Ramzan Kadyrov, Akhmad Kadyrov's son and the head of his private army, personally took part in the torture of an imprisoned Chechen, according to a January 13 article by Nick Paton Walsh of the British daily The Guardian. The young Chechen, for whom the British... MORE

Akhmad Kadyrov's late-January visit to Saudi Arabia, like his trip to New York and Washington last year, shows that he still enjoys Vladimir Putin's strong support not only within Chechnya but also as a spokesman in foreign relations. A major goal of his trip was... MORE

Though Kadyrov can presently count on a tame parliament within Chechnya--as Putin can in Russia as a whole--he seems to dislike even the external forms of parliamentary government with its checks and balances. According to a January 14 article by Ivan Sukhov in Vremya novostei,... MORE

Rightist presidential candidate Irina Khakamada launched her campaign this week with a surprisingly strong attack on the incumbent Putin over Chechnya. Raising issues that the Kremlin clearly wants to keep out of any public forum, she said that she is convinced that the hostage takers... MORE

Valery Solovei has written a stinging commentary on Putin's Chechnya policies for the January 16 issue of Rodnaya gazeta. Here is a slightly abridged version: "The war...has not ended and shows no signs of ending. There has not even taken place the [usual] seasonal reduction... MORE

UN-watchers now have a new reason to wonder whether UNESCO--the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization--is making good use of the funds collected from the taxpayers of its member states. According to a January 23 report from the BBC, UNESCO is planning to spend... MORE

Human rights activists are increasingly pessimistic about the chances of stopping the federal, Chechen and Ingush authorities from closing Ingushetia's camps for Chechen refugees. In a January 26 article for Russky kurier, Timur Aliev predicted that the "war of the tents" is nearing its end,... MORE

During a single press conference in Moscow on January 19, Akhmad Kadyrov publicly called for two sweeping constitutional changes, either of which would sharply accelerate the current authoritarian trend in Russia. Especially noteworthy is that each of these proposals applies not to Chechnya but to... MORE

Was the Kadyrov expedition to Saudi Arabia a sudden breakthrough, or simply the formal confirmation of a long-ripening rapprochement between the desert kingdom and Moscow? In a January 21 article for Moskovskie novosti, Sanobar Shermatova and Bakhtiyar Mirkasymov discussed several aspects of Russian-Saudi relations that... MORE

On January 22, Vladimir Putin relieved Abdul Sultygov from his position as the Kremlin's special representative for human rights in Chechnya. Independent observers see two possible results: Either the human rights situation in the republic will remain the same, or it will get worse. Putin's... MORE