On October 3, the trial of Colonel Yury Budanov, charged with strangling a young Chechen woman in March of 2000, resumed briefly and then was re-adjourned, because the results of the latest psychiatric examination of Budanov had not arrived from the Serbsky Institute in Moscow.... MORE

In a letter entitled "al Qaida and Chechnya," published in the October 2 issue of the Washington Post, and which took sharp issue with a news story appearing in the September 19 issue of the paper, Lyoma Usmanov, U.S. representative of the government of President... MORE

In an interview with Thomas de Waal of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the president of Ingushetia, retired FSB General Murat Zyazikov, sought to quash rumors that tens of thousands of Chechen IDPs taking shelter in the republic might be driven back against... MORE

In partnership with the Institute of Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Peace Mission in the North Caucasus, the Moscow-based Eurasia office of FEWER (Forum on Early Warning and Early Response) has issued a policy report entitled "Way to Peace in Chechnya"... MORE

: * Facts unclear on Galashki incident* Gelaev takes credit...* ...Ivanov gets tough* Tbilisi: everything is under control* Russia's journalists weigh in* "There is only one way out"?* Perspective: Showdown with PACE? NEWS

Early on the morning of September 26, fierce fighting broke out between a detachment of separatists under the command of Abdul Malik--a Russian convert to Islam reporting to the legendary Chechen field commander, Ruslan [Khamzat] Gelaev--and Russian federal forces near the village of Galashki in... MORE

During a brief telephone conversation with a reporter from Agence France Presse, Ruslan Gelaev, who claimed that he was located in Chechnya close to Ingushetia, took responsibility for the raid. "We said we would strike where we were not expected," he recalled. "The operation has... MORE

During a visit to Warsaw, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov affirmed, "If the terrorists cross or try to cross the Russian border, we will not wait until they commit terrorist acts. Any civilized country would do the same." Asked whether the incident in Galashki represented... MORE

On September 27, Civil Georgia reported that the Georgian Minister of the Interior, Koba Narchemashvili, had announced that the military phase of the Georgian operation in the Pankisi Gorge had ended. Chechen guerillas, he stated, are no longer in the gorge or in surrounding areas.... MORE