Much of the punditry about the race to fill the pro-Moscow administration's vacant presidency has assumed that the Kremlin will continue its policy of favoring a single strong leader in Chechnya - backing that leader's near-total control over the parliament, the local district administrations, and... MORE

The Russian and Ingush authorities are making what they apparently hope will be the final push in driving Chechen refugees out of their tent camps in Ingushetia. The sole remaining camp, Satsita, is due to be closed on June 10, according to the Federal Migration... MORE

Both federal and separatist accounts of the day-to-day course of combat operations in Chechnya are so self-serving that it is extremely difficult to discern the truth behind the propaganda. One can be fairly confident that each side’s admissions of its own losses in battle are... MORE

Governments and other organizations with “deep pockets” usually deny paying ransoms or bribes, and the terrorists or corrupt bureaucrats who receive such payments also usually prefer to keep them secret. More than once a kidnap victim has been freed in the Caucasus under suspicions that... MORE

The maneuvers that will really decide Chechnya’s special presidential election in August have all been taking place behind the scenes. The only voters who really matter—Vladimir Putin’s inner circle in the Kremlin—are remaining quiet. But speculation and rumors continue. Andrei Riskin noted in May 26... MORE

The May 27 issue of Novaya Gazeta includes a document that claims to be a letter from an FSB officer in southern Russia’s Stavropol region. If authentic, the letter sheds additional light on the mysterious kidnapping in March of Rashid Ozdoyev, an investigator for the... MORE

A verdict in the case of two Russian intelligence operatives charged with assassinating Chechen extremist Zelimkhan Yandarbiev in Qatar is now expected on June 8. According to a May 27 report on Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite television network, a lawyer for the two defendants said... MORE

The prevailing opinion among independent observers seems to be that Zelimkhan Kadyrov died of natural causes, despite inconsistent reports from Chechnya’s pro-Moscow administration. Russian news agencies reported mid-evening on May 31 that the elder son of the late Akhmad Kadyrov had been found dead earlier... MORE

The desire of Georgia’s new president Mikheil Saakashvili to improve relations with Russia, especially to relax Moscow’s travel restrictions on visitors from Georgia, increasingly seems to spell bad news for Chechen separatists who have taken refuge on the Georgian side of the border. Radio Liberty... MORE

Yelena Shesternina is not the first Russian journalist to do it, but she has performed a valuable service by bringing the figures up to date. The correspondent for Russky Kurier reported in that newspaper's June 3 issue on a simple exercise in arithmetic: adding up... MORE