On September 25, it was announced that medical experts at Moscow's Serbsky Institute had completed a third psychiatric evaluation of Colonel Yury Budanov, who has been charged with abducting and murdering an 18-year-old young Chechen woman, El'za Kungaeva. While the experts declined to reveal the... MORE

On September 29, MVD headquarters at the Khankala Military Base in Chechnya confirmed that that a curfew had been introduced throughout the Republic of Chechnya, to last from 8:00 pm until 6:00 am each day. "During the time of the curfew, all movement of traffic... MORE

According to various human rights NGOs and the Chechen Committee for National Salvation, "a serious situation has developed in Chechen refugee camps [located in Ingushetia], where tens of thousands of refugees will have to spend their third winter in torn, worn-out tents." The escalation of... MORE

On September 28, the official Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported that the Georgian authorities had proposed to major Chechen field commander Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelaev that he leave Georgia, together with his fighters. "According to some reports," Itar-Tass continued, "U.S. representatives visited Georgia in mid-September and... MORE

On September 26, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer responded to a question from a reporter as to whether "the United States is taking a softer line on Russia over Chechnya in return for the cooperation Putin has offered in this effort," by stating in... MORE

The past week also witnessed a number of developments connected with attempts by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)--a body in which the United States does not have membership--to help bring about an eventual peaceful resolution to the conflict in Chechnya. On... MORE

On September 26, the pro-Moscow chief prosecutor of Chechnya, Vsevolod Chernov, announced that his agency had completed an investigation into the "mopping up operations" which had been conducted by the Russian federal forces in the settlements of Assinovskaya and Sernovodsk on June 3-4 of this... MORE

As the last week of September began, the Russian media noted that President Vladimir Putin was growing increasingly frustrated over the lack of progress being made by the federal forces against the Chechen separatists. The newspaper Kommersant published an account of a meeting of the... MORE

On September 17--a day dubbed "Black Monday" by the Russian media--an estimated 300 Chechen separatist fighters seized "practically the entire city [of Gudermes]" in one hour of fighting (Kommersant, September 19). According to Reuters, the fall of Chechnya's second city "coupled with a string of... MORE