Ekho Moskvy reported on January 11 that a "large-scale special operation" was underway in several districts of Ingushetia. According to the radio station, the operation involved "practically all of the republic's security services." It followed an attack by unknown assailants on the quarters of a... MORE

It has been four and a half years since Khava Baraeva carried out the first suicide bombing in Russia, yet the threat of suicide terrorism shows no sign of subsiding. After the wave of suicide bombings that shook Russia in 2003 ended, many observers thought... MORE

Nikolai Gryaznov, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) directorate in Dagestan, said on January 17 that the body of Rasul Makasharipov, a.k.a. "Muslim," was among the remains of five militants recovered in the ruins of a house in a village located on the outskirts... MORE

The January 10 detention of Zulai Kadyrova, the sister of Chechnya's first deputy prime minister, by police in Dagestan's Khasavyurt district and her subsequent "rescue" by a group of armed men led by her brother has continued to reverberate in North Caucasus inter-republican relations. Dmitri... MORE

Novye izvestia reported on January 18 that Gennady Uminsky, the retired warrant officer who filed suit in an Oryol district court on January 13 seeking restitution from the separatist Chechen government for disabling injuries he suffered when his unit was trapped in a three-week battle... MORE

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently granted political asylum to Alyona Morozava, the 28-year-old woman who lost her mother and boyfriend in the September 1999 explosion that destroyed her apartment building on Ulitsa Guryanova in southern Moscow. Ms. Morozava participated in the work of... MORE

How relevant is it today to speak of the "overall radicalization" of the Chechen resistance movement? What prompts so many analysts and observers to consider the actions of only two detachments of the Chechen resistance as characteristic of all armed formations subordinated to Aslan Maskhadov?... MORE

Makhmut Magomadov, a Chechen human rights activist who previously served as a deputy prosecutor during Aslan Maskhadov's presidency, was abducted in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district on January 20. Since 2000, he has worked as a legal expert for the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF),... MORE

Other kidnappings and extra-judicial killings in Chechnya and neighboring republics were reported last week. Radio Liberty reported on January 19 that Russian troops and Chechen OMON police commandos had detained eight young Grozny residents during so-called "targeted mopping-up" operations. According to a January 19 press... MORE

The issue of the fate of relatives of Chechen separatist President Aslan Maskhadov has also remained the focus of attention of human rights groups. Memorial issued a press release on January 12 detailing what it said were the abductions of eight of Maskhadov's relatives last... MORE