As was recently underscored by Alla Vlazneva, official spokeswoman for the pro-Moscow prime minister of Chechnya, Stanislav Il'yasov, the pro-Moscow leadership now insists that all of the estimated 150,000-160,000 Chechen refugees currently living in neighboring Ingushetia must return to their home republic by the end... MORE

During the course on of an interview given to the state television network ORT, leading Russian presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky predicted that the conflict in Chechnya is likely to last for years. "It seems to me," he remarked, "that we clearly exaggerate our uniqueness in... MORE

Over the past week, the Russian leadership visibly ratcheted up the pressure on the Republic of Georgia over the Chechen question, and it even appeared, briefly, as if Georgia might be prepared to acquiesce to the conducting of joint Russian-Georgian patrols in the mountainous Pankisi... MORE

On May 23, at a meeting in the Chechen capital of Djohar (Grozny), Russian plenipotentiary presidential representative in the Southern Federal District, Viktor Kazantsev, chaired a meeting of the heads of the pro-Moscow Chechen civilian administration and the Russian military leadership based in the republic.... MORE

At a meeting of the pro-Moscow government of Chechnya on May 24, a decision was reached to return all Chechen refugees from Ingushetia to Chechnya before the end of June. The following day, Akhmad Kadyrov, head of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration, clarified this decision: All... MORE

In the May 25 issue of Moskovsky Komsomolets, journalist Yulia Kalinina analyzed the large-scale plundering of Russian government funds earmarked for support of social services and the restoration of buildings and infrastructure in Chechnya. "The budget money which reaches Chechnya," Kalinina summed up, "is for... MORE

Recently four well-informed Russian commentators, situated at different points on the political spectrum, have written, in independent conclusions, that the war is going badly for Russia, and that the regime's chances of defeating the Chechen separatists appear to be bleak at best. Some predicted that... MORE

On May 15, the New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a 24-page report that documented what it termed the Russian government's botched investigation of a mass dumping ground for bodies discovered in February of this year. The report claimed that the Russian authorities had literally... MORE

It was against the background of these charges and refutations that a high-level European Union "troika" arrived in Moscow on May 16. The three EU envoys were Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, who currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the EU, EU foreign policy representative... MORE