On May 29, at a meeting held in Grozny (Djohar), the pro-Moscow head of the Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, and the newly elected president of Ingushetia, retired FSB General Murat Zyazikov, signed an agreement affirming that "all Chechen refugees should be brought back home from... MORE

On May 28, the new head of the European directorate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Raymond Hall, reaffirmed that the UN is "upholding the principle of voluntary return" of Chechen internally displaced persons currently living in Ingushetia. "Asked if law enforcement actions against... MORE

On May 28, Amnesty International released its annual report, charging that Russian and Chechen separatist armed forces had both committed serious human rights abuses last year. "Violations by Russian forces," the report noted, "included torture, 'disappearances,' extra-judicial executions and arbitrary detention in unofficial prisons... Criminal... MORE

In an article appearing in the May 25 issue of Novye Izvestia, entitled "Is There Torture in Russia?" journalist Zoya Svetova began by observing: "President Bush, who this week is to meet in Moscow with President Putin and decide important strategic questions with him, considers... MORE

On May 28, a leading Russian human rights organization, Memorial, noted that, at its sessions held in Geneva on 13, 14 and 16 May, the UN Committee against Torture had adopted recommendations concerning the war in Chechnya which had been put forward by Memorial and... MORE

On May 27, a session was held in Moscow of the Working Group of the Public Committee to Investigate the Circumstances of the Explosions of Apartment Houses in Moscow and Volgodonsk and the Exercises of the FSB in Ryazan (in September 1999). Participating in the... MORE

On May 30, the Associated Press reported that a gathering of Chechen women were engaged in protesting the abduction by federal forces and subsequent disappearance of their relatives in a demonstration which was held outside the offices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in... MORE

On May 29, President Putin declared that, "The primary task at present is the creation of a [pro-Moscow Chechen] ministry of internal affairs." This structure, he added, must assume "the basic responsibility for the situation in Chechnya." Elections of a Chechen head of the republic,... MORE

The property of Novaya Gazeta is under arrest," the website NTV.ru reported on June 7. Bailiffs from the Basmannyi Court in Moscow have begun to "conduct an inventory of [the newspaper's] property and to place it under arrest." The previous day, the No. 40 issue... MORE