Two federal servicemen were killed and four wounded in a gun battle with rebels in Achkoi-Martan district on October 18, Radio Liberty reported. The battle took place during an operation to track down a group of insurgents numbering 6-10, who had fired on servicemen from... MORE

Dmitry Grushkin of the Memorial human rights center told Interfax on October 17 that according to the group’s research, 1,948 people have been kidnapped in Chechnya since 2002, and that out of these, 685 were freed, 189 were killed, 1,040 disappeared and 34 are in... MORE

The Nizhegorod Oblast Court on October 13 granted a request from the regional prosecutor’s office to close down the Nizhny Novgorod-based Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (ORChD). Kavkazky Uzel reported that among the reasons cited by prosecutors for the group’s closure was the conviction last year of... MORE

On October 10, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Center issued a report entitled, “An Uncertain Future: The Challenges of Return and Reintegration for Internally Displaced Persons in the North Caucasus.” The report states that while most internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been able... MORE

The situation in the republic of Adygeya became very tense at the end of 2004, following several statements by the governor of Krasnodarskii krai and his staff regarding the inevitability of Adygeya's annexation into the krai as part of the current drive to enlarge Russia's... MORE

Kommersant reported on October 25 that investigators believe former officers of an Interior Ministry unit from Siberia’s Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous Okrug, which had been deployed in Chechnya, were involved in the October 7 murder of Novaya gazeta correspondent Anna Politkovskaya (Chechnya Weekly, October 12). Politkovskaya published... MORE

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said on October 19 that he has no intention of resigning. As Nezavisimaya gazeta reported on October 20, Alkhanov was asked during a press conference in Moscow about the rumors that he would be forced to resign after October 5, the... MORE

A poll conducted by the independent Levada Center timed to the fourth anniversary of the hostage seizure at the Dubrovka theater in Moscow found that a majority of Russians believe the authorities are hiding the truth about the incident. According to the poll, which was... MORE

In a statement posted on the separatist Daymohk and Chechenpress website on October 23, Chechen rebel leader Dokku Umarov congratulated Muslims on the Id al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan. During Ramadan, the mujahideen of the Caucasus “continued to show the will and courage... MORE

Sharia Jamaat, the Dagestani rebel group, has shown the faces of its leaders by posting a video appeal on the Kavkaz-Center rebel website. This appeal, posted on the website two weeks ago, is in fact the first video made by the Dagestani rebels. Previously, all... MORE