Kavkazky Uzel reported on May 30 that six people had been kidnapped or otherwise disappeared in Chechnya over the previous several days. The website quoted a Chechen law-enforcement source as saying that a local resident of the town of Samashki was abducted by an armed... MORE

Writing in the May 30 edition of Novaya gazeta, Anna Politkovskaya, the bi-weekly's special correspondent covering Chechnya, compared the situation over the past few weeks in Chechnya and Ingushetia to 1937, the high point of Stalin's terror. She also said the rash of kidnappings in... MORE

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Alvaro Gil-Robles told reporters in Moscow after meeting with President Vladimir Putin on May 27 that he would continue to insist that disappearances in Chechnya be put to an end and those responsible for them punished, Itar-Tass reported.... MORE

Kavkazcenter reported on May 29 that an "official delegation of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria headed by Umar Khanbiyev, the minister of health of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the general representative of the president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in foreign countries,... MORE

Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev claimed responsibility for the power failure that hit large sections of Moscow and surrounding regions on May 25. "Our subversive groups have dealt a severe blow to one of the most vitally important systems of the Russian empire," Basaev said... MORE

In a three-part series published May 24-26, Moskovsky komsomolets shed new light on the Beslan hostage tragedy based on investigative documents and testimony from officials who were involved in the hostage-seizure and its bloody aftermath. Among other things, the newspaper presented evidence confirming earlier reports... MORE

Security forces in Dagestan on May 29 discovered 23 152- and 125-milimeters artillery shells near the entrance of the Gimri tunnel, which links the valley and mountainous part of the republic's Buinaksk region. Earlier in the day, the head of the Buinaksk Regional Criminal Investigations... MORE

During a visit to Germany in the first week of May, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered an upbeat assessment of the situation in Chechnya and of the future prospects for peace and stability in that region. "I don't see any problems [in Chechnya]," Putin stated... MORE

Pro-Kremlin Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said during a June 6 press conference in Moscow that abductions in Chechnya were declining, with only 23 people kidnapped since the beginning of the year, compared with 168 people abducted during the same period last year. Alkhanov said that... MORE

More than 5,000 children in Chechnya need prostheses, Kavkazky Uzel reported on June 7. According to the newspaper Groznensky rabochy, more than a half million explosive devices have been scattered around the republic and that more than 10,000 people have been killed or maimed by... MORE