The Chechen separatist movement has denounced the killing of Aleksandr Litvinenko, the former Federal Security Service (FSB) lieutenant colonel who accused his erstwhile employers of blowing up apartment buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities in 1999 in order to create a pretext for the... MORE

A group of human rights activists have set up a “Public Committee to Protect Mikhail Trepashkin,” Kavkazky Uzel reported on November 28. Trepashkin, the dissident ex-FSB lawyer who tried to investigate his former employer’s links to the 1999 apartment building bombings, received a four-year prison... MORE

Interfax reported on November 27 that Boris Stomakhin, the editor-in-chief of the publication Radikalnaya Politika (Radical Politics) who has also been a regular contributor to the Chechen separatist Kavkaz-Center website, appealed the five-year prison sentenced handed down against him for fueling religious hatred. RIA Novosti... MORE

Kommersant reported on November 24 that an operation to destroy Chechen rebel leader Dokku Umarov that was carried out over the span of three days near the village of Yandy-Kotar in Chechnya’s Achkoi-Martan district had ended in failure. Citing “unofficial information,” the newspaper reported that... MORE

A World Bank study released on November 29 concluded that a rise in the number of young people coupled with a lack of opportunity in the North Caucasus could impede long-term economic development and threaten stability in the region. The Moscow Times on November 30... MORE

The recent murder of Movladi Baisarov, a pro-Russian Chechen field commander, in a shootout in Moscow has trigged a discussion about the uneasy relations between Ramzan Kadyrov, the most influential leader in the pro-Russian Chechen camp, and Russian security officials. Movladi Baisarov was the commander... MORE

Shortly after the Jordanian Arab Abu Hafs al-Urdani succeeded the late Abu Walid as the commander of the foreign mujahideen in Chechnya, his death or detention was declared a priority for all of Russia’s secret services. (RIA Novosti, December 15, 2004) After a decade in... MORE

Akhmed Zakaev, the London-based foreign minister of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), has accused Western countries of standing by as Russia passed laws allowing its agents to hunt down opponents overseas, saying these had led to the murder of former Federal Security Service... MORE

Mikhail Trepashkin, the dissident ex-Federal Security Service (FSB) officer and lawyer who tried to investigate his former employer’s links to the 1999 apartment building bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities, said in a letter that he warned Aleksandr Litvinenko four years ago that he... MORE

Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said on December 6 that he would seek the prosecution of the commanders of federal military units responsible for the death or disappearance of civilians in Chechnya, Kavkazky Uzel reported. During a meeting with members of Chechnya’s youth parliament (representing... MORE