On May 22, Nikolai Patrushev, director of the FSB, informed journalists in Makhachkala, Dagestan that a large bomb that had gone off in Kaspiisk on May 9, killing forty-three and wounding 170, had been set by a group of ten persons reporting to Dagestani field... MORE

In Chita [in eastern Siberia]," the newspaper Novye Izvestia wrote on May 15, "The elite [MVD] unit SOBR (all of them are officers) has refused to go to Chechnya. The 'refusers' are people who have passed through all the 'hot spots' and have fought in... MORE

On May 17, the newspaper Kommersant reported that the commander of the Combined Group of Russian Forces in Chechnya, Colonel General Vladimir Moltenskoi, had stated that, as early as June of this year, the payment of "combat wages" will be halted to personnel of the... MORE

On May 19, Agence France Presse reported that, during recent talks with the newly elected Ingush president, retired FSB General Murat Zyazikov, President Putin "said the [Chechen] refugees must return very soon [to Chechnya] and called for Ingush and Chechen authorities to spearhead repatriation efforts."... MORE

The time has come," President Putin solemnly told leaders from Russia's southern regions gathered in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi on May 16, "to extend the powers of the chairman of the Chechen administration." Putin then read out the text of a decree... MORE

While visiting the Pratica Di Mare Air Force Base in Rome, Italy following the recent Moscow summit, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell answered a question concerning how he characterized the war in Chechnya by stating: "With respect to Chechnya, Chechnya is an area of... MORE

On May 30, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria responded to the secretary's statement by declaring: "The people and the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria express their outrage at the statement made by U.S. Secretary of State... MORE

On May 31, NTV.ru reported that "representatives of the American administration 'have not met and do not plan to meet' with the so-called minister of foreign affairs of Chechnya, Il'yas Akhmadov, who is currently present in Washington. An official of the State Department, who wished... MORE

In his just-published memoir, The Russia Hand (Random House, 2002), former deputy secretary of state and the president-designate of the Brookings Institution, Strobe Talbott, offered several informative passages concerning the Clinton administration's dealings with the Russian leadership both during the 1994-1996 conflict and the current... MORE