The political fall-out from a political debacle that occurred in early June in the village of Borozdinovskaya in northern Chechnya - pro-Moscow Chechen special forces nominally subordinated to the Russian GRU conducted a brutal cleansing operation during which they abducted 10-11 men, whose present fate... MORE

The Chechen rebels on July 19 capped an upsurge in activity with an attack in the village of Znameskoe in Chechnya's Nadterechny district that killed 14 people, eleven of them police and security personnel. According to the Associated Press, the attackers opened fire on a... MORE

The attack in Znamenskoe was one of a series of attacks that suggests the rebels may have launched a new offensive. An armored personnel carrier ferrying Interior Ministry Internal Troops was blown up by a roadside bomb in Grozny on July 18. Radio Liberty's Russian-language... MORE

President Putin said on July 19 that the attack in Znameskoe showed the need to step up security and military protection on the Russian border in the North Caucasus, which borders Georgia and Azerbaijan. "Considering the recent developments in Chechnya, we must implement everything that... MORE

An expert with the Russian Academy of Sciences, Igor Dobaev, stated in a report that as many as 70 terrorist attacks took place in Dagestan during the first half of this year, more than 40 of them in Makhachkala, Interfax reported on July 17. "Every... MORE

During the third week of June, Doku Umarov gave an interview in Chechnya to Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky, a transcript of which was published by the separatist Chechenpress and Kavkazcenter websites on July 15. Among other things, the Chechen rebel field commander, who was... MORE

Kavkazky Uzel reported on July 13 that there is increasing tension between the federal Interior Ministry and Chechen Interior Ministry special units. "Effectively, neither the regional operational headquarters for the counterterrorist operation in the North Caucasus, nor the Russian Interior Ministry is in command of... MORE

A group of some 50 women blocked one of Grozny's busiest streets on July 17 demanding to know the fate of two men they say were taken away after being held at a temporary detention facility. The protesters told Interfax that unidentified armed men had... MORE

Other former Beslan hostages have testified at the trial of Nur-Pashi Kulaev, the sole participant in the Beslan school seizure to be apprehended by the authorities, that the number of terrorists involved was more than the official number of 32. Interfax reported on July 19... MORE

Interfax reported on July 26 that an explosion targeting a police van in the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt wounded six members of a federal Interior Ministry mobile unit. Sources in Dagestan's Interior Ministry told the news agency that the incident took place 500 meters from... MORE