Evidence has begun to mount up that the FSB of Chechnya, headed by General Sergei Babkin, and other Russian power ministries have decided in the fairly near future to jettison the pro-Moscow chief of administration of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov. Two factors appear to be impelling... MORE

Writing in the July 8 (no. 48) issue of Novaya Gazeta, the editors of the twice-weekly pro-democracy publication reported: "They have released from prison one of the most cruel of the [Russian] military criminals of the second Chechen war, a man who used a saw... MORE

In an article entitled "Human Rights Defenders Have 'Slammed the Door'," appearing in the July 12 issue of Novye Izvestia, journalist Zoya Svetova reported that on July 8 a number of leading Russian human rights NGOs had "repudiated their participation in regular meetings with representatives... MORE

On July 9, the Nobel-prize winning medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) issued a press release in which it condemned "the forced relocation of displaced Chechens and Russians to temporary locations in Grozny, where violence and insecurity are a common feature of... MORE

The July 9 issue of Nezavisimaya Gazeta contains an interview with retired General Anatoly Kulikov, a former Russian minister of internal affairs and presently the chairman of the State Duma's committee on security, in which he reveals that "65,000 [Russian soldiers] have been made cripples"... MORE

The Russian forces operating in Chechnya, war correspondent Mikhail Khodarenok wrote in the July 5 issue of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, are fast running out of ammunition for all their weapon systems. Since they have used up almost all of the shells for the modern artillery systems... MORE

In an article entitled "More Terrible than War: Why the Russians Are Returning to Grozny," which appeared in the July 2 issue of Moskovskie Komsomolets, journalist Aleksandr Minkin wrote: "'The [ethnic] Russians are returning to Chechnya! Things are going right. Already 100 families have returned... MORE

They Are Taking Away Chechnya from Kadyrov" was a heading in the July 11 number of Gazeta.ru. "It is going to be more difficult for Akhmad Kadyrov to become president of Chechnya than he thought," Gazeta.ru wrote. "The section [in the draft constitution for the... MORE

An ethnic Chechen, Abdul-Khakim Sultygov, was named on July 12 as the new special representative of the Russian president for human rights in Chechnya. Sultygov had been working as the secretary of the joint working group of the Duma and the Parliamentary Assembly of the... MORE

More than 6 million rubles earmarked for Chechnya from the federal budget for the restoration of housing, an official Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on July 10, have been embezzled by a thirty-year-old resident of Alkhan-Kala. In April 2001, the accused had concluded an... MORE