The All Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) has reported the results of a nation-wide poll taken during May 24-27 (Russiavotes.org) Respondents were asked this question: "Do you consider that it is necessary to continue the military operation in Chechnya or to... MORE

In what could have been the final issue of the pro-democracy twice-weekly publication Novaya Gazeta (no. 41, June 10), the award-winning Russian war correspondent Anna Politkovskaya, in an article entitled "The Chastisers: The Very Same Doctor Who Imprisoned [Soviet] Dissidents in Prison Psychiatric Hospitals Has... MORE

On June 14, Kris Janowski of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva reported: "UNHCR has won assurances from Moscow that an estimated 150,000 Chechens living in neighboring Ingushetia will not be forced back to their volatile Northern Caucasus homeland. UNHCR... MORE

In an interview with the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza on June 10, Oleg Orlov, the leader of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, expressed strong concern that Chechen IDPs living in Ingushetia might soon be forced back into their home republic. Ingush families who have... MORE

The June 12 issue of the mass circulation weekly, Argumenty i Fakty contains an interview with the newly elected president of Ingushetia, retired FSB General Murat Zyazikov. "According to the data of the Government of Russia," Zyazikov affirmed, "they are prepared to receive many [Chechen]... MORE

On June 13, the commission on juridical questions and human rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe visited Saratov. On the subject of Chechnya, Rudolf Bindig of Germany, a member of the commission, declared that "the Council of Europe categorically does not... MORE

On June 7, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer criticized the behavior of Russia's armed forces in Chechnya as "unacceptable." In a news conference devoted to the German government's annual report on human rights, Fischer said that the situation in Chechnya "continues to raise great concerns."... MORE

On June 6, Ambassador Stephan Minikes, head of the United States mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in an address to the Permanent Council of the OSCE based in Vienna, stated inter alia: "The [OSCE] Assistance Group continues to be the... MORE

On June 11, the Foreign Ministry of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria issued a statement affirming: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs... is deeply concerned with the failure of the OSCE Assistance Group in Chechnya to fulfill its mandate. As laid down in the decision... MORE