The presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, Viktor Kazantsev, has announced that the conscription of young Chechen men into the Russian military will commence during the first half of 2001; they will undergo military service only on Chechen territory (Ekho Moskvy Radio, February 9).... MORE

On February 13, it was reported that experts working for the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations had buried eight ionizing radiation sources which had been found in Djohar (Grozny). The radioactive substances were found on the territory of a chemical plant, of the Red Hammer... MORE

Salaudin Temirbulatov, a former Chechen field commander, was sentenced by a Russian military court in Kabardino-Balkaria, on February 15, to life imprisonment, with confiscation of property. Temirbulatov was found guilty of having executed four Russian contract soldiers in 1996, during the previous war, and of... MORE

The European Union told Russia on February 15 that a political solution must be found to the conflict in Chechnya, while also emphasizing that the bloc considers Chechnya to be part of Russia. Foreign Minister Anna Lindh of Sweden, which currently holds the rotating EU... MORE

On February 15, the Russian State Duma rejected a draft law awkwardly titled "Concerning the Transfer of the Territories of Naursky, Kargalinsky and Shelkovsky Districts of the Chechen Republic to Administrative Subordination to Stavropol Krai of the Russian Federation." A total of 226 votes were... MORE

On February 8, the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta carried a critical assessment, written by military journalist Mikhail Khodarenok, of the announced plan to base Russian military forces in garrisons in 162 population points located throughout Chechnya. The author of this plan, Khodarenok underscored, was General Anatoly... MORE

On February 7, the Foreign Minister of Romania, Mircea Geoana, arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. Geoana introduced the Russian side to the diplomat who is to head the OSCE's assistance mission to Chechnya: Aleksandru Cornea, the former Romanian ambassador... MORE

Controversy continued to swirl in the Russian media concerning the January 9 kidnapping and February 4 release of U.S. aid worker Kenneth Gluck. "Who kidnapped him," the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets asked, "and who liberated him? And what is the relation of the Russian special services... MORE

One of the few Russian officers serving in Chechnya to have been charged with a serious crime is Colonel Yury Budanov, former commander of the 160th Tank Regiment, who was arrested at the end of March 2000 for allegedly having raped and then strangled an... MORE