On May 29, President Putin declared that, "The primary task at present is the creation of a [pro-Moscow Chechen] ministry of internal affairs." This structure, he added, must assume "the basic responsibility for the situation in Chechnya." Elections of a Chechen head of the republic,... MORE

On May 25, the Washington Post reported that a few hours after his joint news conference with President Putin in Moscow following their recent summit, President George W. Bush, "gave a speech at the U.S. ambassador's residence upbraiding Russia for its handling of the Chechnya... MORE

The Russian media have commented at length on the recent determination by psychiatrists employed at the Serbsky Institute in Moscow that Colonel Yury Budanov--on trial in a military court in Rostov-on-Don for having strangled a young Chechen woman in March of 2000--had been "temporarily insane"... MORE

You wrote that the cutthroat Khattab was poisoned," one letter to the editors of the weekly Argumenty i Fakty recalled, "Who did it, and how?" Citing sources in the Russian special services, the editors responded: "In the middle of May, in the Dagestani settlement of... MORE

Do you consider it necessary to continue the military operation in Chechnya, or to begin peaceful negotiations with the Chechen leadership?" the polling organization VTsIOM asked a nationwide sample of Russian respondents in late April. The results of the poll: continue the operation, 34 percent;... MORE

The Era of Samizdat Has Returned to Russia," the website APN.ru pronounced on May 21. Publishing houses had refused to publish the manuscript of the book "The FSB Is Blowing Up Russia," authored by former FSB officer Aleksander Litvinenko and independent researcher Yury Fel'shtinsky, which... MORE

On May 22, Nikolai Patrushev, director of the FSB, informed journalists in Makhachkala, Dagestan that a large bomb that had gone off in Kaspiisk on May 9, killing forty-three and wounding 170, had been set by a group of ten persons reporting to Dagestani field... MORE

In Chita [in eastern Siberia]," the newspaper Novye Izvestia wrote on May 15, "The elite [MVD] unit SOBR (all of them are officers) has refused to go to Chechnya. The 'refusers' are people who have passed through all the 'hot spots' and have fought in... MORE

On May 17, the newspaper Kommersant reported that the commander of the Combined Group of Russian Forces in Chechnya, Colonel General Vladimir Moltenskoi, had stated that, as early as June of this year, the payment of "combat wages" will be halted to personnel of the... MORE

On May 19, Agence France Presse reported that, during recent talks with the newly elected Ingush president, retired FSB General Murat Zyazikov, President Putin "said the [Chechen] refugees must return very soon [to Chechnya] and called for Ingush and Chechen authorities to spearhead repatriation efforts."... MORE