Anna Politkovskaya reported in the January 23 issue of Novaya Gazeta that the recent trial of Yury Budanov included a consultation with a British psychiatrist. The findings of Dr. Stewart Turner, a member of the Royal College of Physicians, were set forth in a 100-page... MORE

According to a report released on January 20 by UNICEF, some "110,000 displaced Chechens remain in Ingushetia." The UN relief agency also calculates that there are another 140,000 internally displaced people within the republic, who have judged it unsafe to return to their homes.

How much is the Chechnya war costing Russian taxpayers? Igor Andreyev of Novaya Gazeta asked that question of Arkady Baskaev, who commanded Russia's Grozny garrison in 1995 and is now a member of the Duma. In a January 23 interview, the deputy replied that none... MORE

The Chechen Committee for National Salvation has lost its website, apparently to political pressures in Russia. In a January 22 press release, the pro-separatist body said that it had received an email message from its Russia-based Internet server (Mastak.ru), informing its client that the website's... MORE

Recent months have seen a significant change in the Russian forces' tactics in Chechnya, according to one of Russia's most respected human rights organizations. Eliza Musaeva, who heads the office of Memorial in Ingushetia, told Radio Liberty that "the military has stopped their massive 'mopping-up'... MORE

The Russian government is continuing to lobby the U.S. State Department to classify the Chechen separatist movement as "terrorist." Last week the Russian news media highlighted remarks by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who said in a January 23 interview with the radio... MORE

Lord Frank Judd, chief rapporteur for Chechnya of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), kept his counsel until returning from his recent visit to Chechnya. Before flying south from Moscow he even made some statements that must have been welcome to the... MORE

It would seem that Akhmad Kadyrov now has the upper hand over Mikhail Babich in the power struggle within the Moscow-appointed Chechen administration. The Itar-Tass news agency reported on January 23 that Prime Minister Babich has suddenly left for vacation. In mid-January Babich had vigorously... MORE

Three years ago, Vadim Rechkalov of the Moscow daily Izvestia interviewed two Russian soldiers who were convalescing in a hospital in the Moscow suburbs their wounds suffered in Chechnya. The two veterans insisted that their conversation must be entirely off the record--but recently one of... MORE