Latest Articles about North Caucasus

Kadyrov Youth Group Makes Appearance in Chechnya

Kavkazky Uzel reported on March 11 that a group it described as “Yunykh Kadyrovtsy”—the Young Kadyrovites—has appeared in Chechnya’s grammar schools. According to the website, Chechen television on March 10 showed an entire class in a school in the village of Novogrozny joining the group... MORE

Dokka Umarov Suffers Setback in Turkey

When Chechen refugees leave Russia to settle in foreign countries, they are mainly concerned with the physical safety of their family members. However, over the years, members of the Chechen Diaspora have become increasingly convinced that their status as political refugees has not given them... MORE

Kadyrov Again Invited Zakaev to Return to Chechnya

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has yet again called on Akhmed Zakaev, the London-based prime minister of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), to return home. Interfax on March 3 quoted Kadyrov as telling reporters that Zakaev no longer represents anyone in London and that... MORE

Kadyrov Defends Honor Killings

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said last week that the bodies of seven young women with gunshots to the head were found dumped by roadsides in Chechnya late last year and early this year (North Caucasus Weekly, December 4, 2008 and February 6, 2009) had “loose... MORE

Kadyrov Faces Fresh Accusations of Ordering Hits Abroad

Kavkaz TV, the video arm of Kavkaz-Center, the radical Islamist Chechen rebel website, this past week posted a video clip in which a young Chechen man, Ruslan Khalidov, claimed that Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov employed him to kill Magomed Ocherhadji, a leader of the large... MORE

Six Policemen Killed in Ingushetia Bombing

Six policemen were killed and two injured in a bomb blast in Ingushetia on March 5. Russian news agencies, citing republican Interior Ministry sources, reported that the blast took place near the entrance to the village of Surkhakhi after law-enforcement officers discovered a roadside bomb... MORE

Rebels Attack Servicemen, Police in Chechnya

A serviceman with a Russian Defense Ministry special unit was severely wounded on February 23 when he stepped on a mine in Chechnya’s Shatoi district. According to Kavkazky Uzel, the incident took place in woods near the village of Kharsenoi during a special operation targeting... MORE

Five Militants Killed in Dagestan Operation

Security forces killed five suspected militants in three separate apartment sieges during a two-day operation in Dagestan, the Associated Press (AP) reported on February 22. The news agency quoted Makhachkala Police Chief Shamil Guseinov as saying that one of the alleged militants was killed on... MORE

Chechen-Ingush Deportation Anniversary Marked

February 23 was the 65th anniversary of Josef Stalin’s deportation of the Chechen and Ingush—accused by the Soviet dictator of collaborating with the Nazis—to Kazakhstan and elsewhere in the Soviet Union. Kavkazky Uzel reported on the day of this year's anniversary that all of Chechnya’s... MORE