Viktor Alksnis, one of the Russian parliament's most strident ultra-nationalists, harshly assailed the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers last week for its recent offer to help promote peace negotiations in Chechnya. Alksnis, a member of the pro-Kremlin Rodina (Motherland) party, called on the federal... MORE

In what appears to be another case of his impulsively talking before thinking, Ramzan Kadyrov announced last week that the president of Chechnya's underground separatist government was about to surrender. Though other pro-Kremlin leaders either remained silent about the young Kadyrov's claims or took pains... MORE

Indications are multiplying that the federal troops in Beslan during last month's crisis used grossly inappropriate weaponry, increasing the dangers to the schoolchildren and others taken hostage by terrorists. According to an October 24 article in Britain's Independent by Andrew Osborn, the paper's Moscow correspondent,... MORE

Last weekend, Moscow's Pushkin Square witnessed the largest anti-war demonstration in many years, with almost 10 times as many participants as in such demonstrations in the recent past. The demonstration had been planned to observe the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the second post-Soviet... MORE

The war in the North Caucasus is about to lose one of its most intrepid front-line reporters as Anne Nivat prepares to end her long residence in Moscow and return to her native France. It is unfortunate that her second book on Chechnya (La guerre... MORE

Akhmed Zakaev, the London-based representative of the underground government of Aslan Maskhadov, released a statement on November 1 condemning the terrorist warlord Shamil Basaev. As reported by the Newsru.com website, Zakaev sharply rejected a recent statement purportedly from Basaev claiming that the separatist guerrillas have... MORE

Though now overshadowed by the greater tragedy of Beslan, the October 2002 hostage episode at Moscow's Dubrovka theater continues to raise questions. Some two years later, the federal authorities have still failed to make clear just what was the chemical composition of the powerful narcotic... MORE

Neo-Stalinist concepts of collective responsibility for individual crimes are still thriving in Russia's security agencies. According to an October 29 article by Maria Tsvetkova and Yelena Rudnieva on the Gazeta.ru website, some of the siloviki are proposing to formalize by law the practice of punishing... MORE

FSB head Nikolai Patrushev reluctantly admitted to the Duma last week that one of the Kremlin's least favorite political figures deserves praise rather than blame for his activities during the Beslan tragedy, according to Gazeta.ru. In response to a Duma deputy who suggested that former... MORE

Bribery and extortion continue to be common abuses in the process by which Chechens seek financial compensation from the federal government for their homes damaged or destroyed during the war, according to an October 28 report by Chechen journalists Kazbek Tsuraev and Aslanbek Badilaev for... MORE