The Federal Forces Are Again Preparing for War" announced a headline in the May 7 issue of Kommersant, which reported on an important meeting held on May 5, in the city of Essentuki, in Stavropol Krai in southern Russia. Present at this meeting were the... MORE

In light of the new outbreak of serious fighting in Chechnya, the long passive Russian State Duma apparently intends to involve itself in the search for a political solution to the conflict. Duma deputy Valentin Nikitin recently visited Chechnya, where he held talks with the... MORE

The Russian media have of late been focusing attention on the recent murders of ethnic Russians in the Chechen capital of Djohar [Grozny]. The assumption has been that the murderers are Chechens, consumed with a "genocidal" hatred for Russians. The Chechen separatist president, Aslan Maskhadov,... MORE

On May 6-7, a fact-finding mission of the European Union visited Ingushetia and Chechnya. The mission consisted of the Swedish and Belgian ambassadors to Russia, Sven Hirdman and Andre Mernier, and the chief of representation of the European Commission to Russia, Richard Wright. On May... MORE

On May 7, the heavily publicized trial of Colonel Yury Budanov, accused of having murdered a young Chechen woman, El'za Kungaeva, in March 2000, resumed in Rostov-on-Don. Budanov once again had to receive medical attention for his high blood pressure. On May 8, his prospects... MORE

Anna Politkovskaya, the well-known war correspondent for the pro-democracy weekly, Novaya Gazeta, was awarded the prize "For Courage in Journalism" by the International Pen Club of America in Washington, DC in early May (Novaya Gazeta, May 7).

Leading Russian human rights worker Viktor Popkov, who was severely wounded on April 18 in Chechnya by an attacker employing an automatic weapon, emerged from a comatose condition on May 3 and two days later was transferred to a special clinic in Moscow. A plane... MORE

After the May 5 meeting of the Russian power ministers and the heads of regions in the Southern Federal District had concluded, the chairman of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, and his prime minister, Stanislav Il'yasov, left for Chechnya. Following their departure, the director... MORE

On May 15, the New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a 24-page report that documented what it termed the Russian government's botched investigation of a mass dumping ground for bodies discovered in February of this year. The report claimed that the Russian authorities had literally... MORE