In an unexpected development, an official Russian government newspaper, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, in its March 30 issue, published a lengthy interview with Aleksandr Litvinenko, a former lieutenant colonel in the FSB, who recently received political asylum in Great Britain. Some excerpts: Interviewer: "You took part in... MORE

On April 4, Gazeta.ru reported on the first session of a new public commission to investigate the explosions of the apartment houses in Moscow and Volgodonsk in the fall of 1999. Fifteen persons are members of the new commission, including five deputies of the State... MORE

British correspondent Ian Traynor authored a report appearing in the March 28 issue of The Guardian (London)on a new Russian TV series entitled "Spetsnaz," which had premiered on state television during prime time the previous evening: "[The] episode," Traynor wrote, "had a bunch of Russian... MORE

On April 2, the court of the North Caucasus Military District declared yet another recess in the trial of Colonel Yury Budanov, charged with the murder of an 18-year-old Chechen woman, El'za Kungaeva. The trial, which began in February of 2001, will resume on May... MORE

.On April 7, elections were held for the post of the next president of Ingushetia. Because there are some 150,000 Chechen IDPs (internally displaced persons) currently living on the territory of this small autonomous republic, whoever becomes the next Ingush president must necessarily play a... MORE

Over the past week, Russian President Vladimir Putin made two major statements concerning the conflict in Chechnya. In his annual State-of-the-Nation address to the Russian parliament, delivered on April 18 over Russian state television, Putin announced: "The military phase of the conflict may be considered... MORE

On the day preceding his State-of-the-Nation speech, Putin held an approximately three-hour-long meeting with representatives of the Chechen diaspora residing in Moscow, as well as with key pro-Moscow Chechen officials from Djohar (Grozny). Among those present at the meeting were Akhmad Kadyrov, head of the... MORE

Georgia's Ministry for Refugees and Settlement Issues, it was reported on April 15, has begun reregistering Chechen refugees living in the Pankisi Gorge region of northern Georgia. "The reregistration, which ends on April 26, is being financed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees,... MORE

The newspaper Kommersant reported that, on April 11, Putin summoned Sergei Stepashin, the chairman of the Russian Accounting Chamber, to his office in the Kremlin to inquire about the results of that body's inquiry into the use of Russian budget funds for the restoration of... MORE