Writing in the no. 42 (June 17) issue of Novaya Gazeta, award-winning Russian war correspondent Anna Politkovskaya reported on the recent forced resignation of Colonel General Mikhail Kislitsyn, chief military procurator of Russia. Kislitsyn's resignation, she wrote, occurred after a telephone call from Russian Procurator... MORE

On June 25, in a trial conducted with the accused being in absentia, the Narofominsk Military Court in Moscow found former FSB Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr Litvinenko guilty of abuse of office and "the illegal acquisition of explosives" and handed him a three-and-a-half year suspended sentence... MORE

The June 21 issue of the Washington Post carried an outline for a proposed peace settlement for the conflict in Chechnya written by three former high-ranking U.S. officials, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Alexander M. Haig Jr. and Max Kampelman. The three former officials head up the American... MORE

DisasterRelief.org reported on June 26 that, "At least seventy-two people are reported dead and 86,000 are homeless after severe flooding earlier this week in parts of Chechnya and Russia's North Caucasus region.... Residents say they are the worst [floods] in Chechnya since 1937."

On June 21 Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov sent a letter to President Putin, apparently by email, asking him to resume negotiations toward a peace settlement (Prima News Service, June 25). Several days later, sources in the Kremlin "confirmed that Vladimir Putin had received Maskhadov's... MORE

The All Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) has reported the results of a nation-wide poll taken during May 24-27 (Russiavotes.org) Respondents were asked this question: "Do you consider that it is necessary to continue the military operation in Chechnya or to... MORE

In what could have been the final issue of the pro-democracy twice-weekly publication Novaya Gazeta (no. 41, June 10), the award-winning Russian war correspondent Anna Politkovskaya, in an article entitled "The Chastisers: The Very Same Doctor Who Imprisoned [Soviet] Dissidents in Prison Psychiatric Hospitals Has... MORE

On June 14, Kris Janowski of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva reported: "UNHCR has won assurances from Moscow that an estimated 150,000 Chechens living in neighboring Ingushetia will not be forced back to their volatile Northern Caucasus homeland. UNHCR... MORE

In an interview with the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza on June 10, Oleg Orlov, the leader of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, expressed strong concern that Chechen IDPs living in Ingushetia might soon be forced back into their home republic. Ingush families who have... MORE