On February 3, the Kavkazcenter website reported that Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov had ordered rebel fighters to lay down their weapons for one month. It also published a statement from warlord Shamil Basaev ordering fighters to obey Maskhadov's decree and halt all offensive military... MORE

On January 27, Russian troops and local police forces surrounded an apartment building where members of an underground Islamist organization known as "Yarmuk Jamaat" were hiding in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. The troops stormed the building, and seven rebels, three men and four women,... MORE

Radio Liberty's Andrei Babitsky recently traveled to Chechnya for the first time in a year. On January 3, he shared his observations with colleague Andrei Sharyi. According to the veteran Chechnya correspondent, there have been no "significant changes" over the last year. Babitsky quoted a... MORE

The Memorial human rights group estimates that 384 residents of Chechnya were kidnapped in 2004, Interfax reported on January 3. Memorial spokesman Dmitri Grushkin told the news agency that 182 of these people were freed, 22 found dead, 173 are still listed as missing, and... MORE

Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva said that protecting human rights in Chechnya is crucial to accelerating reconstruction in the republic, Interfax reported on January 3. "First of all, it is necessary to ensure that security agencies act in compliance with the law and observe... MORE

--BODY COUNTS The Federal Security Service claimed that more than 200 separatist fighters were killed and more than 900 people detained on suspicion of "involvement in terrorist activities" in Chechnya during 2004, Gazeta.ru reported on January 3. The rebels, for their part, claimed they killed... MORE

December 11 marked the tenth anniversary of the Russian military intervention that began the first of the two modern Russo-Chechen wars. Russian, Western and Chechen media alike featured commentaries on the start of then President Boris Yeltsin's campaign to "restore constitutional order" in the breakaway... MORE

Speaking at Columbia University in New York on December 9, President Vladimir Putin's adviser on Chechnya, Aslambek Aslakhanov, reiterated the Kremlin's policy of rejecting negotiations with rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, calling him "just a banner" around which rebel groups rally. "Without him, they are only... MORE

Nezavisimaya gazeta on December 10 quoted "informed" military sources as saying that Russia's Defense Military is ready to launch "preventive strikes on terrorist bases" outside Russia. "One can assume with a high degree of probability that this relates above all to the bases of Chechen... MORE