By Zaindi Choltaev Akhmad Kadyrov is striving not only to concentrate in his own hands all power within Chechnya; he also wants the Kremlin to treat him as the head of all ethnic Chechens living anywhere in the Russian Federation. In return, he offers to... MORE

KADYROV'S SON IS ARRESTED Police officials from the Kadyrov administration took an emergency trip to the town of Kislovodsk in southern Russia this week to try to extricate a colleague from scandal. Zelikhman Kadyrov, the 29-year-old son of administration head Akhmad Kadyrov, was arrested during... MORE

During the period leading up to the March referendum in Chechnya, the Russian authorities repeatedly announced that they were starting to reduce the Russian military presence there. Russian television triumphantly broadcast film of troop withdrawals, ostensibly made possible by Vladimir Putin's and Akhmad Kadyrov's success... MORE

The Russian parliament gave final approval on June 6 to the Putin administration's amnesty decree, the formal text of which can be found on the website of Rossiskaya gazeta (the June 7 issue). Only 25 deputies voted against the proposal, while 352 voted in favor.... MORE

Of the eighteen servicemen and civilian employees of the federal air force killed by a female suicide bomber on June 5 in the southern Russian city of Mozdok, twelve were women. According to a report by Dmitry Balburov in the June 10 issue of the... MORE

A June 5 report by Grozny journalist Liza Abdurashidova for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting discussed the ecological damage that Chechnya has suffered during a decade of upheaval, war, terrorism, illicit oil-drilling and pilferage of radioactive substances. Maksim Yakovenko, deputy minister of... MORE

On June 6 listeners of Radio Liberty heard a dramatic broadcast of a recording made by a now-dead member of the Russian Duma who may have been assassinated by his political enemies. The taped lecture by the late deputy Sergei Yushenkov, delivered a year ago... MORE

Last week the separatist rebels showed that they are still capable of waging not just hit-and-run ambushes of federal forces, but set-piece battles lasting as long as two days. Federal officials confirmed that a battle that began on June 6 with the ambush of a... MORE

KADYROV'S MEN AND THE ABUSE OF BLOOD REVENGE Akhmad Kadyrov's gradual transformation of Chechnya into his own personal fiefdom has by some accounts now reached the point where he can trample not only on Russian laws but also on such deeply rooted Chechen traditions as... MORE

Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's uncompromising rhetoric about Chechnya, observers continue to report indications that the Kremlin is keeping alive a back channel for a possible negotiated settlement with Aslan Maskhadov's separatist government. If Moscow finally comes to accept that the current hard-line approach is... MORE