It was against the background of these charges and refutations that a high-level European Union "troika" arrived in Moscow on May 16. The three EU envoys were Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, who currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the EU, EU foreign policy representative... MORE

In light of the prospect of the Assistance Group's imminent return to Chechnya, considerable interest attaches to a lengthy essay entitled "Chechnya's Endless War," which appeared in the May 18 issue of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung (posted in English translation by Ichkeria.org) The author of... MORE

Russian presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky stressed to the Interfax News Agency on May 16, "Ideally, the leader of the former Ichkerian regime, Aslan Maskhadov, must be arrested and tried on the criminal charges against him." Yastrzhembsky added that, "The federal authorities are not conducting any... MORE

In Two Weeks' Time," a headline in the online daily Gazeta.ru read, "Budanov Will Go Home" (Gazeta.ru, May 17). Colonel Yury Budanov, accused of strangling a young Chechen woman, El'za Kungaeva, will, one of his lawyers, Sergei Dorofeev, confidently predicted, receive a three-year sentence and... MORE

On May 17, the pro-Moscow mayor of Djohar, Bislan Gantamirov, announced that he had resigned his post (Lenta.ru, May 17).

On May 15, after having reported to President Vladimir Putin in person and having submitted a written report to him concerning the success of the "counterterrorist operation" in Chechnya, FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev, Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov, and Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Gryzlov... MORE

During the course on of an interview given to the state television network ORT, leading Russian presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky predicted that the conflict in Chechnya is likely to last for years. "It seems to me," he remarked, "that we clearly exaggerate our uniqueness in... MORE

Over the past week, the Russian leadership visibly ratcheted up the pressure on the Republic of Georgia over the Chechen question, and it even appeared, briefly, as if Georgia might be prepared to acquiesce to the conducting of joint Russian-Georgian patrols in the mountainous Pankisi... MORE

On May 23, at a meeting in the Chechen capital of Djohar (Grozny), Russian plenipotentiary presidential representative in the Southern Federal District, Viktor Kazantsev, chaired a meeting of the heads of the pro-Moscow Chechen civilian administration and the Russian military leadership based in the republic.... MORE