On August 29, Chechen President, Ramzan Kadyrov’s, home village Tsentoroi (aka Khosi-Yurt) was attacked by a group of militants. Initial reports said there were ten casualties among the attackers and two among Kadyrov’s forces (RIA Novosti, August 29). Russian official sources stated that five civilians were killed during the fighting, but Kadyrov claimed there were no casualties among the civilians in the village (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, August 29). Later, the official number of casualties climbed to 12 among the militants and six among the government forces, along with 18 injured servicemen and seven injured civilians (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, August 30).

The attack shattered the image of Kadyrov’s unshakeable rule in Chechnya, given that it was the first time his stronghold in Tsentoroi had come under attack in the past six years. Since ...

On May 6, the Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot) website reported that the Chechen parliament resolved to address Moscow with a request to assist with clearing minefields in the republic. An estimated 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) of land in Chechnya remain littered with landmines years after the war officially was declared over. According to pro-Moscow Chechen officials, no organization has been actively demining the republic since the start of the second Russian-Chechen war in 1999. A number of the explosive devices date back to the first Russian-Chechen war of 1994-1996. A representative of the Chechen branch of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry (MChS) said that during the past five years, 5,143 explosive devices and 21 airborne bombs were neutralized, 247 hectares of land were cleared, but that this is, in his ...