President of the pro-Russian Chechen government, Alu Alkhanov, visited Syria and Jordan in mid-September in his first trip to the Middle East. This trip recalled the objectives that former president Ahmad Kadyrov sought to achieve in Saudi Arabia in his inaugural visit to the region... MORE

Kavkazky Uzel reported on October 19 that a total of 92 rebel gunmen were killed on October 13 during the attack on government and law enforcement buildings in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria. RIA Novosti reported that day that a total of 24 law enforcement officers died in... MORE

Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev claimed responsibility for the October 13 Nalchik raid in a statement posted on October 17 by the separatist Kavkazcenter website. The "full-scale assault operation against the Russian occupation forces and their stooges" was carried out by some 217 "mujahideen" who... MORE

The Russian government and some of its supporters have declared the Nalchik raid a defeat for the Islamist rebels, contrasting it with the June 2004 rebel raid on law enforcement and government buildings in Ingushetia in which the attackers killed dozens of law enforcement and... MORE

RIA Novosti reported on October 18 that a large-scale security operation aimed at tracking down rebel fighters was being carried out in Nalchik. The operation began in the Iskozh district near the 3rd police precinct building, with armored personnel carriers surrounding areas and preventing residents... MORE

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that his ministry would officially request that London take measures in connection with Akhmed Zakaev's statements on the events in Kabardino-Balkaria, MosNews reported on October 17. Zakaev, the London-based Chechen separatist envoy who was recently appointed a deputy prime... MORE

Signals of a new "hardline" attitude of the post-Maskhadov Chechen leadership toward the West and the Chechen diaspora are intensifying. One example is the campaign that has been unleashed against Albert Digaev, founder and webmaster of the well-known Chechen site "Amina.com." In July of this... MORE

Russian media have been reporting over the past week that large-scale security operations are continuing in Kabardino-Balkaria and elsewhere in the North Caucasus following the October 13 rebel attacks in Nalchik. Gazeta reported on October 26 that Ramazan Tembotov, a local legislator from the village... MORE

Novaya gazeta correspondent Anna Politkovskaya wrote in the biweekly's October 20 edition that the main reason for the Nalchik attack was that the "oppression" of Muslims in Kabardino-Balkaria had reached such a level that the "local jamaats—that is, the religious communities (only don't confuse them... MORE

Four servicepersons were killed in the outskirts of Nazran, Ingushetia, on October 26 when unknown gunmen fired on their car with automatic weapons and grenade launchers, RIA Novosti reported. A source in the press service of the republic's Interior Ministry said three officers, including a... MORE