It seems increasingly likely that no credible, genuinely independent watchdogs will be present as election observers for Chechnya's rigged October 5 presidential election. The Moscow news agency Novosti put the best face on things by emphasizing on September 22 that observers from the Commonwealth of... MORE

According to Anna Politkovskaya, even some officials in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) secret police are privately admitting that the likely result of Akhmad Kadyrov's now inevitable victory in Chechnya's rigged presidential election will be a third Chechen war--this time a civil war of Chechen... MORE

Anna Politkovskaya also continues to believe that Khanpash Terkibaev, a double agent, manipulated last October's Chechen terrorist raid in Moscow to advance the interests of the Russian secret services. She expressed this view to Chechnya Weekly during her visit to Washington. She recalled that when... MORE

What is it that motivates Chechen women to become suicide bombers, and what might persuade them to stop? Anna Politkovskaya told Chechnya Weekly on September 15 that "it is not quite accurate to say that Shamil Basaev organizes all these attacks." They are often carried... MORE

Dr. Khasin Baiev is a heroic Chechen physician who for years defied threats from extremists on both sides to care for federal and rebel wounded alike. At the September 16 gathering at Johns Hopkins he related such memories as that of the nine-year-old boy whose... MORE

During one of her conversations with Chechnya Weekly in Washington, Anna Politkovskaya said that last month's firing of Salambek Maigov--he had been the separatist Maskhadov government's representative in Moscow--does not mean a full victory for the extremists among the separatists. To her knowledge, she said,... MORE

MOSCOW OBJECTS TO DIPLOMAT'S COMMENTS The Russian Foreign Ministry lashed out on September 18 against a U.S. diplomat who had ventured to comment on the recent developments in Chechnya's election campaign in terms no more critical than much of what one sees even in Russia's... MORE

In another sign that the anti-Kadyrov faction inside the Putin administration is still alive despite the heavy-handed transformation of Chechnya's election campaign into a one man race, the pro-Kremlin website Strana.ru published on September 18 a candid admission that the election has lost even the... MORE

LONDON CASE FURTHER UNDERMINES MOSCOW'S CLAIMS The credibility of Russia's legal and political system suffered fresh blows during the latest, and probably final, week of hearings in the London extradition case of Akhmed Zakaev. Appearing as a witness for the prosecution was Akhmar Zavgaev, who... MORE

REPORTS OF MASKHADOV "IMPEACHMENT" REPUDIATED The pro-Kremlin mass media were circulating a report in mid-September to the effect that Aslan Maskhadov had been impeached by his own parliament, or at least by what remains of that parliament after years of war. If that report is... MORE