–COMPENSATION ABUSES REPORTED

Further allegations of corruption recently surfaced in connection with the payment of compensation to Chechens who lost their property to military action–and just days after the long-delayed payments finally began. In a September 29 report for Nezavisimaya gazeta, Andrei Riskin wrote that the republic’s procuracy “has established numerous cases of serious violations in the lists which officials have compiled of those who are to receive compensation payments. For example, the head of the procuracy, Vladimir Kravchenko, stated that the compensation lists include names of people “who do not even have an indirect right to this.”

–AGRICULTURAL WOES HIGHLIGHTED