In early January the Russian government continued its efforts to extradite top Maskhadov aide Akhmed Zakaev, with Deputy General Prosecutor Sergei Fridinski stated that the British courts' review of Moscow's request for Zakaev's extradition might last for years. The website Grani.ru suggested that the Russian... MORE

The pro-Moscow administration in Grozny has announced that voting for their proposed new constitution for the republic is set for March 23. Human rights specialists are questioning the legitimacy of both the constitutional text itself and the referendum intended to ratify that text. Artyom Vernidoub... MORE

Agence France Presse reported on January 24 that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has abandoned efforts to try to persuade Moscow to admit OSCE human rights monitors back into Chechnya. A European delegate to the OSCE council reportedly said that the mission... MORE

Recent months have seen a significant change in the Russian forces' tactics in Chechnya, according to one of Russia's most respected human rights organizations. Eliza Musaeva, who heads the office of Memorial in Ingushetia, told Radio Liberty that "the military has stopped their massive 'mopping-up'... MORE

The Russian government is continuing to lobby the U.S. State Department to classify the Chechen separatist movement as "terrorist." Last week the Russian news media highlighted remarks by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who said in a January 23 interview with the radio... MORE

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

A SOLDIER'S VIEW 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... MORE

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

LORD JUDD'S RESIGNATION: ENGLISH SPIN, RUSSIAN DUCK The Russian government has won a double victory in Western Europe for its policies in Chechnya. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), one of the continent's most important institutions for human-rights advocacy, adopted a resolution... MORE