Gazeta reported on April 26 that a shoot-out took place in Grozny on April 25 between security forces loyal to Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and members of Chechen President Alu Alkhanov’s unit of bodyguards. The battle reportedly occurred in the vicinity of the complex... MORE

Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov has accused inhabitants of temporary refugee camps of cooperating with the West against Russia, MosNews reported on April 25. Kadyrov had earlier been quoted as calling for all the temporary accommodation centers in Chechnya to be closed down as soon... MORE

The head of the Chechen separatists’ Chechen National Information Service, Movladi Udugov, has called for the “re-establishment” of Sharia law throughout the North Caucasus and said that this cannot take place until “Russian occupation forces” are driven out of the region. In an interview with... MORE

News agencies reported on April 26 that one man was killed and four civilians and 12 policemen injured when police clashed with protesters in Dagestan’s Dokuzparinsky district. “One of demonstrators, 34-year-old Makhachkala resident Murad Lagmetov, got a lethal bullet wound, another four civilians got bullet... MORE

“Chechens who live in Moscow are less afraid of the skinheads than they are afraid of [Ramzan] Kadyrov when they disagree with him. I have said this many times. In Moscow, we live in 2006, but the Caucasus simply lives in 1937. The only difference... MORE

Despite the claims made by high-ranking Russian military and local authorities, the Chechen resistance has not yet been broken. With the arrival of spring, Chechen fighters have again stepped up their activity. The start of the spring-summer period was marked by new armed clashes in... MORE

Developments over the past week involving the restructuring of Chechnya’s security forces and the aftermath of a reported shootout between security personnel loyal to Chechen President Alu Alkhanov and Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov (see Chechnya Weekly, April 27), have led some observers to speculate... MORE

The week saw another controversy involving the Chechen prime minister: on May 1, a delegation sent by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) was prevented from entering Tsentoroi, the native village of the Kadyrov clan. Kavkazky Uzel on May 2 quoted the... MORE

What those who have been kidnapped and incarcerated in Tsentoroi’s private jails have had to endure was described in horrifying detail by Sunday Times correspondent Mark Franchetti in an article published in the newspaper’s April 30 edition. Franchetti detailed the case of Akhmed Isaev, a... MORE

The New York Times reported on May 4 that Chechnya is undergoing a construction boom. In an article filed from Grozny, correspondent C. J. Chivers wrote that with the arrival of spring and “bombings and roadside ambushes less frequent than before,” sections of the republic... MORE