? We are likely never to know. On December 11, Grani.ru reported that the Russian Ministry of Health had "left without response" a formal inquiry from the State Duma's Committee on Preserving Health concerning the contents of the gas. "This information constitutes a state secret,"... MORE

? The answer to this question appears unambiguously to be yes. After the Russian State Duma--which is de facto dominated by pro-Putin forces--decided not to conduct an investigation into the handling of the hostagetaking incident, the pro-democracy Union of Right Forces faction in the Duma... MORE

? Apparently not. One well-known Russian military correspondent, Pavel Felgenhauer, has commented: "It is completely surprising that not one of the suicide-terrorists set off a single explosive, although they did shoot very accurately at the armor-clad special forces (they wounded several of them) but not... MORE

? This is a question that must be looked into. The October 29 issue of Moskovsky Komsomolets reported that "agents of the [Russian] special services were in [Movsar] Baraev's band." A man who claimed to be a representative of Russian military intelligence told a reporter... MORE

If one asks the inevitable question, "To whom was the hostagetaking incident profitable?" the answer seems clear: to President Putin and his power ministers. A Russia-wide public opinion poll taken by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOIM) immediately after the storming... MORE

Mission suspended* News briefs

power struggle between Chechnya's two top pro-Moscow officials burst into the open last week, with signs that neither of the two has the federal government's total support. With both Chechen administration head Akhmad Kadyrov and Prime Minister Mikhail Babich launching increasingly strident verbal assaults on... MORE

After a surge of hawkish passions in the wake of October's hostagetaking raid on a Moscow theater, Russian public opinion has swung back to its previous pattern of favoring peace negotiations in Chechnya. A December poll by the All-Russia Center for Public Opinion Research (VTsIOM)... MORE

In what may be remembered as a landmark ruling, the European Court of Human Rights has agreed for the first time to consider legal cases accusing Russian authorities of atrocities in Chechnya. All six cases were brought by Chechens now living as refugees in Ingushetia... MORE

Easily the most important event in Chechnya since the last issue of this Weekly, published just before Christmas, took place on December 27, when three unidentified terrorists drove their bomb-laden vehicles into the Grozny headquarters complex of the Moscow-appointed Chechnya administration. The attack marked a... MORE