Mixed messages have been coming from some of those charged with investigating the Beslan school seizure concerning possible foreign involvement in the tragedy. Federation Council Vice-speaker Aleksandr Torshin, who heads the parliamentary commission investigating the circumstances surrounding the Beslan terrorist act, told Interfax on November... MORE

On November 12, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov triumphantly announced that all units of the 76th Airborne Division located in Chechnya will be withdrawn from the Republic by January 2005, the Yufo.ru website reported. However, on November 26, RIA Novosti quoted Nikolai Rogozhkin, commander of... MORE

--REBEL WEBSITE REAPPEARS IN LITHUANIA Kavkaz Center, the Chechen separatist website, resumed operations in Lithuania on November 29. Interfax quoted a statement from the website's administration as saying that operations resumed as soon as the Second District Court in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, ruled that all... MORE

The investigation into the September 1 terrorist attack on the North Ossetian town of Beslan continues. Apart from law-enforcement agencies and prosecutors, the Russian Federation Council and State Duma have also established an independent commission to tackle the problem. Commission members visited North Ossetia in... MORE

In late September, two remarkable anniversaries passed nearly unnoticed in Moscow. On September 20, 1994, the first contract on developing Caspian oilfields was signed between the government of Azerbaijan and the consortium of ten international oil companies (AIOC). On September 29, 1999, Russian troops moved... MORE

As the great powers demonstrate their resolve to crush terrorism and declare their readiness to strike preventively at terrorist bases "anywhere in the world," some lesser international actors appear ready to take advantage of this strategy. Recently a senior cabinet member from Greek Cyprus accused... MORE

Leading politicians and other observers have issued fresh warnings that tensions between Ossetians and Ingush, exacerbated by the September 1 school siege in Beslan, could soon explode into violence. Ingushetia's former president, Ruslan Aushev, whose early mediation efforts with the Beslan hostage-takers, who reportedly included... MORE

Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov announced on September 21 that criminal cases have been launched against three senior police officials in Beslan, North Ossetia, for negligence entailing grave consequences in connection with the school hostage seizure that began on September 1 and ended with deaths... MORE

The tragedy in Beslan left local Ossetians with the question, "Who is to blame?" After terrorists seized the school, the first reaction from Beslan's residents was to take revenge on their neighbors -- the Ingush. Official statements that the hostage-takers came from Ingushetia immediately lit... MORE

This month's hostage crisis in Beslan, North Ossetia, and the hundreds of fatalities resulting from officials' failure to rescue the captives have produced a political standoff in the republic. Inspired by relatives of the dead hostages, opposition forces are demanding the resignation of republic president... MORE