On February 5, Boris Nemtsov, leader of the Union of Right Forces faction in the State Duma and a Duma deputy speaker, had a meeting with President Putin during which he presented his new plan for regulating the conflict in Chechnya. The following day, 6... MORE

The February 15 issue of the Russian emigre weekly Russkaya mysl', which is published in Paris, carried an article entitled "The Children of Chechnya," reporting on a press conference held at the Central House of Journalists in Moscow on February 7. The theme of the... MORE

On February 12, the chairman of the Russian Accounting Chamber (the rough equivalent of the U.S. General Accounting Office), former Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, stated publicly that the cost of the war in Chechnya had been so great that the money spent on it could... MORE

The pro-Moscow government of Chechnya is slowly being formed. A major reason for the slowness of this process is that the names of future ministers have to be agreed upon by the chief of administration, Akhmad Kadyrov; the premier, Stanislav Il'yasov; and the plenipotentiary representative... MORE

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