Frustrated though the Putin administration's anti-Kadyrovites may be at present, they are still working to build the case for major changes in Moscow's Chechnya policy. In the near future the most likely change is not a peace deal with the separatists: That would be a... MORE

In last week's issue of Moskovskie novosti, Sanobar Shermatova provided sketches of Chechnya's new representatives in the federal parliament. Chechnya Weekly has already described the careers of Akhmar Zavgaev and Umar Dzhabrailov (see our October 23, 2003, and January 7, 2004, issues); Shermatova's article adds... MORE

Vladimir Putin is genuinely popular among Russia's voters, often not because of his policies but in spite of them. Opinion pollsters have noted a recurring pattern: Russians are discontented about the state of the country and distrustful of its government, but they nevertheless love Putin.... MORE

The January 30 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education (website https://chronicle.com/) has an article by Byron MacWilliams on the struggle to keep university studies alive in Grozny. In a city where students still risk their lives simply by coming to class every day, he... MORE

Because of an editorial error, the meaning of a sentence that appeared in last week's Chechnya Weekly was significantly and improperly altered. The error occurred in the penultimate paragraph of the edition's final article (entitled "Thoughts on Dubrovka"). The paragraph should have read as follows:... MORE

Last week's terrorist atrocity on the Moscow subway system, in addition to killing dozens of unsuspecting civilians, underlined an ugly reality of Russian politics. The Putin administration has now created, or at least thinks it has created, an emotional atmosphere such that it can blame... MORE

Several reports in the Russian media have suggested another parallel between Friday's subway bombing and the 2002 Dubrovka tragedy--disinformation about casualties. The official figure, which remained unchanged over the weekend, was thirty-nine deaths. But as the website Grani.ru observed on February 9, several eyewitnesses are... MORE

The Chechnya to which Russian authorities want Chechen refugees to return is still in a profound humanitarian crisis. That is the belief of a high ranking United Nations official who visited Chechnya and Ingushetia in late January. Jan Egeland, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs,... MORE

The Russians most pessimistic about the prospects for real peace in Chechnya are those with the highest incomes and educations--and also, strikingly, soldiers. Novye izvestia reported on February 3 the results of a poll conducted by ROMIR Monitoring in late January. Of the 1,630 Russians... MORE

Most male civilians abducted by federal forces in Chechnya are now taken to pits located at military bases, according to a February 5 report by Chechen journalist Murad Magomadov for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (available via its website www.iwpr.net). "Few get... MORE