The December 14 issue of Nezavisimaya gazeta, an influential Russian daily, carried an article entitled "The State, Politics and Separatism," authored by Ruslan Khasbulatov, a former speaker of the Russian parliament (until October 1993), and one of the best-known Chechens living in Russia. The subtitle... MORE

On December 20, the chairman of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Rushailo, reported to President Vladimir Putin on the situation in Chechnya, from which he had just returned after a two-day inspection visit. Rushailo noted that "over only the past three months [in... MORE

The special representative of President Putin for human rights in Chechnya, Vladimir Kalamanov, recently noted that conditions for forced migrants living in the Chechen Republic have gotten "still worse." Not only is hot food no longer being provided for the refugees, but they now "simply... MORE

Ilya Maksakov, a journalist who covers the war for Nezavisimaya gazeta, recently criticized the military's proposed plan to establish 200 garrisons in a majority of the towns and villages of the Chechen Republic. The soldiers manning these garrisons, he warned, would represent sitting ducks for... MORE

President Putin's chief spokesman for issues relating to Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, recently underscored that Chechnya is not to be accorded special status once it is fully reincorporated back into Russia. "I think that today the theme of special rights for subjects of the federation," he... MORE

In early 1996, Boris Nemtsov, the then young governor of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, significantly advanced the prospects for peace during the first (1994-1996) Russo-Chechen war when he collected a million signatures from residents of his region pleading for an end to the conflict. On December... MORE

It has been reported that two senior officials of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Lord Frank Judd of Great Britain and Rudolf Binding of Germany, intend to visit Russia on January 13-17. The two monitors are to make use of the... MORE

On December 30, the Toronto Globe and Mail published a summary of an interview conducted with Marie Struthers, a Montreal native and researcher for Human Rights Watch, who had just returned from a two-week mission to Ingushetia, where she had interviewed more than thirty refugees... MORE

bizarre incident continues to have repercussions in both Russia and Chechnya: On November 12, elite Russian military units apparently succeeded in capturing the notorious kidnapper and criminal Arbi Baraev, a key leader of the Chechen Wahhabis. Baraev was then set free by a large armed... MORE