In an October 27 analysis for Novaya gazeta, the prominent military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer accused the authorities of having failed "to clarify even one of the crucial questions" connected with the Dubrovka tragedy. "Why did the authorities order the storming of the building on October... MORE

A coalition of Russian human rights organizations, led by well-known activist Lev Ponomarev, has announced that it intends to file charges with the European Court of Human Rights against the Russian authorities for their gross neglect of the lives of the hostages seized in the... MORE

Official announcements about the reduction of federal troop strength in Chechnya have repeatedly turned out to be exaggerated, and apparently that pattern is continuing. Col. Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman attached to the Russian military headquarters for the northern Caucasus, said recently that Russian troops would... MORE

The city of Grozny, founded as a Russian fortress nearly two centuries ago, now has only a tiny minority of ethnic Russian civilians. Unlike their Chechen neighbors, most of these Russians have no extended family networks and no ancestral villages to take refuge in; nearly... MORE

In addition to those already mentioned in Chechnya Weekly (see the October 23 issue), Akhmad Kadyrov's October 19 inauguration included yet another blow to his prestige. Our contributor Zaindi Choltaev notes a striking scarcity of high ranking guests: "Only one of the heads of neighboring... MORE

In an interview published on October 23, the former president of Ingushetia sharply questioned Akhmad Kadyrov's legitimacy. "Nothing has been changed" by Chechnya's recent presidential election, Ruslan Aushev told Andrei Riskin of Nezavisimaya gazeta. "The republic has already gone through all this sort of thing.... MORE

The average Russian may be weary of the Chechen war, but that does not mean that he likes Chechens. On the contrary, a recent poll suggests that Russians now have overwhelmingly negative attitudes toward Chechens. As reported on October 24 by the website Stringer-agency.ru, the... MORE

Like so many judicial and quasi-judicial bodies in today's Russia, the Kadyrov administration's new commission to investigate the Chechen conflicts of the last decade will know in advance what conclusions are expected of it. Izvestia correspondent Ilya Maksakov reported on October 22 that Taus Dzhabrailov,... MORE

The recent upheavals in the Kremlin, including the resignation of Aleksandr Voloshin as President Vladimir Putin's chief of staff, could portend major changes in the Kremlin's policies on Chechnya. Voloshin was known as a key architect of those policies and especially as a political ally... MORE

The use of ostensibly criminal cases to pursue political objectives, a well-established tactic in both Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, is apparently being used again to silence those who challenge the official version of the 1999 and 2002 terrorist attacks in Russia. A KGB officer turned... MORE