President Vladimir Putin discussed Chechnya in two interviews with European media in the lead-up to the May 9 celebrations in Moscow marking the 60th anniversary of Victory Day. One of the interviews, on May 5, was with Germany's ARD and ZDF television channels, while the... MORE

Chechen rebel field commander Doku Umarov has announced that separatist forces are changing their tactics and will attack outside Chechnya. RFE/RL reported on May 10 that Umarov, who made his comments in an interview with its North Caucasus Service director Aslan Doukaev on May 7,... MORE

Russian news agencies reported on May 9 that rebel forces had planned that day to attack Tsentoroi, the home village of Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, but were hit preemptively by Chechen security forces near the village of Alleroi. Interfax quoted Chechen Interior Minister... MORE

Gen.-Major Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the Russian military operation in the North Caucasus, announced on May 8 that Russian security personnel had detained a Chechen woman in the town of Urus-Martan alleged to be a trainer for suicide bombers, along with another militant in Grozny... MORE

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) on May 9 published an open letter to Chechnya's prosecutor, Vladimir Kravchenko, regarding what it described as the "unlawful detention" and "disappearance" of Murad Muradov, chairman of the humanitarian non-governmental organization "Save the Generation," on April 15.... MORE

In an interview with the newspaper Dagestanskaya pravda published last November 24, the Prosecutor of Dagestan, Imam Yaraliev, acknowledged that the major destabilizing factor in the republic remained the ongoing war in Chechnya. Dagestan managed to maintain a level of relative stability throughout the 1990s... MORE

The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC) issued a statement on May 10 calling on the leadership of the separatist Chechen government "to take steps toward peace, even in the absence of a reciprocal effort by the Russian Federation, and reaffirm its commitment to... MORE

Russian news agencies reported on May 15-16 that the former rebel vice-president, Vakha Arsanov, was killed in a security operation in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district on May 15. Chechen Deputy Interior Minister Sultan Satuev said that four militants, including Arsanov, were killed in a sweep of... MORE

The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (ORChD) reported on May 13 that an "armed clash" occurred on May 11 between members of Chechnya's presidential security service who are subordinated to First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and Russian army personnel. The shootout was apparently the result of,... MORE

Gen.-Major Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the Russian military operation in the North Caucasus, reported on May 17 that security services had killed Alash Daudov, the second-ranking rebel leader, behind Shamil Basaev. According to the Associated Press, Daudov was among three suspected militants killed in an... MORE