Easily the most important event in Chechnya since the last issue of this Weekly, published just before Christmas, took place on December 27, when three unidentified terrorists drove their bomb-laden vehicles into the Grozny headquarters complex of the Moscow-appointed Chechnya administration. The attack marked a... MORE

Russian prosecutors are at least trying to create the public impression that they have not given up on trying to bring to justice the only senior Russian military officer to be tried for atrocities against Chechnya's civilian populace. In a January 10 press conference, an... MORE

The Budanov verdict was not the only unpleasant New Year's Eve story for Chechens. As the old year ended, Russia's Foreign Ministry announced that it would block the continued presence in Chechnya of human rights monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe... MORE

Two members of President Putin's commission on human rights charge that "various agencies" have been trying to get them to soften the content of the report that they were preparing for Putin about Chechen refugees in Ingushetia. Lyudmila Alekseyeva and Svetlana Gannushkina told a January... MORE

In early January the Russian government continued its efforts to extradite top Maskhadov aide Akhmed Zakaev, with Deputy General Prosecutor Sergei Fridinski stating that the British courts' review of Moscow's request for Zakaev's extradition might last for years. The website Grani.ru suggested that the Russian... MORE

The pro-Moscow administration in Grozny has announced that voting for their proposed new constitution for the republic is set for March 23. Human rights specialists are questioning the legitimacy of both the constitutional text itself and the referendum intended to ratify that text. Artyom Vernidoub... MORE

Mass demonstrations in Grozny, including a strike by bus drivers, were triggered by reports that on January 14 drunken Russian soldiers had indiscriminately opened fire on a civilian bus at a checkpoint near Gudermes, east of the Chechen capital. Some Russian authorities initially confirmed the... MORE

Three German human rights activists were stopped on arrival in Russia and prevented from continuing their planned trip to Chechnya--a trip to which the Chechnya's pro-Moscow Kadyrov administration had agreed. As soon as journalist Guenther Wallraff, former Minister of Labor Norbert Bluem and humanitarian relief... MORE

Russian Duma member and prominent human rights activist Sergei Kovalyov filed a court case on January 14 demanding that the office of Russia's chief prosecutor release documents connected with a series of bombings of Russian apartment buildings in 1999. Russian authorities have consistently blamed the... MORE