Lord Frank Judd, chief rapporteur for Chechnya of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), kept his counsel until returning from his recent visit to Chechnya. Before flying south from Moscow he even made some statements that must have been welcome to the... MORE

It would seem that Akhmad Kadyrov now has the upper hand over Mikhail Babich in the power struggle within the Moscow-appointed Chechen administration. The Itar-Tass news agency reported on January 23 that Prime Minister Babich has suddenly left for vacation. In mid-January Babich had vigorously... MORE

Three years ago, Vadim Rechkalov of the Moscow daily Izvestia interviewed two Russian soldiers who were convalescing in a hospital in the Moscow suburbs their wounds suffered in Chechnya. The two veterans insisted that their conversation must be entirely off the record--but recently one of... MORE

:* News briefs* Lord Judd's resignation: English spin, Russian duck* Zakaev: will he be extradited?* Is Moscow subsidizing Chechen rebels?

Georgi Ekhov reported in a January 31 article on the website Politcom.ru that at a Kremlin meeting of the Security Council--a top advisory body to Russian President Vladimir Putin on military and foreign policy affairs--the president's national security adviser Vladimir Rushailo acknowledged that the military,... MORE

An antiwar demonstration in Moscow attracted about 1,000 participants on February 1. The protesters, led by veteran human rights activist Lev Ponomarev, adopted a statement that singled out the referendum planned for March, saying that it would inevitably lead to a new outburst of violence... MORE

Radio Liberty broadcast on harassment of Chechens who live in Moscow included an interview with Svetlana Gannyshkina, head of the committee Za grazhdanskoe sodeistvie (For civic assistance). She said that every day her organization gets appeals from people whose relatives have been arrested, sometimes because... MORE

Lord Judd's recent report to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe included some reflections on the anti-Moscow forces in Chechnya: "I detect at least three elements amongst the fighters in the Chechen Republic.... There are the extremists, largely indistinguishable in their motivation, if... MORE

An opinion poll released on January 31 by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion found that more than 60 percent of Russians polled now favor negotiations with the rebels in Chechnya. Only 30 percent are for continued military operations. Thus public opinion... MORE

Like the republic's physical territory, Chechnya's broadcast airwaves continue to elude the federal government's drive to consolidate its control. On the evening of February 3 the underground separatist government succeeded in repeatedly airing a 20-minute television speech by its president Aslan Maskhadov, calling for noncooperation... MORE