On November 12, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov triumphantly announced that all units of the 76th Airborne Division located in Chechnya will be withdrawn from the Republic by January 2005, the Yufo.ru website reported. However, on November 26, RIA Novosti quoted Nikolai Rogozhkin, commander of... MORE

Two thousand demonstrators marched in Istanbul, Turkey to protest President Vladimir Putin's visit to Ankara, Newsru.com reported on December 7. The demonstrators carried placards reading "Murderer Putin!" and "Get Out of Turkey!" A group of protesters from among Turkey's large community with roots in the... MORE

Izvestia on December 6 ran the first of several reports by special correspondent Vadim Rechkalov attempting to explain why, ten years after the December 9, 1994 decree signed by then President Boris Yeltsin authorizing the use of all means necessary to halt the activities of... MORE

Chechenpress reported on December 5 that relatives of Chechen rebel leader had been taken hostage the previous day by "Russian occupiers and their armed accomplices from among the Kadyrovtsy" – an apparent reference to members of Chechen First Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov's presidential security service.... MORE

In the past decade, the Chechen war has had a profound and total impact on life in Russia. Its direct consequences include the death of thousands of human victims, enormous material expenditures that can be counted in millions of rubles, and the devastation of the... MORE

December 11 marked the tenth anniversary of the Russian military intervention that began the first of the two modern Russo-Chechen wars. Russian, Western and Chechen media alike featured commentaries on the start of then President Boris Yeltsin's campaign to "restore constitutional order" in the breakaway... MORE

Speaking at Columbia University in New York on December 9, President Vladimir Putin's adviser on Chechnya, Aslambek Aslakhanov, reiterated the Kremlin's policy of rejecting negotiations with rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, calling him "just a banner" around which rebel groups rally. "Without him, they are only... MORE

Nezavisimaya gazeta on December 10 quoted "informed" military sources as saying that Russia's Defense Military is ready to launch "preventive strikes on terrorist bases" outside Russia. "One can assume with a high degree of probability that this relates above all to the bases of Chechen... MORE

Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov has said that all officials involved in machinations with compensation payments for war-damaged dwellings should be prosecuted and named publicly in order to shame them, Rossiiskaya gazeta reported on December 11. Earlier, on December 4, Kadyrov told a meeting... MORE

On December 8, a huge explosion in the Caucasian republic of Dagestan damaged a segment of the pipeline for exporting natural gas from Russia to Azerbaijan. Local security officials almost immediately admitted that the blast was an act of sabotage. On December 9, NTV quoted... MORE