Are the suicide bombers who have been terrorizing Russia tightly organized in a unified command led by a mysterious woman known as "Black Fatima?" Russia's security agencies have been promoting this view in recent weeks, but they have not given the media direct access to... MORE

As if to support Politikovskaya's contention that the suicide attacks are largely uncoordinated, a female bomber mounted another strikingly amateurish attack on July 27. This one occurred at a base commanded by Ramzan Kadyrov, who heads the personal army of his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, the... MORE

The guilty verdict pronounced last week on Yury Budanov is a gift to Akhmad Kadyrov's election campaign--but a threat to Vladimir Putin's. Human rights advocates are welcoming the verdict as a rare exception to the pattern in which atrocities by Russian soldiers against Chechens usually... MORE

Does Malik Saidullaev have a serious chance of becoming president of Chechnya? The Moscow-based Chechen businessman, whose personal fortune is estimated by some at US$500 million, is the first heavyweight candidate to throw his hat into the ring against de facto incumbent Akhmad Kadyrov. (The... MORE

The rebel guerrillas are still in such a strong position in Chechnya--whether from genuine popular support, or from their ability to intimidate, or from some combination of the two--that they are able to collect "taxes" from much of the civilian population and even from employees... MORE

The noted Moscow political commentator Andrei Piontkovsky offered a gloomy forecast in a July 25 round-table discussion hosted by the website Vremyamn.ru. "After the [Chechen] elections, events in Chechnya will develop in about the same way as they have already been developing over the last... MORE

Far from disappearing, federal checkpoints in Chechnya have become an essential part of the family economy of the Russian troops who staff them. Mainat Abdulaeva, Grozny correspondent for Novaya gazeta, reported on July 24 how one of the OMON special police officers manning a checkpoint... MORE

A representative of the French-based medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres ("Doctors without Borders") calculates that the two post-Soviet wars have destroyed 15 percent of Chechnya's population, the website for Prava cheloveka v Rossii (Human Rights in Russia) reported on July 29. --REPORTER SAID STILL TO... MORE

About 20 percent of the Kadyrov administration's gunmen are secretly loyal to the secessionist government of President Aslan Maskhadov, a key Maskhadov representative claimed during a visit to Washington last week. Salambek Maigov, Maskhadov's emissary in Moscow, told Chechnya Weekly that former rebel guerrillas constitute... MORE

President Maskhadov of Chechnya's underground separatist government issued a statement on July 21 calling for an "adequate reaction" from the international community to his Foreign Ministry's proposal for conditional independence under an international administration. (The full statement, in Russian, is available via the pro-Maskhadov website... MORE