As was noted in a previous issue of this newsletter, Stanislav Il'yasov, formerly the head of government of Stavropol Krai, has been named prime minister of the pro-Moscow government of Chechnya. In press interviews, Il'yasov has drawn attention to the fact that he was born... MORE

On January 25, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted 88-20 (with 11 abstentions) to restore Russia's voting rights in the Council. Russia had been the first country to lose its voting rights over the half-century existence of the forty-three-nation assembly (Agence... MORE

Spokesmen for the Russian leadership have begun making a great deal out of the supposed fact that Aslan Maskhadov's powers as Chechen president were to expire at the end of January 2001. Thus journalist Timofei Borisov wrote in the government newspaper Rossiiskaya gazeta: "De facto... MORE

On January 22, Russian Deputy Interior Minister General Ivan Golubev told a press conference in Moscow that the ongoing "antiterrorist operation" has, since the fall of 1999, cost the internal troops and other forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs 2,700 dead and more than... MORE

It has been announced that a former Chechen field commander, Salautdin Temirbulatov, aged 39, is to stand trial in Kabardino-Balkariya for "war crimes"--that is, the execution, captured on videotape, of four Russian contract soldiers--committed in April 1996 during the previous conflict. He is the first... MORE

How do ethnic Chechens living in the Republic of Chechnya get their information? In an interview with the website Utro, Shamil Beno, the pro-Moscow plenipotentiary representative of the Chechen Republic to the Kremlin, recently noted: "We conducted sociological research which found...that more than 20 percent... MORE

As reported last week, on January 22 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev was to be placed in charge of the entire "counterterrorist operation" being conducted in Chechnya. As Putin's decree of that day mandated, all of the Russian "power ministries"--the... MORE

On January 22, President Vladimir Putin of Russia announced that Russia was switching the command of the "antiterrorist" operation in Chechnya from the military to the Federal Security Service (FSB). The director of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev, Putin announced, would henceforth be in charge of... MORE