Former Ingushetian President Ruslan Aushev denied on November 15 reports that he had been offered the job of special presidential representative for national issues in the North Caucasus. "I learned of this from media reports," Interfax quoted him as saying. "No one has offered me... MORE

A delegation from the Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees of Russia will meet with Akhmed Zakaev, the London-based Chechen separatist envoy, in Brussels on November 23 or 24, the group's executive secretary, Valentina Melnikova, told Interfax on November 15. Melnikova told the news agency that... MORE

The Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) held its General Assembly in Moscow on November 11-14, bringing together representatives of Helsinki Committees from throughout Europe, Central Asia and North America. The meeting, which was hosted by the Moscow Helsinki Group, featured a roundtable,... MORE

Amnesty International (AI) has also weighed in on the situation in Chechnya. In a report timed to coincide with the European Union-Russia summit, which was postponed earlier this month and is now scheduled for November 25, AI put together "detailed testimonies" showing how victims of... MORE

Russky kurier reported on November 15 that the case against Zara Murtazalieva, the 20-year-old Chechen woman arrested in Moscow earlier this year on charges of recruiting suicide bombers to carry out attacks in the capital, was "fully fabricated and could ‘go into the textbooks' on... MORE

Reports of Russian military losses in Chechnya, though varied and difficult to confirm, indicate the ongoing struggle within Russia's army to realign its Soviet thinking, doctrine and tactics to deal adequately with terrorism and counter-insurgency. For instance, The Chechen Times on November 4 cited Chechen... MORE

Valentina Melnikova, head of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees, told Interfax on November 22 that a meeting between a delegation from her group and Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov's London-based emissary, Akhmed Zakaev, would not take place in Brussels the following day as planned... MORE

Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov told reporters on November 19 that more than 200,000 people have been killed in Chechnya since 1994. He added that more than 20,000 children were killed during that same period, with tens of thousands more children made orphans, Interfax... MORE

The question of the number of Russian troops killed in Chechnya also continues to be a matter of dispute. Vyacheslav Izmailov, military correspondent for Novaya gazeta, wrote in the bi-weekly's November 22 edition that more than 15,000 Russian servicemen have been killed in Chechnya over... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry has demanded explanations from Sweden concerning the opening of the Chechen separatist Kavkaz Center website in Sweden. "We expect Sweden, which says that it is a steadfast member of the international coalition in the war on terror, to take necessary action to... MORE