A May 22 article on the Grani.ru website reminded readers that the federal procuracy has answered an official inquiry from Duma member Sergei Kovalev about criminal investigations involving Russian servicemen during the current Chechen war. According to these official figures, the authorities have investigated twelve... MORE

The European Union issued its flabbiest statement yet on Chechnya during last weekend's EU-Russia summit meeting in St. Petersburg. Prime Minister Costas Simitis of Greece, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, said that the EU "will continue to support the efforts of Russian leaders... MORE

Akhmar Zavgaev, Chechnya's representative in the upper house of the Russian parliament, has given the Kadyrov-for-president bandwagon another push. On June 2 Zavgaev told the Moscow daily Kommersant that the republic's presidential election will take place no later than November. Zavgaev said that a treaty... MORE

The embezzlement of funds supposedly intended for the restoration of Chechnya, a practice already taken for granted by most observers, is now further testing the limits of cynicism. According to a May 21 report in Rossiskaya gazeta, so much has been stolen that the republic's... MORE

"SILOVIKI" VS. KADYROV Is Akhmad Kadyrov overplaying his hand? The head of the Moscow-appointed administration in Chechnya, generally regarded as the frontrunner in the republic's forthcoming presidential election, is already calling himself "acting president" and is clearly trying to create an aura of inevitability. He... MORE

BOOK EXAMINES "EXERCISE" IN RYAZAN Americans face powerful psychological barriers to considering--even as a hypothesis--the idea that today's Russian authorities could have secretly ordered the murder of hundreds of their own citizens for domestic political purposes. If that actually happened, and even more so if... MORE

Akhmad Kadyrov announced on May 31 that "a large reward" will be paid to anyone providing information leading to the capture of Aslan Maskhadov. He did not specify the source of the funds, nor the size of the sum beyond stating that it would be... MORE

Just as the separatist rebels warned during the winter, the return of a protective cover of foliage this spring has brought with it an upsurge in the rebels' military activities. In recent weeks an increasing proportion of rebel attacks has involved direct exchanges of small-arms... MORE

According to reports received as this issue of Chechnya Weekly went to press, Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of the Moscow-appointed administration in Chechnya, has fired his entire cabinet along with heads of local administrations in Chechnya. Interfax reported that Kadyrov reappointed Anatoly Popov as prime... MORE

As has often been said, the perception of power is a key component of power. After last week's cabinet shakeup, Akhmad Kadyrov is perceived as being more powerful than at any time since he was appointed as Moscow's man in Grozny, and therefore he is... MORE