On May 28, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov conducted his first press conference since being appointed to his present post. Four deputy defense ministers were also in attendance. Ivanov, the newspaper Kommersant wrote, "answered questions not at all in the military style but instead in... MORE

The no. 36 (May 28-30) issue of Novaya Gazeta carried an interview with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov by award-winning war correspondent Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya, it should be noted, interviewed Maskhadov in central Chechnya and not in a mountain district (Gazeta.ru, May 29). "The war," Maskhadov... MORE

The deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Rear Admiral German Ugryumov, died of an apparent heart attack on May 31 at Khankala, the main Russian military base in Chechnya. A seriously overweight man (who weighed a reported 140 kilograms), Ugryumov, who was under... MORE

It was announced on May 30 that a working visit to Washington DC by the pro-Moscow Chechen head of administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, has been postponed until the second half of June, following the summit meeting of Presidents Bush and Putin in Slovenia on June 16.... MORE

The online daily Lenta.ru disclosed on June 1 that the former mayor of Djohar (Grozny), Bislan Gantamirov, who resigned that post on May 17, will be appointed chief federal inspector in Chechnya by the plenipotentiary presidential representative in the Southern Federal District, retired General Viktor... MORE

On May 26, Russian federal forces arrested the pensioner and noted human rights activist, Dik Altemirov, in Djohar. Oleg Orlov of the human rights organization Memorial commented: "Altemirov was one of the few people in Grozny who dared to carry out human rights work.... We... MORE

On May 28, a two-day session of the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO (PA NATO) was held in Vilnius, Lithuania. More than 800 persons attended the session-members of NATO and associated states, as well as persons with observer status. On the first day of the meeting,... MORE

On 1 June, Colonel General Gennady Troshev, commander of the North Caucasus Military District, informed the official Russian news agency Itar-Tass that, in his opinion, peace would be restored more quickly in Chechnya if a reward were offered for the capture of the rebel leaders.... MORE

Gadzhi Makhachev, an elected deputy to the Russian State Duma from Dagestan and a leader of the Avar people, warned in an interview that the Chechen conflict was beginning politically to destabilize Dagestan (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, May 26). "You know," he remarked, "not long ago a... MORE