In a surprise move, the Russian Defense Ministry assigned security responsibility for its team of military engineers in Lebanon to two detachments of Chechen troops, despite the outcry from human rights activists who cite the units for incidents of kidnapping, torture and murder. In Lebanon,... MORE

A Congress of Chechen Peoples was held in Grozny on October 31, during which Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov was elected chairman of the Assembly of Chechen Peoples. But while many of Kadyrov’s supporters had expressed hope prior to the congress that the gathering would... MORE

The Agentstvo Natsionalnykh Novostei (ANN) on October 27 quoted Kadyrov as complaining that the federal authorities were ignoring the Chechen leadership’s proposal that revenues from oil extracted in Chechnya should be used to rebuild the republic – an idea which, Kadyrov claimed, is supported by... MORE

Rosbalt reported on October 27 that during a meeting in Grozny of the Regional Operational Headquarters (ROSH) in charge of the “anti-terrorist” operation in Chechnya, which was attended by Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, a decision was made to divide up the members of the... MORE

Kavkazky Uzel correspondent Lyudmila Maratova reported on October 24 that Islamist separatists in Karachaevo-Cherkessia have stepped up their activities this fall and that the Karachaevo-Cherkessia jamaat may have been behind a series of murders of clergymen and law-enforcement personnel in the republic. Maratova quoted Fatima... MORE

Kommersant reported on October 28 that only a little more than half of the 69 people accused of involvement in the October 2005 raid on Nalchik and who have been in jail for more than a year will go on trial. The newspaper, citing detainees’... MORE

“Four bandit groups continue to operate in Dagestan,” Major-General Sergei Solodovnikov, deputy head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for the Southern Federal District, said at a press conference in Rostov-on-Don, the capital of the Russian South, on October 25. According to Solodovnikov, the... MORE

The economy of the republic of Dagestan in the mid-2000s remains in crisis, though the situation has improved from what it was in the 1990s. The planned government-centered economy built up during the Soviet period was destroyed by the shock-therapy market reforms undertaken in Russia... MORE

Chechen rebels ambushed an OMON special police detachment from the Republic of Mordovia on the outskirts of the village of Dai in Chechnya’s Sharoi district on November 7, killing seven men, Novye izvestia reported on November 9. According to the newspaper, the rebels fired on... MORE

A driver for the head of the criminal investigation unit of the police department in Ingushetia’s Sunzhensky district was wounded when unidentified attackers fired on his car, Itar-Tass reported on November 9. It was the second attack apparently targeting policemen in the district in two... MORE