The killing of Aslan Maskhadov was the cause of a diplomatic dust-up between Poland and Russia. On March 9, the day after the Russian authorities announced that the Chechen rebel leader had been killed, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Checko stated, as quoted by Reuters:... MORE

The French journalist Sophie Shihab, who has covered Chechnya for years and visited it clandestinely a number of times, wrote in Le Monde on March 10 that both the Kremlin and radical Islamists were ecstatic over the killing of Aslan Maskhadov. "Whether the people of... MORE

There were also eulogies for Aslan Maskhadov from leading Russian and international human rights activists and intellectuals. Veteran Russian human rights activist Aleksandr Podrabinek said that Maskhadov was the Kremlin's biggest problem in Chechnya. "Much bigger than the field commanders who had turned to the... MORE

Western news agencies reported on March 15 that two militants who were holed up in a house in the town of Khasavyurt managed to escape despite the fact that they were surrounded by hundreds of security forces and armored vehicles and that the house they... MORE

Following the death of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, a statement was posted on the rebel website Kavkazcenter on March 9 by Shamil Basayev announcing the appointment of his successor. The statement named him as "Abdul Khalim" and his identity as the new rebel president was... MORE

Aslan Maskhadov's assassination will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the overall situation in Chechnya, as the new leadership shifts the tactics and strategy of the Chechen resistance movement. Instead of the liberal Maskhadov, who constantly looked for ways to end the war, there will... MORE

On the eve of the Strasbourg roundtable on Chechnya, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report stating that continuing disappearances in Chechnya have now reached the level of a crime against humanity. In a March 21 press release, the New York-based group cited estimates by... MORE

Memorial also issued a report on Chechnya, entitled "Chechnya 2004: ‘New' methods of ‘counter-terrorism'," which was mainly devoted the issue of kidnappings. "The argument about the need to fight against kidnapping and hostage-taking was actively used by official Moscow as one of the main justifications... MORE

The Information Center of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (ORChD), the Nizhny Novogord-based human rights group, reported on March 15 that unknown persons had the previous day distributed leaflets in several apartment buildings in the city accusing the organization's editor, Oksana Chelysheva, of supporting terrorism and... MORE

The French newspaper Libération on March 19 published a letter that Aslan Maskhadov wrote to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana dated February 25 – that is, less than two weeks before Maskhadov's death – in which the rebel leader reiterated his commitment to... MORE