.In the period since he was the beneficiary of a meeting in the Kremlin with President Putin on October 15, Akhmad Kadyrov, the pro-Moscow head of the civilian administration of Chechnya, has significantly strengthened his position in the republic. In an article entitled "Akhmad Kadyrov... MORE

On November 1--in an issue actually posted on October 31--the newspaper Izvestia reported that Russian plenipotentiary presidential representative in the Southern Federal District Viktor Kazantsev had that day held a conversation with Akhmed Zakaev, a representative of Chechen separatist president Aslan Maskhadov. Relying on sources... MORE

In an indication that the "Chechenization" of the conflict now apparently being promoted by the Russian leadership was encountering rough sledding, the newspaper Kommersant reported that, on October 29, some 200 residents of the village of Komsomol'skoe had come to Chechnya's "second city," Gudermes, and... MORE

On October 27, NTV reported that "the Chechen refugee camps in Ingushetia are in an emergency situation." According to the Federal Migration Service, approximately 150 new refugees from Chechnya are arriving in Ingushetia each day, and the authorities in that republic are unable to provide... MORE

The closed, secret trial of five residents of Karachaevo-Cherkessia--none of them ethnic Chechens--charged with preparing the explosions of two apartment complexes in Moscow in September of 1999, events which served to precipitate a second Russian invasion of Chechnya--which is presently taking place on the outskirts... MORE

An article entitled "The 'Caucasus Eagles' of the Third Reich," appearing in the no. 10 (October 2001) issue of Spetsnaz Rossii, a publication of the veterans of the elite FSB special forces' unit "Alpha," maintained that the deportations of the Chechens and Ingush by Stalin... MORE

Writing in the October 26 issue of the newspaper Novye Izvestia, a well-known journalist, Valery Yakov, wrote that the Russian leadership, in an effort aggressively spearheaded by presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky, had brought "overwhelming force" to bear on Russian journalists who were covering the war... MORE

During the course of an interview with a major Russian newspaper, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, former U.S. national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski observed concerning the subject of Chechnya: "Some aspects of Russia's actions in Chechnya may be directed at terrorism, but even in such a case Russia... MORE