DECEMBER 2007

From: MSN Nicknamesataney_b1  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/28/2007 4:31 AM
2 officers convicted in Chechnya deaths

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

By SERGEI VENYAVSKY -- Associated Press Writer

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) Two Russian officers were convicted by a
military court Thursday of killing three construction workers at
checkpoint in Chechnya.

One of the officers, Lt. Yevgeny Khudyakov, failed to show up for the
verdict in Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia. The court said police would
soon start a nationwide search for him.

Khudyakov was sentenced to 17 years in prison and Lt. Sergei Arakcheyev
to 15 years for the January 2003 killings. Both officers, of the Russian
Interior Troops, were stripped of their ranks.

According to court papers, Khudyakov and Arakcheyev were manning a
checkpoint outside the Chechen provincial capital of Grozny when they
forced the victims out of their truck, ordered them to lie on the ground
and shot them dead. The bodies were doused in fuel and set on fire,
prosecutors say.

Both officers denied the charges.

They had been acquitted ...
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From: MSN Nicknamestorsjoe  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/29/2007 1:40 AM

Well-known writers ask about conditional release of Stomakhin

The Russian PEN-Centre, the Russian branch of the PEN-Club writers' international human rights organization have petitioned about early conditional release of Boris Stomakhin, a publicist of the "Kavkaz-Centre" Chechen separatists' website, who was sentenced to 5 years of general custody colony for kindling interethnic enmity and extremism. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Elena Sannikova, a member of the group in defence of Stomakhin and former Soviet political prisoner.

In the letter to Yuri Kalinin, Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of Russia, published in the website Zaborisa.narod.ru, Andrei Bitov, President of the PEN-Centre, and Vice-Presidents Andrei Voznesenskiy and Fazil Iskander express their concern with the state of health of journalist Boris Stomakhin who is serving his term in the detachment for invalids of colony IK-4 located in ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/25/2007 2:42 AM
December 25, 2007, 1:36
 Chechens in EU denied perks of new passport rules
 
Chechens in EU denied perks of new passport rules
Chechens were en route to Germany
Chechens in EU denied perks of new passport rules
Polish authorities have detained 59 people from Russia's Chechen republic, who were attempting to cross the border into Germany. The group, which includes 28 children, were traveling on a passenger train to Berlin.

Although this comes after a recent expansion of the Schengen zone, which allows passport free travel between Poland and Germany, the Chechens did not have the right to cross the border, Polish authorities say.

The group had applied for refugee status in Poland, and had the right to stay there while their application was being considered.

But they are not allowed to travel to other EU countries.

Now the group will either be considered for refugee status and granted asylum, or ...
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From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/20/2007 6:27 PM
Chechnya Weekly- Volume VIII, Issue 49
December 20, 2007

IN THIS ISSUE:
* Zyazikov Denounces the Jamestown Foundation
* Kakiev: Pro-Moscow Chechens Have Been Sent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia
* Briefs
* The Dagestani Jamaat (Part 2)
By Mairbek Vatchagaev
* Russian Forces Carry Out a Large-Scale Security Sweep in the North Caucasus
By Andrei Smirnov

Note to Readers: This is the last issue of Chechnya Weekly for 2007. Chechnya Weekly will resume publication on January 10, 2008.

Zyazikov Denounces the Jamestown Foundation

In an interview published on December 17 in the weekly magazine Kommersant-Vlast, Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov said that the recent series of murders of ethnic Russians living in the republic was a "blow" aimed at the leadership of both Russia and Ingushetia, and specifically aimed at Ingushetia's special program to bring back Russian-speakers who had left the republic.

Asked where the "blow" had come from, Zyazikov answered: "From abroad. Take, please, ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/20/2007 10:37 AM
Zakayev hopes Medvedev will change things     
Warsaw/Agency Caucasus - Ahmed Zakayev, Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, expressed his hope that Dimitri Medvedev as successor to Russian President Vladimir Putin would change the policies on Chechnya.

"If Medvedev really takes office as president, he will change Russia's attitude both towards Chechnya and the West," Zakayev told Poland's state radio channel on December 12.

"I certainly believe that whatever exists in Chechnya now will change. I have serious doubts that Medvedev will favor a Chechnya where bandits can grow under the leadership of Ramzan Kadyrov--a heritage of Putin's administration. ÖZ/FT

 
20/12/2007