The Month in Brief - August 2007August 1
Gennady Troshev, who was commander of the federal forces in the North Caucasus district in the first years of the current Chechen conflict and who now works as an adviser on Cossack affairs to the Russian President, was awarded the Order of Kadyrov in Grozny.
The National Centre for the Prevention and Control of AIDS was opened in a restored building in Grozny.
The pro-guerrilla website Kavkaz-Center published a statement by Dokka Umarov in which the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria claims that the Chechen resistance movement has both the necessary forces and the necessary level of preparation for serious large-scale actions.
August 2
Via vice-premier Lyoma Magomadov and the government's external relations section head Ramzan Lechkhadzhiyev, Moscow-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov ordered humanitarian organizations active in the republic to move their offices and storage facilities from their present locations in neighbouring republics to the territory of Chechnya within the space of two weeks, and also to register with the tax authorities there.
The North Ossetian Supreme Court left unchanged the amnesty of three policemen accused of negligence that led to loss of life during the terrorist attack in Beslan.
Four guerrillas and one spetsnaz officer were killed during a shootout in the Sergokalinsky district of Dagestan.
August 3
Moscow-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said that not a single guerrilla will remain in Chechnya by the end of 2007. He also suggested that the experience of Chechen law enforcement agencies might be useful in the fight against terrorism in other regions of Russia.
The ceremonial opening of a military training centre designed for a cadet corps created at the beginning of 2007 took place in the village of Tsentoroy in Chechnya's Kurchaloyevsky district.
August 4
In the village of Tsa-Vedeno in Chechnya's Vedensky district gunmen killed three people and burned down three houses belonging to a policeman and a soldier. On the following day, Moscow-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov replaced the Vedensky district chief of police because of the incident. On August 6 Chechen guerrillas claimed responsibility for burning down the houses but stressed the murder of three civilians on the same night only took place after the guerrillas left the village. The authorities say they were the guerrillas who killed the civilians.
August 5
Six recent members of the renowned Chechen women's vocal group „Zhovkhar“ and their eleven relatives applied for refugee status in Finland.
August 8
Two servicemen of the Russian Interior Ministry died when unknown gunmen opened fire at the barracks of the "North" battalion in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district.
The Chechen Ombudsman, Public Chamber and some Chechen non-governmental organizations asked the Office of Russia's Prosecutor General to look into the work of the Military Prosecutor's Office in the North Caucasus and replace its head Maksim Toropikov because of poor investigation of abduction cases in Chechnya.
August 9
Russian media reported that about 2,500 servicemen of the Russian Interior Ministry and several dozen armoured vehicles were being deployed in Ingushetia's Sunzhensky and Malgobeksky districts.
The Moscow-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the boosting of security measures in Chechnya.
August 10
The collection of signatures for holding a referendum on amendments to the Constitution of the Chechen Republic was successfully completed.
August 12-15
Moscow-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov visited Saudi Arabia at the invitation of King Abdullah.
August 13
About sixty passengers were injured when a Moscow-St Petersburg express train was derailed by a bomb explosion in the Novgorodskaya Oblast. On August 14 an unknown man who introduced himself as a deputy commander of Riyadus Salikhin, a guerrilla group founded by Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, telephoned the North Caucasus desk of Radio Free Europe to claim that the group was responsible for the bombing. The caller's identity could not be verified.
A Russian policeman was killed and his colleague wounded when unknown men opened fire at them in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district.
August 17
Alla Dudayeva, widow of the first Chechen President Jokhar Dudayev, was appointed Deputy Culture Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya, according to a Kavkaz-Center report of August 20.
Dokka Umarov, President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, signed several new decrees concerning his representatives in Norway, Germany and Denmark, according to a Kavkaz-Center report of August 20.
August 20
A local court in the town of Dmitrovgrad in Russia's Ulyanovskaya Oblast rejected a request for parole for Russian former Colonel Yury Budanov, who is serving a 10-year sentence for killing a Chechen girl, Elza Kungayeva.
August 21-23
Events were held in Chechnya to celebrate the 56th anniversary of the birth of Moscow-backed Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in Grozny on May 9, 2004.
August 22
One person was killed and at least three were injured when an armoured personnel carrier was blown up by a mine between the villages of Yandare and Surkhakhi in the Nazran district of Ingushetia.
August 23
Dokka Umarov, President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, appointed his Austrian representative Visita Ibragimov director of the Department for Relations with the Vaynakh Diaspora.
Rustam Basayev, a Chechen guerrilla commander suspected of involvement in a series of recent attacks against police, was killed in a shoot-out in Chechnya. Two policemen were also killed in the clash.
Two police officers were killed and about a dozen others wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen on an OMON convoy in the Buinaksk district of Dagestan.
August 24
An Interior Ministry serviceman was killed in a shoot-out in the village of Yandare in Ingushetia's Nazran district.
August 26-27
President Ramzan Kadyrov and other high-ranking Moscow-backed Chechen officials visited Jordan.
August 27
Russia's Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika announced that ten people had been arrested in connection with the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. They included several Chechen citizens as well as former and active members of the law enforcement agencies and special services.
August 28
A Moscow district court issued an arrest warrant for the North Caucasus businessman Mikhail Gutseriyev, who a month ago resigned as President of the RussNeft oil company, allegedly under pressure from law enforcement agencies and tax officials which he said was aimed at him personally. Gutseriyev is believed to have left Russia recently.
August 29
Two members of the government security forces were killed by unknown gunmen in Nazran, Ingushetia.
Chechen prime minister Odes Baysultanov signed a directive allowing the opening of a Chechen Islamic Institute in Grozny.
The daily Kommersant wrote that the eleventh person charged with involvement in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya is Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police officer in Moscow‘s anti-organized crime unit.
August 29-30
Police confiscated computers from the Nizhny Novgorod Tolerance Support Foundation and, on the following day, from the local office of the Russian daily Novaya Gazeta, deputy chairperson of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society Oksana Chelysheva announced.
August 30
Unknown criminals in the Ingush town of Karabulak killed the family of a Russian schoolteacher, Vera Draganchuk, in her home. Her two sons and husband died in the attack, but she herself managed to escape.
Police at the Ekazhevsky auto parts market in Nazran killed a 17-year-old Ingush man, Islam Garakoyev (or, according to other sources, Belokiyev). While local police sources said that he was a member of the armed resistance, some observers claimed it was a demonstrative murder.
In Moscow several hundred people took part in a rally in memory of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered on October 7, 2006. The rally was held on her birthday.
August 31
Four policemen were killed and one injured when a car parked in front of the local community centre in Ingushetia's Nazran blew up.
Compiled by Prague Watchdog. Along with these monthly summaries, we also publish weekly summaries, distributing them on Mondays to the subscribers of our free weekly newsletter.
(T,B,D)
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