Kavkaz

In what appears to be an ongoing campaign by Chechnya’s pro-Moscow administration against the Vostok Battalion of the GRU (Russian military intelligence), investigators with the republic’s law-enforcement bodies are looking into the battalion’s possible involvement in the murder of the Arsamakov brothers (Chechnya Weekly, April 17 and 24; May 1).

A battle between rebels and security forces took place in Chechnya’s Urus-Martan district on May 6. Kavkazky Uzel on May 7 quoted a Chechen Interior Ministry source as saying of the incident: “Yesterday at around 1400 in a forest tract at the village of Komsomolskoe in Urus-Martan district servicemen from …

Kavkazan Haamash edition reported referring to the pro-Russian puppet website Grozny-Inform that surgeon Hasan Baiev, who now lives in the US, has come to visit the occupied Chechnya the other day.

The United States has accused Russia of aggravating the tensions with Georgia. The White House has made a statement that Russia’s actions in the situation around Abkhazia are provocative.

Dmitry Medvedev may face the necessity to fulfill his promises regarding the leadership of law and civil freedoms. The Washington Post writes that “to begin, Mr. Medvedev could be asked for action on the 14 unsolved murders of journalists during Mr. Putin’s tenure — such as that of Anna Politkovskaya”.

Western press has been vividly commenting on the assumption of the office by Putin’s successor Dmitry Medvedev. Virtually all publications have come to one – Russia is now entering a period of diarchy.

Dmitry Medvedev becomes the youngest Russian ruler since Czar Nicholas II during a Kremlin inauguration ceremony today.

Mikhail Gorbachev has accused the United States of mounting an imperialist conspiracy against Russia that could push the world into a new Cold War.

In response to requests by Western journalists the Pentagon officials said that they were unconcerned by Russia’s plans to parade military equipment on the Red Square on May 9 for the Victory Day parade in order to make a show of strength reminiscent of the Soviet times.