The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Treasury Department has blocked the assets of a Muslim charity based in the Chicago area, the extensive international operations had included offices in Grozny and Moscow. The January 3 issue of the Federal Register formally... MORE

The Geneva-based Organisation mondiale contre la torture (World Organization Against Torture) said on January 10 that it had been informed of "the extra-judicial killing of seven civilians by the Russian armed forces in Chechnya during the last week of 2002." In several of these cases... 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

A power struggle between Chechnya's two top pro-Moscow officials burst into the open last week, with signs that neither of the two has the federal government's total support. With both Chechen administration head Akhmad Kadyrov and Prime Minister Mikhail Babich launching increasingly strident verbal assaults... MORE

After a surge of hawkish passions in the wake of October's hostagetaking raid on a Moscow theater, Russian public opinion has swung back to its previous pattern of favoring peace negotiations in Chechnya. A December poll by the All-Russia Center for Public Opinion Research (VTsIOM)... MORE

In what may be remembered as a landmark ruling, the European Court of Human Rights has agreed for the first time to consider legal cases accusing Russian authorities of atrocities in Chechnya. All six cases were brought by Chechens now living as refugees in Ingushetia... MORE

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

MOSCOW SUSPENDS OSCE'S MISSION IN CHECHNYA 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... 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