Latest North Caucasus Weekly Articles

QUESTIONS CONTINUE TO SWIRL ABOUT MYSTERIOUS HOSTAGE-TAKER…

Anna Politkovskaya has indicated to a friendly human rights journalist that her newspaper has additional information about the involvement of Russia's secret services in the terrorist raid on Moscow's Dubrovka theater last October--enough information to confirm that involvement even apart from her dramatic interview with... MORE

…AS OTHER OBSERVERS WEIGH IN

An article by Andrei Smirnov on a website for peace activists (https://viktorpopkov.narod.ru) described that writer's own past encounters with Terkibaev. Smirnov wrote that in March of 2002 the mysterious Chechen had agreed to meet him in order provide videos of speeches by separatist President Aslan... MORE

REFUGEES PRESSURED TO LEAVE INGUSHETIA

Despite mounting pressures from both provincial and federal officials, more than 98 percent of Chechen refugee families now living in tent camps in Ingushetia do not want to return to Chechnya. That is the finding of a survey released on May 6 by Medecins sans... MORE

DEADLY ATTACK ROCKS NORTHERN TOWN

As of the morning of May 14, the number of confirmed dead in the May 12 truck bombing of the district-administration headquarters in the north Chechen town of Znamenskoe had reached fifty-nine. Most of the victims were civilians, and included ordinary citizens visiting government offices... MORE

NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTS SORRY STATE OF RUSSIAN TROOPS

Roman Shleinov of Novaya gazeta recounted in that newspaper's May 12 issue an anonymous conversation with two officers of the Moscow OMON special police about their service in Chechnya. One of the officers said that true casualty figures among Russian servicemen "are as different from... MORE

MASS GRAVES SAID TO CONTAIN BODIES OF RUSSIAN SOLDIERS

According to the deputy head of Russia's federal procuracy, some 110 bodies found in mass graves in Chechnya are those of Russian servicemen. The Interfax news agency quoted Mikhail Fridinksy on May 10 as calling "absolutely baseless" allegations that the bodies were in fact those... MORE

CZECHS TO REPATRIATE REFUGEES?

The Czech Republic is considering a plan to repatriate several hundred Chechen refugees who have entered the republic from Poland in recent months, the human rights group Prague Watchdog reported on May 9. Though the Czech Interior Ministry has stated that the repatriation will be... MORE

COMMANDOS RIP SENIOR OFFICERS

The May 12 issue of Novaya gazeta includes a letter from anonymous servicemen of Russia's elite Alpha commando force to Yury Shchekochikhin. He is the newspaper's deputy editor and is also a member of the federal Duma. The letter reinforces previous complaints about the Russian... MORE

–MORE RUSSIAN LOSSES

In addition to the May 12 truck bombing in Znamenskoe, other attacks in Chechnya over the last week included a bomb explosion at Grozny's Dinamo stadium on May 9. The blast killed two policemen and injured one other. The incident forced cancellation of the local... MORE

TERROR ATTACKS SUGGEST DISTURBING TREND

In some few respects--indeed, fewer even than a year ago--Shamil Basaev remains a traditional Chechen rebel rather than a postmodern global terrorist. For one, he takes full, public and personal responsibility for his atrocities. That fact alone casts doubt on the Kremlin's attempts to create... MORE