Deaths and woundings from combat and mine explosions continue to be daily occurrences in Chechnya. On April 10 the Associated Press reported that six Russian troops and one police officer of the pro-Moscow administration had been killed in Chechnya over the previous twenty-four hours. Two... MORE

Moskovsky komsomolets reported on January 6--quoting an unnamed separatist website--that Aslan Maskhadov, president of Chechnya's underground separatist government, had been wounded in a firefight with federal troops and Chechen police. According to separatist sources, the battle took place recently in the Nozhai-Yurt district in eastern... MORE

A video of the December 10 conference "Catastrophe in Chechnya: Escaping the Quagmire," is available on the website of the American Enterprise Institute at: https://app2.streampipe.com/esp1204/servlet/tc?cn=aei&c=10162&s=20270&e=2702&&espmt=2 The conference was cosponsored by the Jamestown Foundation, the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, the New Atlantic Initiative of... MORE

Akhmad Kadyrov has appointed Umar Dzhabrailov, one of the wealthiest members of Moscow's Chechen community, to represent the republic in the Federation Council, the upper house of the federal parliament. The surprise appointment was announced by Kadyrov's office on January 5. The Kadyrov-controlled website "Chechnyafree"... MORE

The end of 2002 saw Akhmad Kadyrov trying to complete the consolidation of his control over the pro-Moscow government apparatus in Chechnya. As of the deadline for this issue of Chechnya Weekly, he apparently has yet to achieve two key breakthroughs that he is seeking--but... MORE

Vladimir Putin's former employer, the KGB/FSB secret police, continues to extend its power over other government agencies. In a development with direct implications for Chechnya, where Russia's "anti-terrorist operation" is ostensibly under the command of the Interior Ministry, that ministry is now to be headed... MORE

Mikhail Trepashkin, the dissident lawyer and former FSB colonel arrested for his extensive activities challenging Moscow's official versions of events related to the Chechen wars (see Chechnya Weekly, December 15), has accused his Moscow jailkeepers of torturing him. According to a December 27 article on... MORE

Chechen separatist warlord Shamil Basaev, already known to be a terrorist, may or may not be training women suicide bombers to attack Russians--but at the very least he wants the world to think that he is. In late December Basaev claimed responsibility for the two... MORE

The rigging of elections in Akhmad Kadyrov's Chechnya has long since ceased to be a surprise. The latest example: Russia's election authorities now admit that the number of votes counted there and in Ingushetia for the December 7 parliamentary elections was actually greater than the... MORE

The most useful document for a Chechen trying to get through a military checkpoint as quickly as possible is a membership card in the pro-Putin United Russia party. That was one of the discoveries made by Tatiana Lokshina of the Moscow Helsinki Group during her... MORE