The much-touted transfer of the pro-Moscow government of Chechnya from the city of Gudermes to Djohar has been delayed once again. It was to have occurred by April 15 at the latest. The reason cited on this occasion for the delay was that windows and... MORE

On April 12, presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky roundly criticized some recent comments made by the former speaker of the Russian parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov, an ethnic Chechen. One point of Khasbulatov's which Yastrzhembsky attacked was the contention that "the situation in Chechnya is much more serious... MORE

With fits and starts, the trial of Colonel Yury Budanov, accused of having strangled an 18-year-old Chechen woman, resumed in a military court in Rostov-on-Don. A Russia-wide poll taken by the Public Opinion Foundation recently found that "50 percent of respondents wanted the trial stopped... MORE

The European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg has begun examining three cases relating to the conflict in Chechnya. The cases were brought before the court by the human rights organization, Human Rights Watch. In the words of Dieter Lochman of Human Rights Watch, six... MORE

On April 14--Holy Saturday for the Russian Orthodox Church--President Vladimir Putin made an unannounced brief visit to Chechnya, accompanied by the newly appointed power ministers Sergei Ivanov (Defense) and Boris Gryzlov (MVD), as well as by Media Minister Mikhail Lesin. It was Putin's third trip... MORE

Working independently, two Russian journalists have arrived at strikingly similar estimates for the actual cost of the current 1999-2001 Russo-Chechen war. The well-known military correspondent Pavel Felgenhauer wrote in the 26 April issue of the Moscow Times: "Today the war in Chechnya is in its... MORE

On April 18, the city of Grozny (Djohar) was officially declared to be once again the capital of the Chechen Republic (Kommersant, April 19). Five days later, on April 23, a ceremony was held marking the official opening of the new main administration building (called... MORE

On April 24, 183 Chechen forced migrants left the "Soglasie" tent camp in Ingushetia and, accompanied by a representative of the pro-Moscow Chechen government, were moved to a refugee center located in a former kindergarten in Argun in Chechnya (RIA Novosti, April 24). The following... MORE

In a much-discussed episode, a leading and well-known Russian human rights activist, Viktor Popkov, was severely wounded on April 18 as he was traveling by car through the Chechen village of Alkhan-Kale. Popkov, accompanied by a local doctor, Roza Muzarovaya, and by a driver had... MORE