The Yury Budanov case continues to test the Russian judicial system's ability to bring to justice Russian servicemen accused of atrocities against Chechen civilians. The case is still proceeding at a glacial pace; the latest hearing was delayed until May 26 after Budanov's new lawyer,... MORE

The next step, also clearly intended to take advantage of Russia's political climate, was for Dulimov to file a petition for a jury trial. (For the previous three years the Budanov case had been entirely in the hands of professional judges, as are most criminal... MORE

A key official of the Kadyrov administration confirmed this week, at least in part, what international humanitarian groups and human-rights advocates have been saying for many months: Most refugees in Ingushetia would prefer not to return to Chechnya at this point. Ruslan Tsugaev, who heads... MORE

KADYROV'S PRIVATE ARMY An officer of the FSB serving in Chechnya has confirmed the claims of various independent observers regarding the Kadyrov administration's use of pardons and amnesties to build up a force of "bodyguards" that is subordinate only to Kadyrov himself. Major Oleg Sobolev... MORE

Overshadowed by last week's dramatic terrorist attacks were more conventional battles between pro-Moscow servicemen and rebel guerrillas. For example, Shakhid Muguev, chief of police for the Kadyrov administration in the Vedeno district, died in a gun battle on May 19. Interfax reported that he had... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin's amnesty proposal, which last week received preliminary approval from the federal Duma, is intended in large part to serve the same purpose as his March constitutional referendum. That is to create the impression that peace, reconciliation and the rule of law... MORE

Does Putin's proposed "procedure for implementing the decree" make things clearer? "To some extent, Yes," Memorial has answered. What the "procedural" text makes obvious is that the organs entrusted with putting the amnesty into practice will have the widest possible latitude for making arbitrary decisions.... MORE

WHERE IS "ABUBAKAR?" Was the October 2002 terrorist attack on Moscow's Dubrovka theater provoked, or at least manipulated, by double agents working for the Russian authorities? Anna Politkovskaya of Novaya gazeta has already raised that possibility (see Chechnya Weekly, April 29), asking questions that the... MORE

The Nazran office of the respected Russian human rights organization Memorial reported last week that, on May 17, a civilian woman and a teenage girl were kidnapped in the village of Ulus-Kert, in Chechnya's Shatoi district, presumably by Russian servicemen. The kidnappers arrived in armored... MORE

The head of Chechnya's "pro-Moscow" (a phrase that perhaps should now be used only within quotation marks) administration has taken another large step toward consolidating his personal control over the republic's "silovye struktury," or security agencies. The newly appointed commander of the Chechen OMON (the... MORE