In his interview with Rossiiskaya gazeta published on March 22, Ramzan Kadyrov again said his government would guarantee the lives of militants who were not involved in serious crimes and are ready to lay down their weapons. “We have held talks with those who were,... MORE

The separatist Daymohk website on March 20 posted a critique of Ramzan Kadyrov’s putative revival of Islamic law in Chechnya. The author of the piece, Mayrbek Taramov, wrote: “The Russian public is suddenly worried that Kadyrov, the incumbent head of the Chechen puppet government, has... MORE

The head of Dagestan’s Botlikhsk district, Ruslan Aliev, died on March 22 from bullet wounds he received during an attack earlier in the day. Following the attack, Itar-Tass reported that Aliev and his four bodyguards had been wounded during an assassination attempt in Makhachkala. The... MORE

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree removing Khachim Shogenov as Kabardino-Balkaria’s Interior Minister, Kommersant reported on March 20. As the newspaper noted, “the first serious criticism of Gen. Shogenov came after the law enforcement organs in the summer of 2003 let Shamil Basaev, who had... MORE

In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel, The First Circle, which depicts events occurring in December 1949, there is a scene in which General Viktor Abakumov, Minister of State Security, pays a late-night visit to Stalin’s windowless office. At one point in their conversation, Abakumov begins to plead... MORE

Leonid Roshal, the Moscow pediatrician sought out by the Beslan hostage-takers as a negotiator and who was awarded by the Russian government for his assistance during the October 2002 Dubrovka theater hostage crisis, said on March 27 that he disagrees with the official explanation for... MORE

Kavkazky Uzel on March 29 cited a report by the Chechen government’s press service. “There is a holiday in the Kurchaloi district maternity hospital,” the press service reported, noting that the hospital had just opened on March 8 and had delivered its first baby boy—Akhmat... MORE

Kommersant reported on March 29 that Sultan Geliskhanov, the former head of the security department in the government of Dzhokhar Dudaev, had surrendered. According to the newspaper, Chechen law enforcement officials claimed on March 28 that the former separatist colonel showed up at the Gudermes... MORE

The Chechen Interior Ministry categorically denied media reports that members of Chechnya’s law enforcement structures had defected to the rebels, Interfax reported on March 25 (see Chechnya Weekly, March 16). “An analysis of the publications points to the fact that certain media at someone’s suggestion... MORE

The Chechen National Salvation Committee reported on March 24 that two Chechen teenagers were detained by members of the local Anti-Terrorist Center and tortured. The committee cited a source who said that Bekkhan Makhmatkhadzhiev, 19, and Nurdi Bamataliev, 13, were detained on the outskirts of... MORE