28 July 2004 -- Russia's military prosecutor-general yesterday said suicides in the country's armed services increased by nearly 40 percent during the first six months of this year, compared to the same period last year.
Earlier this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched a U.S.-sponsored resettlement program designed to help Meskhetians from Russia's Krasnodar region emigrate. The first group of 84 Meskhetians arrived in the United States in mid-July with the hope of obtaining permanent resident status and, eventually, U.S. citizenship. For these Meskhetians, this might well be the end of their journey. But the plight of those thousands who remain in the Krasnodar region is likely to continue until they, too, finally depart, after clearing last-minute hurdles set up by local authorities.
Most assessments of Russian President Vladimir Putin's accomplishments during his first term in office assert that he tamed the country's regional leaders, who had supposedly become too independent during his predecessor's two terms in office.
27 July 2004 -- A key Chechen separatist commander has claimed responsibility for last month's raids on Russian government targets in Ingushetia.
As the shockwaves from the recent crisis of confidence that passed through the Russian banking sector recede, analysts and pundits have struggled to identify the effects of that crisis and to predict future developments in the sector. No consensus has emerged on the crucial questions of what caused the crisis, who benefited from it, and whether a second wave of instability looms in the near future. Perhaps most importantly, the role of the government -- and especially the Central Bank -- has come under harshly critical scrutiny.
Chechnya's election commission has registered seven candidates for the republic's upcoming presidential election. They include a businessman, a teacher and an employee of the Federal Security Service (FSB). But Chechnya's current interior minister, Alu Alkhanov, is seen as the favorite to win the 29 August poll.
26 July 2004 -- A Moscow court today issued an arrest warrant for a large shareholder in the beleaguered Russian oil company Yukos on charges of involvement in murder and attempted murder.
On 19 July, the independent ingushetiya.ru website published an update by B. Bagaudinov on the ongoing investigation into the 21-22 June raids on Interior Ministry facilities in Ingushetia that left almost 90 people dead. Four days earlier, on 15 July, Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov gave the number of suspects arrested in connections with those coordinated attacks as approximately 30, of whom 20 have been formally charged. Bagaudinov failed to cite the source of his information, which seems plausible, however.
24 July 2004 -- Belarusian authorities closed Russian state television's Minsk bureau yesterday.
In the run-up to the 29 August ballot to elect a successor to slain pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov, the Russian leadership is apparently seeking to undercut the authority of Kadyrov's son, Ramzan, by either abolishing the "presidential guard" he commands or subsuming some of its members into a new crack Interior Ministry regiment. But a Chechen spokesman, Muslim Khuchiev, told Interfax on 22 July that the presidential guard will continue to exist despite the creation of the new regiment.
former President Kadyrov 23 July 2004 -- Seven candidates have been registered to stand in Chechnya's presidential election next month.
A new Russian public-opinion poll that asked young people to name their heroes has yielded some surprising results. Contrary to expectations, Russian President Vladimir Putin placed a distant fifth. Instead, in first and second place for Russia's 18-to-24-year-olds are rock stars and oligarchs. Most older Russians might hold them in low esteem, but 42 percent of young people surveyed say they admire businessmen who know how to get rich quick.
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