The time has come," President Putin solemnly told leaders from Russia's southern regions gathered in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi on May 16, "to extend the powers of the chairman of the Chechen administration." Putin then read out the text of a decree... MORE

Over the past week-and-a-half, the Putin leadership seems to have moved from an advocacy of the need for "Chechenization" of the conflict to a retreat from it. On April 30, speaking at a session of the Russian Security Council, the Russian president made it clear... MORE

By the time he held a meeting with FSB director Nikolai Patrushev and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in the Kremlin on May 6, however, Putin's commitment to Chechenization was noticeably on the wane. The previous day, which had happened to be the Russian Orthodox Easter,... MORE

On May 8, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov underlined that Russia would never withdraw its armed forces from Chechnya. "The 42nd division," he declared, "will be here [in Chechnya] forever" (Interfax, May 8).

What has been the practical effect of the much-touted Order No. 80, which was issued on March 27 by General Vladimir Moltenskoi, commander of the Russian Combined Group of Forces operating in Chechnya? The stated goal was to ensure that Russian military and police personnel... MORE

In an essay entitled "Chechnya After Order No. 80," appearing in the No. 31 (April 30) issue of Novaya Gazeta, the award-winning war correspondent Anna Politkovskaya probed the extent to which Moltenskoi's order had been observed in the month since it was issued, taking as... MORE

Where is Khattab's head?" the publication Mir Novostei recently asked insistently. "Judging by public opinion polls," the publication went on, "less than a third of Russians believe in the death of Khattab. The majority consider that this was a cunning trick of the Arab mercenary,... MORE

On April 30, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Anatoly Kvashnin, confidently asserted that Chechen field commander Shamil Basaev had been killed, though, he was required to add, "the body of Basaev has for the time being not been... MORE

On May 6, the website Religion.russ.ru reported the celebration on the previous day of "perhaps the most unusual Easter in the entire Orthodox space." On May 5, the Russian Orthodox Easter service had been served at the site of the semi-destroyed church of Michael the... MORE