Chechnya's pro-Moscow leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has been promoting a revival of popular Islam, restoring mosques and issuing edicts on everything from religious education to wedding gowns. But his campaign has a political aim -- advancing a new definition of Chechen national identity.
November 20, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The foreign minister-in-exile of the separatist Chechen government, Akhmed Zakayev, has submitted his resignation.
Doku Umarov proclaimed himself amir in a video sent to RFE/RL (RFE/RL) November 15, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Adducing the Chechen Republic Ichkeria (ChRI ) Constitution adopted in March 1992, the ChRI parliament in exile ruled on November 6 that ChRI President and resistance commander Doku Umarov has effectively relinquished his presidential powers by proclaiming a North Caucasus emirate of which he claims to be the leader. A statement signed by ChRI parliament Chairman Zhaloudi Saralyapov and posted on November 6 on chechenews.com affirmed that the authorities of the president and government chairman now devolve upon the Chechen parliament.
From separatist conflicts to economic sanctions, Russian pressure on Georgia is hard to deny. President Mikheil Saakashvili says his violent crackdown on opposition protesters was in response to Kremlin meddling. But is Tbilisi overplaying the Russia card?
The remarks by Doku Umarov in a video sent to RFE/RL highlight a split in the Chechen resistance. But some of his fellow separatists say he has fallen prey to a plot by Russia to further smear the Chechen cause in the court of international public opinion.
Has Doku Umarov's declaration of a North Caucasus emirate split the resistance? (RFE/RL) November 1, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- In the two years since the raids on police and security facilities in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, the North Caucasus resistance has not launched a single major attack that has made world headlines.
October 24, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The story is a familiar one in the postcommunist world.
October 24, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- In a televised meeting in early October, Russian President Vladimir Putin received the head of the country's Supreme Court, Vyacheslav Lebedev, in his Kremlin office.
Nicolas Sarkozy faces one of his trickiest foreign endeavors to date as he travels to Moscow for his first official visit to Russia, of which he has been an outspoken critic.
October 7, 2007 -- Police in eastern Afghanistan say 16 foreign militants have been killed in an air strike.
October 5, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- As a journalist and activist in Chechnya, Natalya Estemirova often worked with Russian investigative correspondent Anna Politkovskaya.
September 21, 2007 -- International rights groups say a prominent Chechen activist has been abducted in the restive Russian republic.
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