July 4 saw a duel of words between a spokesman for the Russian security services' headquarters in the northern Caucasus and a representative of Aslan Maskhadov's underground separatist government. As reported by the Interfax news agency, Russian Major-General Ilya Shabalkin claimed on that day that... MORE

Chechen refugees in Ingushetia detained by the authorities since the June 21-22 guerrilla raid have been tortured in order to get them to confess to having helped the guerrillas, according to a June 28 report by the Prima news agency, which specializes in human rights.... MORE

The human and economic disaster area that is today's Chechnya nevertheless offers multiple opportunities for getting rich—nearly all of them dishonest. Free-lance Chechen journalist Mainat Abdulaeva discussed several of these in a recent article for the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung (see Chechnya Weekly, June 23... MORE

Last week a jury trial in the southern Russian city of Rostov on the Don declined to convict of murder—or even of any lesser charge—two lieutenants serving in Russia's Interior Ministry troops. Valery Yakov reported in Novye izvestia on July 5 that the two had... MORE

A July 1 article by Chechen journalists Aslambek Badilayev and Kazbek Vakhayev for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting essentially confirmed the picture of extortion and bribery at military checkpoints as painted by Mainat Abdulaeva in an earlier article for the German daily... MORE

Will elements in Russia's security services now push for a special operation to set up a jailbreak for two of their colleagues convicted last week of murder in Qatar? The pro-Kremlin website Strana.ru published an interview on July 1 with an unnamed "high-ranking general, close... MORE

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has decided to appeal an April decision by a U.S. immigration judge granting asylum to separatist Chechen diplomat Ilyas Akhmadov. A July 2 statement from the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya said that the department's appeal "discredits America's... MORE

A full year after the mysterious death of the State Duma deputy and journalist Yuri Shchekochikhin, his colleagues at the Moscow bi-weekly Novaya gazeta have finally ended their almost equally mysterious silence about what may have caused it. The newspaper's July 1 edition contains a... MORE

This evening (Wednesday, July 14), the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., is to host a panel of experts on the topic "Chechnya after a Decade of Destruction." Featured speakers are Chechen medical doctor Khassan Baiev, author of The Oath: A Chechen Surgeon Under Fire;... MORE

The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya released a statement on July 7 welcoming calls for peace talks by Aslan Maskhadov, president of Chechnya's underground separatist government, and Ingush President Murat Zyazikov. ACPC Executive Director Glen Howard said that "it is encouraging to see that... MORE