Lokshina found Grozny to be genuinely more peaceful than it had been two months earlier: "The night was quiet, almost without gunfire....no comparison with October." She saw this as a sign that "during these two months much has changed. The war has ended, but in... MORE

Relations between Moscow and Chechnya have been so painful for most of the last two centuries that we too easily forget that there has been a positive side. At the rank-and-file level, Slavs and Chechens have often managed to live as good neighbors and friends.... MORE

The average Russian is increasingly likely to favor peace negotiations rather than a military solution to the Chechen conflict. But he has at the same time become more likely to agree with the Kremlin line that peaceful life is already returning to Chechnya. These seemingly... MORE

The Moscow daily Nezavisimaya gazeta, usually skeptical of the official line on Chechnya, accused rebel guerrillas of assassinating mayors and other local district heads in an article published on December 17. On the previous day rebels had killed Nurdi Elmurzaev, mayor of the village of... MORE

Authorities in Ingushetia succeeded on December 21 in thwarting a mass demonstration against the proposed unification of that republic with Chechnya, according to a December 23 report by Timur Aliev for Prague Watchdog. The police blocked access to Soglasiya Square in the Ingush capital of... MORE

On December 19 the human rights center Memorial published a detailed account of a raid on Chechen civilians in Grozny's Lenin district. The victims of the attack were residents of one of the Kadyrov administration's temporary resettlement centers for new returnees from Ingushetia. These are... MORE

The administration of Akhmad Kadyrov is now hinting that international humanitarian organizations may be forbidden to continue operating in Chechnya or Ingushetia. According to a January 10 report by Itar-Tass, the administration's vice premier, Bilkhis Baidaev, said in an interview with that news agency that... MORE

Indeed, as had been predicted by several human rights activists, pressures are now intensifying on Chechen refugees to leave the shelters that have housed them in Ingushetia. According to a January 8 report on the website Prava cheloveka v Rossii ("Human Rights in Russia"), refugees... MORE

In a major scoop, the Moscow daily Nezavisimaya gazeta finds that Kadyrov has now won the final round of his long campaign to see to it that every major political appointee in Chechnya will be someone personally dependent on himself. Two of the newspaper's correspondents,... MORE

The Russian military will not give up without a fight to counter Akhmad Kadyrov's push to place all police forces within Chechnya under the control of his own administration. In an interview published on January 9, the ultra-nationalist Moscow journal Zavtra ("Tomorrow") asked General Valery... MORE