Further allegations of corruption recently surfaced in connection with the payment of compensation to Chechens who lost their property to military action--and just days after the long-delayed payments finally began. In a September 29 report for Nezavisimaya gazeta, Andrei Riskin wrote that the republic's procuracy... MORE

By Zaindi Choltaev We left Sunzhensky district early in the morning, heading for Grozny from the west of Chechnya. After the turn to Assinovskaya, still not far from the Ingush border, we came upon engineering reconnaissance troops: Several tanks and military trucks, soldiers walking along... MORE

The experience of last March's referendum taught international election observers a bitter lesson: The Kremlin will use their mere presence at such a rigged affair as a seal of legitimacy, no matter what those observers actually report. Monitors from organizations such as the OSCE and... MORE

Officers of Moscow's special services are increasingly fearful of a bloody new civil war within Chechnya, wrote correspondent Julius Strauss of London's Daily Telegraph on October 6. According to Strauss, Russian intelligence officers who requested anonymity told him that Kadyrov's gunmen will soon be fighting... MORE

In his first major post-election interview, Kadyrov made it clear that he will be seeking a greater share of the income from Chechnya's oil resources, as well as more control over taxes and customs. "Chechnya does not need any special status, the main thing is... MORE

On October 4 the Paris daily Le Monde published the text of an exclusive interview with Aslan Maskhadov, president of Chechnya's underground separatist government. Maskhadov's answers came in the form of an hour-long audiocassette, delivered to a Le Monde correspondent in Russia and responding to... MORE

MASKHADOV "IMPEACHMENT" CLAIM IS DENOUNCED In a counterblow directed at the recent announcement of Aslan Maskhadov's supposed "impeachment," the pro-Maskhadov Chechenpress website published on September 30 a statement rejecting that announcement as having "no legal force." The pro-Maskhadov statement appears over the names of twenty-five... MORE

Russian and Ingush authorities have reached a compromise with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, enabling the former to close one of Ingushetia's five camps for Chechen refugees. According to a September 30 press release from the UN agency, at least some of the... MORE

The organizers of a film festival on Chechnya have accused the Russian secret services of intimidating a movie theater in downtown Moscow into canceling its previous agreement to host the free screenings. Yury Samodurov, head of the Andrei Sakharov Center in the Russian capital, told... MORE

Akhmad Kadyrov is continuing to seek a negotiated settlement with rebel field commander Ruslan Gelaev (see Chechnya Weekly, September 12). Correspondent Olga Allenova of Kommersant happened to visit Kadyrov just as he was bidding farewell to a group of visitors who looked to her like... MORE