokesman for the institute told Chechnya Weekly in an October 21 telephone interview that... MORE

Akhmad Kadyrov's October 19 inauguration as Chechnya's newly "elected" president was remarkable for several symbolic gestures. These gestures, Zoya Svetova suggested in the October 20 issue of Russky kurier, might be interpreted as a deliberate effort on Kadyrov's part to make the ceremony as different... MORE

The Russian army has discharged for drunkenness or disorderly behavior scores of the "kontraktniki" soldiers serving as volunteers in Chechnya, the radio station Ekho Moskvy reported on October 20. Citing a special commission of the Defense Ministry, the station said that the "kontraktniki" are heavy... MORE

The October 20 issue of Novaya gazeta published a detailed description of a video that casts further doubt on the official version of events that happened a year ago, when Chechen terrorists (possibly influenced by double agents working for the Russian security agencies) seized hundreds... MORE

The area in and around Chechnya has the largest troop concentrations in Europe, according to an October 20 article by Vladimir Mukhin in Nezavisimaya gazeta. This article should be treated with caution, having clearly been written for the purpose of countering Akhmad Kadyrov's calls for... MORE

Though Chechens have barely had a chance to catch their breath since the October 5 presidential election, campaign maneuvers are already underway for the all-Russian parliamentary elections in December--which will include Chechnya's seat in the federal Duma. As of October 21, some nineteen candidates were... MORE