Writing in the February 14 edition of Moskovsky komsomolets, Vadim Rechkalov speculated that Moscow wants Ramzan Kadyrov out of the way as part of a plan to "buy" peace in Chechnya through the treaty on the delimitation of powers between Moscow and Chechnya, the drafting... MORE

The Chechen Diaspora is still taking shape. The devastating war in Chechnya that has lasted for ten years has already produced a large number of refugees. Most of them, of course, moved to Russia, while others chose to escape the old Empire and preferred to... MORE

Chechnya was put on a "reinforced security regime" on February 21 with the approach of the end of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov's unilateral ceasefire on February 23. Mosokovsky komsomolets in its February 21 edition quoted a spokesman for the regional operational headquarters of Russia's... MORE

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov announced on February 21 that five people were shot to death on February 18 by unknown persons as they were driving in the Kurchaloi district on, Interfax reported. Alkhanov said that two of the victims were employees of the presidential security... MORE

President Vladimir Putin on February 21 urged Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev to take tougher actions in the North Caucacus. Referring to an operation the previous day (February 20) in which commandos stormed an apartment in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria and killed three suspected Islamic militants who were... MORE

NEWSru.com reported on February 20 that the apartment in which the gunmen barricaded themselves was blockaded the previous day and that security forces negotiated with them all night. The militants, however, refused to give up, and a gun battle broke out around 7:20 a.m., local... MORE

Newsru.com reported on February 22 that contradictory information was coming out of Khasavyurt, Dagestan, about a special operation that security officials said had been carried out that day against a group of armed militants. The deputy head of Khasavyurt's administration, Arsanali Murtuzaliev, told Interfax that... MORE

The "Mothers of Beslan" group, consisting of parents of children killed in last September's school massacre in the North Ossetian town, were in Moscow this past week trying to put forward their demands – above all, that North Ossetian President Aleksandr Dzasokhov resign. Lidiya Grafova... MORE

Interfax on February 17 quoted Britain's ambassador to Russia, Anthony Brenton, as saying that the British government had proposed that Russia use the Northern Ireland peace negotiations as a model in its efforts to settle the war in Chechnya. "Our officials met their Russian counterparts... MORE

The FSB claimed on February 21 that Abu Zeit, a Kuwaiti al-Qaeda emissary, was killed in joint Interior Ministry-FSB operation in a private house in a village in Ingushetia on February 16, Interfax reported. "The operation first resulted in the death of two of his... MORE