Lecha Islamov, a Chechen gangster and former rebel guerrilla commander now serving a ten-year prison sentence, died on April 21 after having been hospitalized in Volgograd with a mysterious illness, the Gzt.ru website reported on April 23. Sources close to the convict told the online... MORE

Is Abu Al-Walid finally dead? Over the years the Russian media have repeatedly announced the destruction of this man, who is said by some to be one of the leading Arab adventurers fighting alongside separatist Chechen guerrillas. The announcements of Al-Walid's death have repeatedly turned... MORE

The Kadyrov administration is issuing increasingly self-confident predictions about the imminent demise of the rebel guerrillas. These predictions might come back to haunt them in the future if Russia and Chechnya should experience a revival of genuinely independent, aggressively skeptical mass media - a development... MORE

"Neutralizing a [separatist] field commander - whether by killing him in battle or by persuading him to surrender - gives [the federal forces] a result which can be shown triumphantly on television. It has long been known, however, that such a result can hardly be... MORE

Chances are fading that the Russian aviator or aviators who killed six young Chechen children and their mother on April 8 (see Chechnya Weekly, April 21) will face serious penalties. In an April 29 article for Novaya gazeta, Anna Politkovskaya reported that the federal military... MORE

In both Chechnya and Ingushetia, one of the most dangerous things a local official can do is to investigate atrocities against civilians by federal military and security personnel. A May 3 article by Moscow correspondent Alex Rodriguez of the Chicago Tribune reported the heroic but... MORE

On April 28 the Strana.ru website published a detailed interview with Magomed Khanbiev, the former minister of defense of the underground Maskhadov government. (In previous reports in the Russian media his surname has been spelled "Khambiev," but he made a point of insisting to Strana.ru... MORE

Even if one assumes the guilt of the two Russian intelligence officers now standing trial for the February assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, much of that episode remains mysterious. Why did the alleged assassins linger in Qatar after the killing rather than immediately making good their... MORE

In a verdict that casts further grave doubt on the rule of law in Russia, a jury trial before a military court found four Spetsnaz officers not guilty of the murder of six Chechen civilians. The jury concluded that Captain Eduard Ulman and his fellow... MORE

The Moscow-based human rights organization Memorial has received an award from the United Nations in recognition of its work for refugees, according to a May 3 report on the website Grani.ru. In expressing her and her colleagues' gratitude for the award, Svetlana Gannushkina of Memorial... MORE